South Nassau Launches ‘Truth in Medicine’ Ad Campaign To Help Health Care Consumers Decipher Fact from Fiction

Does dyeing your hair increase your risk of cancer? Does a heart attack feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest? Will you be less active after joint replacement surgery? Is having a leaky bladder during exercise normal? Do older adults need less sleep?

The answers to those questions, which are posed in a new, multi-faceted South Nassau Communities Hospital advertising campaign called ‘Truth in Medicine’, can be found at wherequalitymatters.org. In addition to addressing those specific questions, the site also provides consumers with guidance about where to turn for information and medical care.

The new ‘Truth in Medicine’ ad campaign includes a full complement of strategically placed cable television and print ads in Newsday, the Herald Community Newspapers and select Anton newspapers as well as other local newspapers serving the area. The unconventional ads feature provocative full page photos – such as a woman who has died her hair green – and poses a question relevant to the photo. Consumers are then urged to go to the hospital’s ‘wherequalitymatters.org’ webpage to view a short video featuring a South Nassau physician – an expert in that area - who provides the answer.

The physician experts featured in the videos are (click on the questions to view their answers):

• Rajiv Datta, MD, FACS, FRCS, FICS, chair of the department of surgery and medical director of the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center, Does dyeing your hair increase your risk of cancer?

• Jason Freeman, MD, director of interventional cardiology, Does a heart attack feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest?

• Alan Garely, chair of obstetrics and gynecology and director of urogynecology, Is having a leaky bladder during exercise normal?

• Bradley Gerber, MD, chief of joint replacement surgery, Will you be less active after joint replacement surgery?

• Rupinder P. Kaur, D.O., geriatric medicine, Do older adults need less sleep?

During the past year, South Nassau has implemented a series of branding ads aimed at increasingly the profile of the South Shore hospital, which is the only Level II Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County. The campaigns have spotlighted the national healthcare industry awards that South Nassau has earned for quality and safety including:

• ‘A’ for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group;

• American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Outstanding Achievement Award;

• Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care

• Home Health Quality Improvement Gold Medal

• Named to Home Care Elite list 10th consecutive year;

• New York State Department of Health’s Perinatal Quality Collaborative Obstetrical Improvement Quality Improvement Award;

• American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®–Target: Stroke Honor Roll-Elite Quality Achievement Award;

• American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Silver-Plus Quality Achievement Award.

The campaign is a follow up to a multi-month advertising campaign launched last April that highlighted the award-winning, standard-setting healthcare services provided by South Nassau and introduced the hospital’s new logo. Wax Custom Communications, an award-winning Miami, FL-based multi-channel marketing firm specializing in health care, created the ads for both campaigns.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.

South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program. In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.