In 2011, the New Mexico Coalition for Healthcare Quality (NMC4HQ) launched a campaign to educate patients about whether medical situations warrant a visit to an emergency department (ED) or an outpatient care facility as part of its work leading the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative (AF4Q) in New Mexico.
The campaign, which was originally created for a New Mexico health system, included:
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Newspaper advertisements;
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Radio public service announcements;
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Posters in English and Spanish for hospitals and private employers to post at their facilities; and,
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Customizable newsletter articles and website text about the effort.
In addition to local hospital systems’ individual efforts, three systems partnered with NMC4HQ by lending their brands to be featured on posters, ads, and other materials.
From September 2011 through February 2012, NMC4HQ distributed more than 500 posters to hospitals, businesses, senior centers, community centers, libraries, schools, county and city offices, and food banks. It also purchased 715 radio spots for public service announcements, and received an additional 1,700 spots at no additional cost—more than $150,000 in free radio advertising.
After the campaign, four local hospitals shared their data and reported that non-emergency visits had dropped between 6 and 16 percent depending on the hospital, compared with the previous year—an average of 1,573 fewer non-emergency ED visits per hospital.
