TX: Have a baby, get a TiVo at Parkland (county hospital)

[rainbow4321]

As you read this, keep in mind this is Dallas' county hospital and the majority of these women/families don't have a dime to their name...You think the hospital would have gotten a deal with some company that would give them something more practical..like free diapers, formula, food vouchers...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/050605dnmettivomoms.24a79efd7.html

Women who give birth at Parkland Memorial Hospital over Mother’s Day weekend will each get a free TiVo digital video recorder - even if they don’t know what it is.

Company representatives were at the hospital Friday morning chatting up new moms and handing out certificates for the recorders along with free lifetime TiVo service, both valued at $498.

Jessica VanPernis, a TiVo representative, said the company staged the giveaway at Parkland as part of a marketing effort to reach busy new mothers. The Dallas County public hospital was chosen because it averages 40 births daily, which makes it the busiest maternity ward in the nation.

While the women seemed grateful and willingly posed with empty TiVo boxes stacked in their hospital rooms, several patients admitted later that they weren’t sure at first what the devices were used for.

[deadparrot]

1. How about a choice...

Cash or TiVo?

[derby378]

2. I work at Parkland! KICK!!!

[redqueen]

3. Well was this something the hospital worked for?

Sounds like it was done by the marketing dept at TiVo.

:shrug:

Would be nice if the hospital folks there decided this might be something they could parlay into more reasonable offers from other companies, but I doubt they'd bother. Unlike diapers, formula, etc... nobody has to have TiVo, hence their more energetic marketing.

[rainbow4321]

6. They couldn't be in the facility without...

Parkland's permission..so the hospital had to have some kind of approval in the matter. I used to work at PMH and I LOVE the population that they serve, absolutely love them. I just wish that the hospital would have put more thought into the "marketing idea"

[Horse with no Name]

8. One thought is that many of these folks will sell the units

to buy diapers and formula so the company will actually get paying customers for the programming.
Nice gesture--but wish it was for something useful for these folks.

[CubsFan1982]

4. Is this THE Parkland Memorial hospital?

I didn't know they were even still in operation.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Yeah

still one of the best hospitals in the country, despite the financial status of it.

[Writer]

7. I think I can get away with saying this, having grown up in Dallas,

but this reflects the rather fucked up priorities of North Texas.

Where's my Estee Lauder?

Writer.