How Marketing Drives Culture Shifts at Cleveland Clinic
Imagine if the CEO of your top-rated health system turned to you and asked you to use marketing as a lever to change the culture of your organization.
Sounds like a dream come true, right? For Paul Matsen, CMO of Cleveland Clinic, this level of support and confidence from the highest levels of the organization is not a mere dream. It’s a reality.
Several years ago, when Cleveland Clinic made the decision to improve patient access by offering same-day appointments, there were significant operational hurdles it needed to clear. “There wasn’t a single universal approach to doing it,” says Matsen. “Each institute and department within Cleveland Clinic had to experiment and develop its own method of making time available in daily schedules to accommodate same-day appointments.”
Paul Matsen, Chief Marketing Officer of Cleveland Clinic
Early in the process, Matsen’s team began what he describes as “tactical marketing” to support the program, including limited print, outdoor, and radio. But CEO Toby Cosgrove felt that a full-blown marketing campaign was needed early on, not only to create awareness with prospective patients but to accelerate culture change internally.
“We developed a comprehensive marketing program that we called ‘The Power of Today,’” says Matsen. “We rolled that campaign out at a stage where the same-day appointment program was still experiencing some internal resistance.” The campaign featured Cleveland Clinic’s own doctors and caregivers delivering the message that they wanted to see patients and treat them today. The call to action was “Call Today for an Appointment Today.”
“We see over a million same-day appointments a year now at the Cleveland Clinic,” says Matsen. “That was how marketing worked with leadership to drive a bold idea and a cultural change through the organization, and we’re doing it again today.”
For more on how Cleveland Clinic is successfully using communications to drive change, read the full article now: Cleveland Clinic Turns to Marketing to Lead Culture Change.
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