Multilingual Business Solutions
New York City’s Health & Hospitals Corporation (HHC)
 

ORGANIZATION
New York City’s Health & Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is the nation’s largest municipal health system, with 11 acute-care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic centers, and more than 80 community clinics throughout the city’s five boroughs, and an annual revenue of $5.4 billion.

CHALLENGE
Princeton Partners Health was already in the midst of re-branding HHC. However, unifying the brand was only the first step towards achieving HHC’s business goals. Two major issues needed to be addressed — first, the need to decrease HHC’s costs of covering advanced cases within the growing uninsured, charity care, and bad debt populations, and second, the overall poor state of health in New York City’s most vulnerable and at-risk populations (who speak more than 88 different languages).

SOLUTION
Princeton Partners Health worked with HHC administrative and clinical leadership across the system to integrate two major healthcare plans. We began by initiating a program to enroll the uninsured patients in the Child Health Plan and the Family Health Plus at low and no cost to the patients and their families. Then we created a proactive “wellness” screening initiative with two goals: capture market share of the insured population and promote wellness, catching health issues in earlier stages in the lowincome and uninsured populations.

Princeton Partners Health created “Take Care New York,” the most extensive health screening program ever executed in the City of New York — the Mayor of New York City proclaimed October as Take Care New York Month with hundreds of screenings, health education programs, and events offered at HHC facilities throughout the city. The marketing was produced in the 23 most-used languages and culturally appropriate styles, so that every constituency would feel (and be) included.

Among HHC’s key hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, diagnostic centers, and community clinics, brand ambassadors spread the word to millions of the city’s most vulnerable and at-risk residents: screenings are a critical part of health.

RESULTS
The first year, 23,000 New Yorkers responded and were screened for serious health risks. More than 12% required immediate or follow-up care. HHC also enrolled thousands of new members in its health insurance plans, providing a 2:1 ROI for the Take Care New York program. By the third year, 65,000 New Yorkers were screened and Take Care New York was honored with the “Best Public Health Campaign” in the nation by the National Health Information Awards Program.

CREATIVE
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