St. John Hospital

Open House Educational Event

ASSESS

St. John Hospital and Medical Center, located in Detroit, is a regional referral teaching hospital affiliated with Wayne State University. With 607 licensed beds, a 700-member medical staff and more than fifty medical and surgical specialties, it is the largest acute care provider and the only designated Emergency Trauma Center on Detroit’s east side. St. John has a wide array of surgical specialties and subspecialties, and wanted a unique solution to attract Surgical Staff.

STRATEGIZE

After assessing the current situation and learning more about our client, we concluded that the best way to attract potential candidates would be to focus on St. John’s innovations. The facility had recently acquired two state-of-the-art surgical procedures, minimally invasive and robotic, that were only available at one other hospital in the area. We would highlight these distinct procedures to generate interest and excitement about a career with this highly regarded institution. We also recommended holding an educational event that offered free education credits while seeing the procedures in action.

Our creative strategy would focus on how the new procedures did not require invasive incisions or stitches; and how afterwards, patients would go home with just a small band-aid.

IMPLEMENT

We created a direct mail invitation that was sent to over 60,000 RNs, RNFAs and CRNAs in Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and Washtenaw Counties; and a special invitation was mailed to RNs in Canada. Print ads were placed in local papers and national trade journals, and we sent e-mail blasts and posted information on niche Web sites. All interested candidates were asked to call or e-mail to secure a spot for the event.

MEASURE

More than 600 responses were received from nurses and doctors. Three separate educational events had to be scheduled to accommodate this overwhelming interest, which resulted in 318 completed applications. This proved to be a successful and unique way to attract the large pool of health care candidates St. John Hospital and Medical Center needed. It also generated great interest in their OR internship program.