Gulf Coast Medical Center

Gulf Coast Medical Center has served the healthcare needs of Wharton, Texas and the surrounding area since 1987. The hospital is operated by Houston-based Signature Hospital Corporation, which purchased the hospital in 2006. In addition to Gulf Coast, Signature currently owns the 115-bed Pampa Medical Center in Pampa, Texas, the 79-bed Medical Park Hospital in Hope, Arkansas, and the recently acquired 325-bed St. Joseph’s Hospital in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The issue.

Signature Hospital Corporation approached Waller & Company in early 2007 about helping to improve public perceptions and communication efforts for its Gulf Coast Medical Center. The hospital was planning to announce major capital improvements in 2007, but it also faced increasing competition for patients and business from other area hospitals and needed help addressing several potentially negative issues with employees and the community.

The solution.

Waller & Company first conducted a series of focus groups with Wharton residents and Gulf Coast employees in December, 2006 to obtain their views and opinions on a variety of hospital-related topics. Participants’ feedback on these “hot” issues was extremely helpful as Waller developed a comprehensive PR/marketing plan to help the hospital address a wide variety of issues that ranged from perceived lack of community involvement and competition from other hospitals to general community awareness about new hospital departments and technology, physician recruitment efforts and improved communication with employees.

Gulf Coast Medical Center has already implemented many of Waller’s recommendations to improve communications with the community and its employees, and the hospital has received positive feedback from these audiences as well as Signature Hospital Corporation, Gulf Coast’s parent company. Waller also just helped Gulf Coast successfully announce its $20 million capital improvements campaign, and is developing plans for upcoming events surrounding the public groundbreaking.