Case Study · Healthcare Video Series

Patient Journeys

Five patients, five departments and one promise: a testimonial film series that let Redlands Community Hospital’s patients make the case for its quality of care.

• Neonatal Intensive Care UnitThe Marsh Family · 5:18
• Spine and Joint InstituteKaren Lagger · 3:19
• Wound CareKeith Radford · 2:25
• Robotic Gynecological SurgeryKristy Tremain · 3:10
• StrokeLillian Corcos · 3:35

Client

Redlands Community Hospital

Series

Patient Journeys, 5 films

Released

Feb–Apr 2016

Departments

NICU, Spine & Joint, Wound Care, Robotic GYN Surgery, Stroke

Running time

2:25 to 5:18 each, about 18 min total

Where it lives

Outcomes landing page, RCH website, social & online media

The Challenge

Redlands Community Hospital had the numbers. Several of its departments carried awards and distinctions, and its quality scores and patient outcomes were strong. Numbers alone rarely persuade anyone to choose a hospital, though. RCH needed something that would make its quality feel personal.

The 2016 brief asked for a promotional video series that followed individual patients through their experience with RCH, spotlighting specific award-winning and distinguished departments. Patient testimonials would be the foundation for talking about the hospital’s high scores and outcomes.

The Approach

We built the series around one idea: the patient tells the story, and the department is where it happens.

• One patient, one department. Each film pairs a real patient with a distinguished service line: the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Spine and Joint Institute, the Wound Care Center, robotic gynecological surgery and stroke care. Every film makes one department’s case, and together they cover the hospital from its tiniest patients to its longest-term ones.
• Start with the life, not the diagnosis. Every film opens on who the person is before it gets to what went wrong: a daughter “so full of life,” a hairdresser of 35 years, a lifelong mechanic. By the time the medical story starts, the viewer already knows who is at stake.
• Filmed in their world. We filmed patients where they live and work, including a salon chair, a garage workbench, a playroom and an open hillside, so each story ends in the life the care gave back.
• Built to scale. The films share an arc, pacing and brand close, so they work as one series on the outcomes page, stand alone on each department’s story page, and leave a clear template for adding future patients.

Inside the Films

Every film follows the same arc, told almost entirely in the patient’s own voice. Here is how it plays in the longest film of the series, the Marsh family’s NICU story.

1. 0:02
   Meet the person. “Brynne is the kindest, sweetest, most lovable, silliest little girl that you could ever be around.”
2. 0:30
   Why RCH. Expecting their first child, the Marshes researched hospitals, heard great things about Redlands Community and took the tour, walking past the NICU with no idea what it would come to mean.
3. 0:58
   The moment everything changed. Contractions at 22 weeks. No bags packed. A neonatologist explains the risks, and Brynne is born weighing one pound, three and a half ounces.
4. 2:22
   The care. “You don’t have to leave. This is your daughter. You need to be here.” Nurses dress Brynne in cute outfits and brush her hair, and become friends.
5. 4:02
   Life after. After four and a half months, and daily lessons from the nurses and doctors, the family takes Brynne home.
6. 4:32
   Why it matters. “They empowered us to do what we could do as parents.”

“This is our home. It’s more than just a hospital to us.”

The Series

Five films, each cut as a complete long-form story for the web and department pages.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The Marsh Family

▶ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit · 5:18

“These were our friends that were taking care of our daughter for us when we couldn’t.”

The Marsh family toured Redlands Community Hospital while expecting their first child, and walked through the NICU without a second thought. Weeks later, contractions began at 22 weeks. Brynne Olivia Marsh was born on July 31 weighing one pound, three and a half ounces.

The film’s turning point is small and human. The new parents kept their visits short so they wouldn’t be in the way, until the nurses pulled them back: “You don’t have to leave. This is your daughter. You need to be here.” Four and a half months later, taught every day how to care for her, they took Brynne home.

Spine and Joint Institute

Karen Lagger

▶ Spine and Joint Institute · 3:19

“They gave me my life back.”

After 35 years behind the chair, Karen had numbness in her legs, back pain and sleepless nights, and was afraid surgery might end her career. She did her homework and chose the Spine and Joint Institute.

The film shows what set SJI apart for her: pre-surgery classes, a coach at her side the whole time, and a morning of surgery that was “a breeze” because she knew what to expect. She’s back to work, sleeping at night, and calls it “the best choice I could have ever made.”

Wound Care

Keith Radford

▶ Wound Care · 2:25

“It’s nice to know that Redlands Community is there for me, to help me get back on my feet again.”

Keith spent 23 years as a mechanic for the City of Redlands. Diabetes led to open wounds on both big toes that forced him off his feet and out of work. When his specialist had gone as far as he could, he referred Keith to the Redlands Community Hospital Wound Care Center.

This is the series’ story about the long haul. Care that goes on for years depends on relationships, and Keith talks about going somewhere where “the people know who you are” and treat him with kindness and respect, sometimes once a week, sometimes every three or four weeks.

Robotic Gynecological Surgery

Kristy Tremain

▶ Robotic Gynecological Surgery · 3:10

“I was never treated like I was a claim or another number or just someone in a bed. I had a name.”

Kristy’s film takes on a subject most hospital marketing avoids. At its worst, her cycle lasted three and a half to four months at a time. She couldn’t always stay at work, couldn’t wear light-colored clothes, and was afraid to go far from home.

She went to her doctor expecting resistance or a quick fix. She found a compassionate physician who answered every question, and together they chose a robotic procedure. Looking back, she says it gave her “the old Kristy back.”

Stroke

Lillian Corcos

▶ Stroke · 3:35

“I can walk. I can get up. I can do my own coffee. I can still vacuum my house.”

One Sunday morning, after vacuuming the house, Lillian sat down for coffee. When she went to wash the cup, it fell from her hand. She told her husband Joe she thought she was having a stroke, and he drove her to Redlands Community Hospital.

Joe tells the next part: the moment he said the word stroke at registration, a nurse was there with a wheelchair. From the time they walked into the emergency room to the time the medicine was in, it took less than 30 minutes. “They saved her life,” he says.

The Result

Patient Journeys gave Redlands Community Hospital a library of quality stories told by the people who experienced it. The five films rolled out between February and April 2016 and anchor a dedicated Patient Journeys category on the hospital’s Patient Stories page. Each film is embedded on its own department story page, with the patient’s words as the page copy.

The series is built as a template as well as a set of five films. Because every film follows the same arc, RCH can add future patients and departments to its Quality Campaigns without starting over, and it can keep publishing the stories across its web, outcomes and social channels.

“Redlands, it’s our hospital, and that’s where we want to be.”

Produced by j michael media, llc for Redlands Community Hospital, 2016. Five patient films: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (the Marsh Family), Spine and Joint Institute (Karen Lagger), Wound Care (Keith Radford), Robotic Gynecological Surgery (Kristy Tremain) and Stroke (Lillian Corcos). Films live at redlandshospital.org/patient-stories.