HARVARD VANGUARD MEDICAL ASSOCIATES
Developing a Communications Plan from the Ground Up

Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates is a multi-specialty physician practice with many convenient locations in the greater Boston area. As an affiliate of Harvard Medical School , its physicians are on the staff of Boston 's leading academic medical centers and community hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess, and Children's Hospital.  These physicians have been on the forefront of quality improvement in patient care for adults and children for more than three decades and continue to receive among the highest ratings for care quality in Massachusetts.  Harvard Vanguard is an affiliate of Atrius Health.

Harvard Vanguard wanted to raise its visibility and develop grassroots community outreach, particularly through local and community media. However the organization had never had a strategic communications plan, so they hired SM& to create one and to work with the in-house marketing department. As part of creating this new plan, SM& also created the organization's standardized public relations protocols and procedures. After a communications audit, SM& determined that the media was interested in Harvard Vanguard's story, whether about primary care, advanced electronic medical records, or how it can compete with the highest-level hospitals for day-to-day care.

SM& found news angles and created media opportunities into which these topics and other standout programs could be woven into broader stories. SM& also created an experts' bureau, leveraging Harvard Vanguard's doctors as media sources for comment on breaking news. The SM& team prepared physicians for one-on-one interviews and conducted media training for health care executives, and also did press outreach for major announcements, such as a new cancer center or CEO. As a result, Harvard Vanguard has raised its visibility considerably and achieved blanket coverage in the local and community media, where there had been none before. These efforts also succeeded in generating internal enthusiasm among Harvard Vanguard's staff for building the organization's brand recognition, inspiring them to become more effective advocates for their employers' work.