Major Symptom of Healthcare Crisis Addressed by St. Mary's

St. Mary's Promises Emergency Room Care in Under 30 Minutes

SAN FRANCISCO — Emergency room wait times, often stretching to hours in San Francisco have been slashed to under 30 minutes by St. Mary's QuickCare, their new streamlined system announced by the hospital's recent ad campaign.

St. Mary's Medical Center's "Oops!, Ouch!, Uh, Oh!" campaign, takes a lighthearted approach to introduce QuickCare, the hospital's new fast-track program that treats patients with non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries as a priority. The purpose of QuickCare is to reduce waiting times and increase patient satisfaction while continuing to deliver high-quality care.

QuickCare is the result of the restructuring of St. Mary's emergency department: Reorganized triage, bedside registration, faster X-ray results, more beds and a more efficient system overall.

“St. Mary's is committed to providing quick response times to patients,” said Ken Steele, president of St. Mary's Medical Center. “We have the advantage of a streamlined emergency department, so we can evaluate patients quickly and make sure they are seen in the shortest time possible. Long waits have been a real and growing problem in San Francisco, but that's a thing of the past if you come to St. Mary's.”

San Francisco hospitals are overcrowded and wait times can stretch for hours, even under normal conditions. The new St. Mary's campaign was created to let people know that if they come to its ER, the wait is over.

“Emergency treatment is a sensitive subject and one that people don't want to think about unless they need it,” said Andrea Eastman, director of marketing and communications for St. Mary's. “The campaign takes a fresh and very un-hospital-like approach by using humor to grab attention without making people feel uncomfortable.”

The campaign includes a series of three ads with striking images, punchy headlines (“Oops!”, “Ouch!” and “Uh, Oh!”) and a straightforward payoff—“Emergency room care in under 30 minutes. Only at St. Mary's.” It's hip and humorous with a sophisticated use of color: a rollerblader walks his dog, a preoccupied businesswoman steps into an open manhole and a pedestrian slips on a banana peel.

“Our visual approach suggests 'stop action,' the moment just before something happens,” said Adrienne Parker, principal of Motivo, the advertising and marketing consultancy that created the campaign. “What happens next is in the imagination of the viewer with St. Mary's emergency room as the final destination. It's actually quite playful without going too far by taking the subject too lightly. The ads are gorgeous but the real beauty is the simplicity of the message. You get it right away.”

The integrated campaign includes ads in the San Francisco Chronicle, Catholic SF , several neighborhood newspapers, outdoor ads on bus shelters and buses, a series of three direct mailers (one includes a refrigerator magnet with emergency numbers), movie theater ads and a radio spot.

“We've received very strong results from this campaign,” Steele said. “We saw an immediate rise in ER visits from our first ads in The Chronicle, and visits continue to rise as the rest of the campaign unfolds.”

About St. Mary's Medical Center

St. Mary's Medical Center is one of the largest not-for-profit community-based health-care providers in Northern California. A fully accredited teaching hospital, St. Mary's has 531 licensed beds and more than 600 physicians on staff. St. Mary's has built a reputation for quality, personalized care founded on a tradition of service, patient satisfaction and excellent clinical outcomes. For 146 years, St. Mary's has shown special concern for the poor and underserved of the community. St. Mary's generously contributes financial support and services to benefit the residents of San Francisco and surrounding Bay Area counties. www.stmarysmedicalcenter.org.

About Motivo

Motivo creates, builds and launches sustainable advertising and marketing communications programs for companies that need someone to step in and make things happen. Motivo also provides independent marketing communications management to fill the gap in marketing departments and replace services offered by external agencies with high overhead. www.motivomarketing.com.

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