Guiding families to the right fever care
During an unprecedented surge of pediatric illness, CHOC partnered with Red Door Interactive to help parents confidently manage fever symptoms—reducing unnecessary emergency department visits while preserving access for children who needed urgent care most.
The 2022 winter season brought a convergence of RSV, flu, and COVID-19 that overwhelmed pediatric emergency departments across Orange County. Overcrowding, long wait times, and elevated cross-infection risk were driven in large part by non-urgent fever visits. With 57% of pediatric patients turning to the ER for fever care and 15% of non-acute cases tied to fever, CHOC needed a fast, scalable solution to protect emergency capacity and improve patient experience.
Fever itself was not the issue—misunderstanding was. Parents struggled to distinguish emergent from non-emergent symptoms, especially within Spanish-speaking communities that over-indexed for ER usage. By reframing fever education as guidance rather than alarm, Red Door identified an opportunity to change behavior, empower parents, and reinforce CHOC as a trusted source of care beyond the emergency department.
Reaching parents with targeted, bilingual education
Red Door launched a full-funnel digital campaign designed to reduce non-emergent emergency department visits by educating parents on fever protocol. Across Google Search, Google Display, Meta, Bing, and StackAdapt audio, bilingual creative and language-specific landing pages delivered clear, culturally relevant guidance at critical decision moments—helping parents determine when at-home care, a pediatrician, or emergency care was most appropriate.
Simplifying decisions with actionable frameworks
To make complex medical guidance easier to act on, campaign messaging centered on simple, memorable tools. “Right Care, Right Time,” “Fast Fever Facts,” and the mnemonic “Assess. Act. Alleviate.” equipped parents with practical steps for evaluating symptoms before defaulting to the ER. Select ads also directed caregivers to CHOC’s nurse triage line, reinforcing informed decisions through real-time clinical support.
Aligning medical nuance with search behavior
Search analysis revealed parents were seeking highly specific, temperature-based guidance. Red Door collaborated with CHOC physicians to develop an adaptive fever guide that balanced clinical nuance with real search intent. By optimizing content to reflect how parents actually searched—without compromising medical integrity—the campaign ensured families found accurate, trustworthy guidance precisely when urgency was highest.
Driving measurable outcomes when it mattered most
Focused education, bilingual access, and clinical support delivered measurable gains across engagement, emergency department utilization, and patient satisfaction.
ad impressions driving 376K clicks and 137K fever guide sessions
year-over-year decline in non-urgent fever visits, including a 19% quarterly reduction among Spanish-speaking families
positive patient satisfaction scores, representing an 11.7% increase since Q3 2022
Let’s build something greater together.
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