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Doctors reject N.M. hospital's ad claim

Physicians object to being the centerpiece of an ad campaign, especially because they believe it's misleading and distracts from problems at local hospitals.

By Bob Cook, amednews staff. Sept. 10, 2001.

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One hospital's advertising campaign that its physicians are "Number 1" is, to some doctors, a pretty loony claim to make.

After all, most of the same "Number 1" doctors affiliated with Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Albuquerque, N.M., also have privileges at the other, non-Presbyterian hospitals, although the ongoing billboard campaign leaves that part out.

"Are we to understand that [doctors] are 'Number 1' only when they are at Presbyterian?" Greater Albuquerque Medical Assn. President James Tryon, MD, asked in a July 20 letter to Presbyterian President and Chief Executive Officer James Hinton.

The Greater Albuquerque Medical Assn. is objecting to Presbyterian's campaign, which the hospital system says is based on a survey of patients.

While many hospital advertising campaigns focus on the quality of its doctors, it's rare when a campaign actually declares its physicians the best in town.

In GAMA's eyes, the "Number 1" designation for Presbyterian's doctors -- few of whom are employed there -- is only the start of the campaign's problems:

• The campaign focuses on "an artificial distinction of Presbyterian doctors versus other doctors, a distinction that only serves to continue the sense of division among us," Dr. Tryon also wrote to Hinton.
• The campaign violates American Hospital Assn. ethics on health care advertising, which states, in part, that "statements that might lead the uninformed to draw false conclusions about the health care facility, its competitors, or other health care providers are unacceptable and unethical."