HCA benchmarking report warns about the future of healthcare communications
Published: 16 Jan 2012
The Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) has released a report detailing its findings from the HCA 2010-11 Benchmarking Programme. While the news is not all bleak, Race to the Bottom: Is Healthcare Communications putting its own future at risk? contains some stark findings that illustrate the threats the industry faces if a cost-containment approach is allowed to dominate decision making.
Although the survey recognised the unprecedented pressures pharma comms teams face and increased reliance on procurement teams to push down costs, it concluded that focusing only on cost containment could lead to a world in which healthcare communications is devalued.
In its benchmarking report, the HCA surmised that the industry could now be at a tipping point, with recent developments potentially leading to a ‘commoditisation’ of consultancy services, with the client ultimately suffering when consultancies can no longer afford to invest in the best people or when those people are no longer attracted to the industry.
Against a backdrop of cash flow difficulties and the increasing shift to digital communications, the survey also highlights worrying new developments within the industry, which include clients expecting services to be provided on a ‘goodwill’ basis and the use of online auctions to identify the lowest bidders – a practice seen as paying scant regard for the quality of service provided.
The challenge is to find ways to work together to identify where costs savings can be made where appropriate, while suppliers continue to charge a fair price for their top level consultants’ time, and the pharma industry continues to pay a fair price, allowing consultancies to make sufficient profit to reinvest in skilled staff and the development of services and expertise for a sustainable future.
“In this challenging period for the pharmaceutical industry we need big ideas,” said Stephen Cull, head of external pharma communication at Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd and a participant in the survey. “These are often the result of sustained healthy client/agency relationships. No one wins if healthcare comms is treated as commodity, as the cheapest option is unlikely to produce an impactful campaign,” he continued.
Published: 16 Jan 2012
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