Ministry Health Care's

Health Connection

Description: Health Connection is a 12-page quarterly publication that provides health care and healthy living information. The publication, which serves approximately 275,000 households in 5 unique geographic regions of Wisconsin and Minnesota, is structured so that a portion of the publication is devoted to region-specific information. As a cost-savings, the remainder of the publication is common to all regions and prints in one press run.

Envision Marketing provides the editiorial direction, copywriting, layout, medical illustration, production and project management.

Success: Unlike the typical hospital newsletter, Health Connection has a consumer focus: living with chronic conditions, healthy living tips, safety tips and recipes. Hospital news is included only as it benefits the health care consumer.

The publication is targeted primarily at women between the ages of 25 – 65, whom research identified as the primary health care decisions makers within households. According to research data, 41% of respondents were women between the ages 25 and 55 years of age and another 31% were between 56 and 65 years of age.

Each publication contains a reply card to gather demographic information, as well as qualitative results such as publication relevance and suggestions. 72% rated the publication as very relevant. When asked what future topics they would like featured in the Health Connection, approximately 80% of respondents made suggestions. When asked what changes would make this publication better, nine percent desired a longer, more frequent publication; 23 percent gave additional article suggestions and 65 percent of the respondents either wrote a positive comment or said no changes should be made.

Envision Marketing actively uses this data to ensure that Health Connection remains fresh, vital and relevant to health care consumers in the Ministry Health Care markets.