Journeys in Healthcare — Mike Rehfus, Writer

Speaking the language of healing, for clinics, colleges and healthcare systems.

I love what medicine can do, partly because I’ve seen the other side of it. By a relatively young age, I’d lost both parents, my maternal grandmother, and my mother-in-law, all to absolutely treatable conditions. Yet: working with institutions such as OhioHealth O’Bleness, Carilion Clinic, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Dublin Methodist Hospital’s Orthopedic Center Foot and Ankle, I’ve learned of paradigm-shifting technologies and therapies, heard unbelievable stories of recovery, and relished examples of the most routine procedures accomplishing exactly what they should, in the most routine way possible.

Medicine works for almost everyone. In fact, we expect it to. When it doesn’t, we can know we tried. When it does work: we have the most profound, most humanly joyful experiences possible.

That’s the healthcare story that inspires me, and the one I love to focus on (and hopefully capture and share). I also have a deep respect for the people who give and make possible that care. I come from a family of nurses, my mom one right up until the end. These people who serve their communities beyond generosity, living to make medical miracles commonplace, they deserve a joyful story.

Those are the stories I love to tell. And here are a few examples of me doing that.

The biggest hospital in the region, in the building foothills of the Appalachians, O’Bleness is where most people in Athens County were born, and where they will receive care throughout their lives. At the same time, familiarity put O’Bleness in a spot. Management and labor weathered a string of slowdowns; community members dubbed the place “Oh, bless us” and “Slaughtering Arms” (a play on its previous parochial name, Sheltering Arms). Yet in that familiarity lay connection, and a shared history. By tilting the view just a few degrees, and reminding people of the integral role of O’Bleness in the community, and showing it as a place where neighbors care for neighbors, we showed that O’Bleness was truly a place of Care for All.

O’Bleness Health System

The O’Bleness Brand Narrative

The engagement with O’Bleness was brief, but we wanted to make sure the Care for All brand could flex across all specialties and to reach all audiences. Print ads (and a bit of outdoor—rural Athens County pays attention to billboards) provided the optimal platform to offer proof of concept, and the whole brand platform.

Ad samples

Located in Roanoke, VA, with hospitals throughout the Shenandoah Valley—a region built place built by trains—Carilion Clinic contended with another sort of curse of familiarity. As the era of trains came to a close, Carilion filled the space to become the dominant employer, which for some, overshadowed Carillion’s true contribution to the area: a place committed to the well-being of the whole community and every single resident, From Moment One.

Carillion Clinic

As a major employer in the region with myriad stakeholders across multiple communities, it was essential to tell the story of the Carillion promise. This publication served the institution well, balancing the high level brand message with a comprehensive telling of all the ways Carillion touches the lives of the people of western Virginia.

The Carillion Story, in a book

Telling many stories under one promise

Over the course of a multi-year engagement, we explored the Carillion story at all levels, print advertising being the platform of choice.

Brand Launch Print

All of this work was created with my incredibly talented colleagues at Ologie, and as you may know, Ologie was amazing at telling its story. The scope of work we did for Carillion Clinic could fill several portfolios. Here’s a downloadable look at the whole process (and I wrote this whole darn case study, too.)

Download the case study

Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine

Burdened, slightly, by a cumbersome name, Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (HCOM) is a destination of students seeking their DO. But it’s medical school with a unique problem: it doesn’t have its own hospital. Further, at the time, HCOM was expanding beyond the Athens Campus, opening satellite campuses in Cleveland and Columbus, and those locations were scarcely more than renderings. Through all that, we identified the unique place HCOM occupies in the state and its its field: as a medical school rooted in rigorous study, but guided by the hands-on, holistic patient care. And through that essence, HCOM can proudly say, Care Leads Here.

With a video treatment cooked up and filmed over the course of a lunch hour (remember lunch hours?), narrated by yours truly, my brand narrative serving as the script, this video served its purpose and then some. It sold the concept to HCOM, and would be shown countless times on Jumbotrons at OU sporting events.

HCOM Narrative Video

Socializing the brand internally and reaching out to prospects

HCOM leadership knew they’d need to make a strong investment in internal stakeholders, leading to the creation of a culture piece that expressed the Care Leads Here story at an inspiring, visually-driven high level, and also at a granular, master-the-details level. One part of the the piece could go to the coffee table; the other to desktops in the form of a pocket-sized quick-start guide, the latter answering the most frequently asked questions (What’s a brand? Why is it important? What’s changing? What’s my role in this? ), and granular details of the messaging strategy, fonts, graphics, and the basics of voice and tone.

Beyond the walls of HCOM, the view book carried the story to prospects of the Care Leads Here ethos, what it’s like to study at the various campuses, and so forth.

Affiliated with Dublin Methodist Hospital, The Orthopedic Center, Foot and Ankle (OCFA) performs minor miracles with the perfectly amazing procedures, therapies, and close physician guidance. On one front, they are proud of their work, and their patients are more than happy to sing their praises from billboards and digital ads. On the other front, OCFA is seen as source of knowledge and thought leadership in the consumer-facing world of osteopathic care. And here, you’ll see examples of both, in ads that I wrote, and medical articles that I ghost wrote (with total and complete vetting by my real-world alter egos) for the first iteration of their FootsourceMD storefront, assiduously retrieved with the Internet Archive, and still medically reliable.

The Orthopedic Center, Foot and Ankle

Outdoor boards for OCFA

In stands to reason many of OCFA’s patients are active folks. And when that lifestyle teaks its toll, they know where to turn. These outdoor boards were all over the Columbus metro.

Medical guidance from OCFA physicians

Getting smart, fast, is a minor superpower of mine. Research-intensive, long-form copy is a skill I try to keep it on the DL, mainly because I love doing outdoor boards and brand storytelling. But here we are. If you want to see them in glorious, late-Web 2.0, visit the FootsourceMD News and Resources page at the Internet Archive. Or you can simply download a PDF of the collected articles, and brace yourself for the truth of bunions, winter weather sports, and advances in UV-powered footwear hygiene.