Wait longer than 30 minutes and get free Detroit Tigers tickets.
Believe it or not, that's a real promotion at a hospital in Detroit, Michigan. In fact, hospital emergency rooms across the country are getting into the promotions game to help alleviate the pain of long wait times for patients. A Kansas City hospital offers free movie tickets while other hospitals give away meal vouchers to patients who wait an excessive amount of time to be seen by an emergency room doctor. Carondelet Health in Kansas City actually offers a "30-minute guarantee," (I wonder what the disclaimers are for that one), and a local competitor claims it sees patients within 15 minutes.
According to Rick Wade of the American Hospital Association, this new focus on exhorbitant wait times has spread across the country with approximately one quarter of hospital emergency rooms in the United States now using some type of marketing promotion tool to counter long wait times.
I think this is an interesting tactic for hospitals to utilize. I'm not sure if it will resolve the problem though. I think the health system needs a complete overhaul, but at least this is a step in the right direction. At least hospitals are finally acknowledging that emergency room wait times are unacceptable, and they are doing something to try to fix the problem. However, I never dreamed they'd come up with marketing promotions like - 30 minutes or you get a gift card for Outback Steakhouse.
What do you think? Would a freebie appease you after a long wait in the emergency room?
Read the complete article from Reuters here.
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