Baldwin Publishing licenses compelling health and wellness content that meets the content marketing needs of the healthcare industry. Toni Donina of Baldwin Publishing hired Gabrielle DeTora of DeTora Consulting to conduct a cross-tabulation analysis of overlapping populations, disease states, geographies and business goals and to position a collaborative partnership between UPMC and Weis Markets.
The alarming results of UPMC’s 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment inspired UPMC leadership to dramatically combat the escalating rate of obesity, diabetes, and cancer within its community. As a result, DeTora Consulting and Baldwin Publishing proposed a novel approach to population health management. UPMC would embark on a strategic partnership to decrease chronic disease management costs and ill-placed emergency room visits, while concentrating on a wholistic level of health with its community. To do this, the Weis partnership would build a daily support for nutritional education and behavioral change while increasing preference share and brand loyalty within their communities.
Patti Jackson-Gehris, Interim President UPMC Williamsport, and Ron Bonacci, Vice President of Marketing & Advertising Weis Markets, will introduce a unique hospital/grocery campaign called “Healthy Susquehanna.” It’s an innovative store-to-table program that promotes nutritious foods, affordable ingredients and healthy home-cooking skills to 1.5 million Pennsylvanians.
Strategists, dietitians, and marketing teams from UPMC and Weis Markets are now working together to brand and promote “Healthy Susquehanna,” as a nutrition and wellness campaign. The campaign motivates customers, patients and employees to shop the rim of the grocery store where they’ll find fresh, unprocessed foods. To reach participants, this program uses social media platforms to teach healthier home cooking skills to people who are interested in recipes and food.
The hospital/grocery partnership is a practical relationship. Both organizations serve an aging population struggling with unresolved health issues. Leadership recognized that UPMC’s patients are Weis’s grocery customers. Both the hospital and the grocer amassed data in recent years that tracks ever growing rates of heart disease and obesity.
For both organizations, a healthier community also equates to a healthier employee pool. Reduced obesity and lower incidents of heart disease and diabetes is in everyone’s interest.
UPMC and Weis asked Baldwin Publishing to develop a recipe and shopping platform from which they could launch the Health Susquehanna initiative across the central region of the state. To keep the program cost-effective, the hospital and grocer are combining the skills and talents of their in-house communication teams:
Strategic planning and marketing departments coordinate digital and print campaigns.
Public relations execute media campaigns, in-store demonstrations, and awareness events.
Hospital and grocery store dietitians collaborate and coordinate onsite healthy eating solutions in stores and hospital facilities.
UPMC and Weis are the largest employers in the region with 20,000 employees at 17 hospitals and 71 grocery stores, making the Healthy Susquehanna program a human resource asset. This is a novel and commendable effort and DeTora Consulting wishes them both much luck with this unique initiative.