Having worked both the corporate and agency sides of the public relations aisle, I’ve seen a tendency for agencies to use a sledge hammer when a screw driver would work just fine. They view new business as a revenue booster rather than a communications challenge. Do PR consultants these days ever ask themselves if the best solution for the client is also the least expensive? Is more always better? Does the organization have the staff necessary to carry out the plan? Is is possible that the client may actually be doing some things right?

Gary Summers and I have held senior communications positions at Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest HMO’s with a very sophisticated healthcare public relations program. Kaiser, like most providers these days, focuses on prevention. Using Kaiser as a yard stick of good medicine, last year we evaluated the internal and external communications program at rural Mendocino Coast District Hospital in Fort Bragg, Calif. (You’re thinking: Kaiser as a yard stick, you must be talking big money. But read on).

Many of Coast Hospital’s communications activities were on track and appropriate for a small community hospital. The Update newsletter, however, needed a makeover.

Mailed only two or three times a year to 15,000 people in the local community, whole issues of Update were devoted to volunteer activities and plant maintenance or the “clean, well run” cafeteria. A few health classes appeared on page 8. Otherwise, prevention advise was largely absent.

We revamped it: cut the size from tabloid to 8 1/2 by 11 (easier to handle and cheaper to mail); moved from two-color to four (we live in a four-color world); created a new look and feel (new logo, type and layout), and based content on pr goals set by the organization with emphasis on prevention and quality of care. We also suggested printing it six times a year. Ultimately, quarterly was the most the organization could afford.

All these changes resulted in a more attractive, focused publication better serving the community at literally the same cost. Reducing the content and simplifying the design also allowed the internal public relations manager to eliminate outside writers and coordinators (us). That’s okay. It means we did our job successfully.

Lessons: less is more. Be guided by a pr plan. Revamp communications according to resources available (including money and staff).