5.16.2007
A Battle To Win Minds And Hearts
Not much war news lately in the Pee-Pee, the Plattsburgh daily (news)paper.
I'm not referring to the conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq. What I'm talking about is the battle between Plattsburgh's House O' Healing and the Medical Center across the lake in Burlington, Vermont. Each one has wielded advertising to win the minds of potential patients. And when a mind is won, so is the heart -- and with it all the other body organs.
Pick up the paper and see an ad with an endorsement from a local person who had heart trouble but found the best treatment in Vermont. After all, the Medical Center based in Burlington has the latest tech.
Oh ya?, responds the Plattsburgh hospital. Well, we just expanded our cardiac unit and here's a testimonial from a satisfied customer who said he got the best treatment for his heart trouble right in his own backyard. He didn't have to voyage across the lake to be saved.
Back and forth it went, one ad from the House O' Healing followed by one from the Medical Center. It was like the little kid on the block (Plattsburgh) felt inferior, wanting to quickly grow up to be a big guy in the neighborhood (Burlington). But I think the Medical Center now has one up on the House O' Healing. It ran an ad in the Plattsburgh University newspaper saying that it can now harvest human ova. The pitch is a young college gal with extra eggs (and extra debt) can help a childless couple (while receiving a much needed cash inflow). So far the House O' Healing hasn't countered with its own ova-harvesting program. (Considering how it treated me in its ER last year after an accident, I wouldn't trust them to harvest eggs from hens.)
One criticism heard about Plattsburgh hospitaloid operation is that more money is spent on equipment and buildings than on its employees and its patients. Recently the House O' Healing started a two-year program to expand into a bigger operation. It just can't shake its size problem when compared to the Burlington Medical Center. (It's a guy thing. "Na, na! My colonoscope is bigger than yours.")
The House O' Healing nurses have unionized, complaining that the hospital doesn't pay them a fair wage while its president and board of directors make obscene lumps of $. Is the Plattsburgh hospital a humanitarian institution for helping the sick, or is it just another corporation out to keep growing, to keep raking in the money, to keep paying big dividends?
I was talking with a nurse the other day. She used to work at the House O' Healing. But like many other nurses over the years who were once House employees, she has quit there and is now commuting all the way across the lake to work at the Medical Center. Let's face it: nurse turnover isn't a good thing when it comes to maintaining consistency of care.
But screw care if it stops the two year expansion program and bigger profits.
(C) Copyright 2007 Stan Spire
# posted by Stan Spire @ 3:27 AM 
