Healthcare audiences have gotten good at tuning out advertising, and they’re getting faster at spotting it. Hospital administrators, referring physicians, and patients alike still stop for a story a journalist chose to tell, a quote from a physician in a trade publication, or a segment on the local news. That gap between what people scroll past and what people actually trust is where healthcare public relations does its work, and in healthcare, the gap is only getting wider.
Why Earned Media Matters More Than Ever in Healthcare
Healthcare decision-makers are dealing with a more skeptical audience than they were a few years ago. Hospital leadership research staffing partners, vendors, and technology providers long before they ever take a sales call, and they weigh third-party coverage far more heavily than a company’s own marketing materials. A mention in a healthcare finance trade publication, a physician interview on the local news, or a byline in an industry outlet carries a kind of credibility a paid placement can’t replicate, because someone outside the company decided the story was worth telling in the first place.
That research increasingly happens through AI-driven search, too. As answer engines change how healthcare organizations get found online, credible third-party mentions help shape which companies get surfaced and cited.
This shift matters most for healthcare organizations working in crowded or highly technical spaces, where buyers need a reason to trust a company before they’ll even take a meeting. Healthcare staffing is a clear example. Hospital systems evaluating a staffing partner want proof of outcomes, not a sales pitch, and that proof increasingly comes from earned coverage: interviews, op-eds, and independent reporting, rather than paid campaigns.
Why Healthcare Organizations Struggle to Get Media Coverage
Plenty of healthcare organizations and healthcare staffing firms have real expertise and a genuine story worth telling. What they don’t have is a consistent way to get that story in front of the right audience. Marketing budgets go toward digital ads that reach people passively, while the relationships that produce real credibility, with healthcare reporters, trade editors, podcast hosts, and industry influencers, go unbuilt. A single press release or one well-placed interview can generate a short burst of attention, but it fades fast without sustained effort behind it.
The healthcare organizations that break through aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones willing to put in the slower, steadier work of building media relationships month after month, so that when news breaks, a new physician joins the team, or a policy shift creates an opening, they already have the trust and access to act on it.
How Media Relationships Compound Over Time
At Conway Marketing Group, we watch this play out across healthcare and healthcare staffing specifically. The same pattern comes up again and again: companies with strong clinical expertise and a compelling story sit on the sidelines simply because no one is telling that story to the people who need to hear it. Good PR closes that gap by building relationships before a company needs them, instead of scrambling to build them after an opportunity has already come and gone.
A reporter who trusts a source comes back to that source again. A healthcare trade publication that runs one bylined article is more likely to consider another. That compounding effect is what turns a single placement into a real media presence, and it’s the reason our approach treats media relationships in healthcare as long-term investments rather than one-off transactions.
5 Healthcare PR Best Practices That Get Results
A few things hold true across almost every healthcare campaign we run.
1. Prioritize Consistent Pitching Over One-Time Announcements
A well-timed press release can spike attention for a week, but sustained coverage comes from months of pitching and follow-through, and it compounds the longer it runs.
2. Choose the Right Format: Press Release, Pitch, or Byline
Not every announcement needs a press release. Some healthcare news, such as a new hire, a program launch, or a policy response, is better suited to a targeted pitch, a bylined article, or a direct introduction to a reporter already covering that beat. Matching the announcement to the right format often decides whether a story gets picked up at all.
3. Build Reporter Relationships Before Breaking News
The healthcare companies best positioned to respond to a breaking opportunity, whether a funding announcement, a policy change, or a staffing crisis making headlines, are the ones that already have relationships with relevant media, built through steady, low-pressure outreach long before there was any news to share.
4. Lead Pitches With Data and Measurable Outcomes
The pitches that land tend to be the ones built around something concrete: a real statistic, a documented trend, a measurable patient or workforce outcome. Healthcare reporters respond to specificity, not general noise. That’s also why research-led thought leadership tends to outperform opinion alone.
5. Repurpose Media Coverage Across Every Channel
Once a placement runs, it rarely stays contained to a single audience. It becomes content for a website that supports SEO, material for social media and email campaigns, a talking point in sales conversations with hospital systems, and proof for the next pitch to the next outlet. Visuals from our creative services team help each placement travel further.
Healthcare Staffing PR Case Study: Earning National Coverage for a Rural Staffing Firm
One of our clients, a healthcare staffing firm specializing in fractional and surgical placements for hospitals, came to us with a strong story and no consistent way to tell it. The company focuses on keeping specialists on staff at rural hospitals, a corner of healthcare under real strain: service gaps, physician burnout, and limited access to care for patients with few other options nearby. Rural healthcare access is a topic reporters care about, but the firm had no established media relationships and no history of pitching stories. Credibility had to be built from nothing, one pitch at a time.
The PR Strategy: Targeted Media Lists and a Steady Pitch Cadence
Our team built a targeted media list of reporters covering healthcare, healthcare staffing, and rural policy, then kept up a steady cadence of press releases, pitches, and thought leadership content tied to the company’s news and clinical expertise. Some months centered on a major announcement and a wire distribution. Others focused on securing an interview, placing an op-ed, or laying groundwork for coverage that wouldn’t land for weeks.
The Results: 9 Media Placements and $124,000+ in Earned Media Value
Over the course of the campaign, our team sent more than 787 pitches to media and influencer contacts, building relationships with reporters across healthcare, healthcare staffing, and regional business news. That work produced nine confirmed media placements, including coverage from a national broadcast outlet, a healthcare finance trade publication, a staffing industry outlet, a regional newspaper, a biotech news site, and a business podcast.
- Audience reach: Three of those placements alone reached a combined audience of more than 241,000 people, representing an estimated earned media value of over $124,000.
- Press release engagement: One press release drew 708 clicks on its internal links out of 1,100 total views, against a potential audience of 202,800, a strong signal that the story resonated well beyond the initial announcement.
- Wire distribution: A separate wire press release drew 1,995 views and generated 292,581 total impressions, extending the firm’s news well past its own website and into the broader healthcare and staffing press ecosystem.
- Thought leadership and recognition: The company placed an op-ed in a staffing industry trade publication, has another in development with a national health policy outlet, and submitted multiple award nominations through major healthcare and staffing industry recognition programs.
None of this came from a single viral moment. It came from persistence: hundreds of pitches sent over months, and a willingness to follow a real healthcare story wherever it led, whether that meant a national broadcast segment or a local newspaper. The firm had the clinical expertise already. Our job was building the relationships that got that expertise in front of the hospital systems, referring physicians, and patients who needed to see it.
Common Healthcare PR Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Most of the healthcare organizations we talk to have tried some version of PR before, and most of them ran into the same handful of problems. Recognizing them early saves months of wasted effort. (For the digital side of the same problem, see our breakdown of digital marketing mistakes healthcare staffing companies make.)
Mistake 1: Relying on Press Releases Alone
The most common mistake is treating a press release as the whole strategy. A release announces news, but it doesn’t build a relationship with the reporter who might cover it, and without that relationship, most releases sit unread in a crowded inbox.
Mistake 2: Sending Generic Pitches Without a News Angle
A generic pitch about a new hire or program launch reads like every other pitch a healthcare reporter gets that week. A pitch built around a specific statistic, patient outcome, or workforce trend gives an editor a reason to write about it now instead of filing it away.
Mistake 3: Going Quiet Between Announcements
A healthcare company that only reaches out to media when it has news to share never builds the kind of ongoing relationship that gets a reporter to call first when a relevant story breaks.
Mistake 4: Skipping Media Training for Healthcare Spokespeople
A physician or executive with real expertise can still struggle in front of a reporter without a clear set of talking points and some practice translating clinical or operational detail into something a general audience understands. Media training and presentation and messaging support help close that gap before the interview starts.
Mistake 5: Measuring PR Success by Volume Instead of Coverage
Plenty of healthcare organizations judge PR success by the wrong measure, counting the number of releases sent rather than the relationships built or the coverage that resulted. A quiet month spent laying groundwork with reporters is often worth more than a busy month of pitches that never landed anywhere.
What Healthcare Organizations Should Do Next With Their PR Strategy
Healthcare organizations of every kind, including hospitals, staffing firms, and medical technology companies, are competing for a shrinking amount of audience trust, and that trend shows no sign of reversing. Hospital administrators, referring physicians, and patients are all doing more independent research before they act, and they’re weighing third-party validation more heavily as they do it. Healthcare companies that invest in earned media now are building a form of credibility that gets harder for competitors to catch up to later, because relationships with healthcare reporters and industry voices take time to build regardless of budget.
The healthcare organizations that adapt fastest will be the ones that stop treating PR as something to reach for only when there’s news to share, and start building it into how they plan for growth in the first place, especially as rural healthcare access, staffing shortages, and workforce burnout stay in the headlines. For organizations without a senior marketing leader in-house, a fractional CMO can make PR part of that plan from day one.
The Future of Healthcare PR: Why Third-Party Trust Will Keep Winning
The channels will keep shifting, from traditional healthcare trade press to podcasts, newsletters, and industry platforms that didn’t exist a decade ago, but the underlying principle will hold: healthcare audiences trust what other people say about a company more than what a company says about itself. Healthcare organizations that build real relationships with the people covering their industry will be the ones best positioned to tell their story when it matters most.
We believe the healthcare and healthcare staffing companies that put in this work now, steadily and consistently, will be the ones with the strongest voice in their industry a few years from now. You can see that work in action in our own media coverage.
Work With a Healthcare PR Agency That Builds Lasting Media Relationships
If you’re ready to build a media presence that reflects the healthcare work you’re already doing, connect with our team. We’d like to hear what story you’re ready to tell. Explore our full range of marketing services or find more insights on our marketing resources blog.
