Weill Cornell Internal/Patient Messaging

The Client

Weill Cornell Medicine

Company: Weill Cornell Medicine
Website: weill.cornell.edu
Headquarters: New York, US
Employees: 10001+

About Weill Cornell Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine is a premier academic medical institution and medical school founded in 1898, part of Cornell University. It operates as an integrated healthcare, research, and education organization with international reach, providing clinical care through partnerships with NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals and Houston Methodist, while conducting…

The Challenge

Weill Cornell Medicine faced significant patient out-migration, with patients seeking specialist care outside the institution despite the availability of high-quality internal specialists. While referring physicians understood the benefits of internal referrals, operational barriers such as appointment scheduling delays, inefficient referral processes, and lack of visibility into specialist availability were undermining referral patterns. Additionally, patients often self-referred or sought specialists based on personal networks rather than physician recommendations, and geographic convenience sometimes trumped institutional loyalty. The challenge required a comprehensive messaging strategy that would reinforce the value proposition of internal referrals while addressing the operational and communication gaps that were driving patient leakage.

Our Approach

Brenda and her team conducted in-depth interviews with 30+ key stakeholders including referring physicians, specialists, patients and administrative staff to identify barriers, motivations, and pain points in the referral ecosystem at Weill Cornell Medicine. This research revealed four critical constituencies and identified high-impact moments and channels, recognizing that in a post-COVID environment, the exam room conversation and post-appointment follow-up processes were the most critical touch points. Solution: The team developed a messaging platform grounded in three foundational concepts: countering the belief that connections are necessary to access top doctors, emphasizing the exclusive access that Weill Cornell patients receive, and positioning coordinated care as superior care. Distinct messaging tracks were created for each constituency, aligned with three key drivers: growth, quality of care, and patient experience. The solution delivered a comprehensive B2B messaging architecture comprising three integrated messaging tracks tailored to each constituency. The messaging platform was designed for deployment across multiple channels.

The Impact

The messaging platform provided Weill Cornell Medicine with a unified, evidence-based communication strategy addressing patient out-migration across all stakeholder groups. The platform established a foundation for institutional communication that was deployed immediately through existing channels, with particular emphasis on the high-impact moments of the exam room conversation and post-appointment follow-up.

Weill Cornell Internal/Patient Messaging

The Challenge

Our Approach

The Impact

Featured Expert

Practice Areas