Effectively reaching change agents (health policymakers, professional and health industry leaders, leading researchers, and key journalists), and thereby improving health care access, quality, and efficiency, is the aim of the Fund's work. The 2006 audience survey revealed that, with a 93 percent effectiveness rating, the foundation compares well with peer institutions in reaching policymakers and health care leaders, particularly given its comparatively small size.
(15) Significantly, the Fund's audience rates the foundation higher on this metric than it did in 2003. At 75 percent, the audience effectiveness rating for the Fund's success in promoting improvements in health care access, quality, and efficiency is also very strong—again, especially given the foundation's small size and the numerous, powerful stakeholders populating this large sector—and is on a par with ratings for peer institutions with similar missions.
The core of the Fund's strategy for reaching influential audiences and bringing about improvements lies in providing credible, reliable, timely, and unique information meeting customers' needs. Audience surveys show that the foundation's work is highly regarded on all these dimensions, being accorded a 97 percent approval rating most recently. Following the 2003 Board review of the Fund's communications activities, the foundation set making the most of the Fund's Web site to communicate results of produced work as a major strategic objective. The Fund has regularly upgraded its site to address audience needs better, and it ranks highly in a very competitive market: the audience approval rating rose from 80 percent in 2003 to 92 percent in 2006, and within an audience that extensively overlaps those of peer institutions, the Fund's Web site is now rated comparatively more useful by customers.
Traffic on the Fund's Web site is a reliable measure of the foundation's progress in expanding its audience, and the Fund's statistics on annual site visits and page views reveal pronounced and continuing growth (e.g., from 1.3 million sessions in 2003 to approximately 3 million in 2006).
Achieving substantial major media visibility is part of the Fund's strategy for reaching influential audiences.
(16) By its own audience's assessment, the foundation still lags peer institutions with more media-oriented strategies, but the Fund is achieving greater attention. Major media mentions rose from 31 in 2003, to 43 in 2004, and to 54 in 2005. As the work of the Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System unfolds through such innovations as the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, the Fund will seek a higher profile in major media outlets.
