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Situation:
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A major hospital reorganized patient services at one of its sites with the closing of the Emergency Department and opening of an ambulatory care centre to treat urgent medical problems. The hospital needed to ensure that community residents understood the changes in service and how they could receive treatment.
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Method:
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A research program commenced with focus groups recruited to represent the age and ethnicity characteristics of the community catchment area. A baseline quantitative study was undertaken in advance of the communications activities, followed by two post launch studies among a random sample of 500 people each.
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Outcome:
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The research findings identified key communications messages, assessed the success of the communications campaign and tactics at increasing the level of knowledge and understanding about the changes at the hospital, gauged reactions to the change, and determined a name for the facility.
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