Sherman Health

After serving the community of Elgin, Ill. for more than 100 years, Sherman Health determined the best way to continue to provide state-of-the-art medical services to the community was to build a replacement hospital.

However, Sherman needed approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to build the new hospital.

KSA worked with Sherman to develop a grassroots campaign to build a groundswell of support for the hospital. As a result, Sherman received approval for the hospital in June 2006.

Once built, our goal in 2009 was to celebrate the hospital’s opening with residents, physicians and staff, community leaders and elected officials.

KSA worked with Sherman to plan a multi-faceted campaign that included events, media relations, internal and external outreach, social media and advertising. To add a unique touch to our outreach, we contacted traffic reporters about the day patients moved from the old to the new hospital, since ambulances would transport patients via I-90 during the morning rush hour.

Our plan resulted in three traffic reporter helicopters overhead on move day, and extensive radio, TV, newspaper and online coverage all day.

For this campaign, KSA and Sherman won the Publicity Club of Chicago’s 2010 Platinum Award, the organization’s highest honor for a public relations firm.