Hospitals throughout the U.S. are pampering patients like never before. You can now recuperate after your heart bypass or gall bladder removal in upscale units with suite-sized rooms, gourmet meals, high-thread-count sheets, attentive security, and smiling staff ready to cater to your every whim.
A Forbes magazine survey of the 10 Best Luxury Hospitals finds mahogany furniture featured virtually across the board. Pampering also includes larger rooms with nicer furnishings, convertible couches for family sleepovers, expansive marble-and-tile bathrooms, stocked refrigerators, VCRs and satellite TV, a dedicated gourmet chef and even a concierge. Read more about the survey.
If you do PR for a hospital and you didn’t make the list, don’t despair. Your local business journal or TV station would probably love to hear about innovative ways you pamper patients. The “pampering” angle isn’t limited only to hospitals. It can work just as well for everything from restaurants to companies that want to attract and keep employees.
Hospital PR pro Dan Collins offers valuable tips for hospitals on “How to Make Hospital P.R. an Easy Pill to Swallow,” a recording of a teleseminar I hosted in which he was my guest. He’s senior media relations manager at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, calls himself a P.R. junkie.