Free five-minute test drives at-risk patients to take action

Getting the word out that a five-minute test you can take anywhere—even the comfort of your own home—could clue you in to a greater risk of heart disease is no easy task. 

It’s a topic most people would rather avoid, and amidst the flood of health-related information coming at people from all directions these days, it would be easy to miss. 

The team at Banner Health was able to combine direct messaging with paid advertising, social media, in-person events, and even a QR code to drive people to take the test, inspired by its simplicity and ease of access. But getting people to participate was just half the battle. When results showed a third of those who took the test were “high risk,” Banner Health followed up with them, encouraging them to make appointments with their doctors. 

Of particular note, the data from participants in the test is added to Banner’s Customer Relationship Management database. In the future, Banner will be able to identify new patients who came to Banner because they took the test. This CRM-based approach to patients is not common among health care providers, but more and more innovative hospitals and systems are starting to look at “lifetime value of a patient,” and a CRM (or Patient Relationship Management) system is at the heart of the concept. For its innovation, we name Banner Health the winning entry in the Best Marketing Campaign category of Ragan’s 2014 Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

Even more pertinent to this case study, though, is the fact that study participants were subscribed to email marketing communications about heart health. The cross-media approach, along with the direct outreach paired with mainstream and social media activities, lead us to offer our congratulations to the team of Stacy Mowery and Anne Dexheimer from Banner Health and its partner, O’Brien Advertising. 

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