After winning contracts, NNMC talks up hospital choice

In less than 60 days, the potential market for Northern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks grew by at least 11 percent.

Now Brandt Wright and his team at the Sparks-based hospital face the big job of turning that potential market into hospital users.

Wright, the chief executive officer of NNMC, had been working for nine months with executives of Universal Health Services Inc., the hospital's parent company, to win a couple of major contracts from health-care providers.

Their first success came in May, when the state employees' preferred-provider plan included NNMC. That's a market of about 17,000 state workers and retirees and their families in Washoe County.

A bigger success came July 1, when Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield opened the door for its members to use NNMC. That adds at least 40,000 people maybe as many as 50,000 to the number who can use the Sparks hospital.

Both the state PPO and the Anthem plans previously limited their members in the area to use of Washoe Medical Center.

Wright said last week that Universal Health Services used its 50 percent market share in the Las Vegas area as leverage to win the two big contracts for its northern Nevada hospital.

Statewide, Universal Health Services is the largest health provider. Along with its dominant position in Clark County, it has an 8 percent market share in Washoe County.

"These were huge decisions in our favor," Wright said.

But potential customers aren't worth much unless NNMC can convince patients and their doctors to use the Sparks hospital, and that brings a two-pronged marketing campaign.

First, Wright said, NNMC officials are making sure that physicians' offices know that members of the Blue Cross and state PPO networks can use the hospital in Sparks. That message is based around convenience and the benefits of competition between NNMC and Washoe Med.

"With our practice located in Sparks, it's great to have a Blue Cross Blue Shield hospital in Sparks for our patients' convenience," says Dr. Jason McKenzie, a family practitioner with Family Medicine Associates.

For consumers, meanwhile, the hospital print and broadcast ads deliver a straightforward message: "I Choose Northern Nevada."

The key, Wright said, is to educate consumers covered by the state PPO and the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans that they have an option as a result of the recent decisions.

And once members of the two plans are convinced to use NNMC, Wright said the 100-bed hospital then faces the competitive challenge of providing quality services that can compete with the much-larger Washoe Med system.

"It's a lot of work," he said. "But we enjoy it."