Week 4: The Impact of Marketing to Healthcare Providers
Assignment 1: Marketing and the Health Care System
Due Week 4 and worth 300 points
Select a health care provided with which you are familiar and write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:
Determine the direct impact of marketing for the health care provider you selected.
Outline a strategy for the health care provider you selected to determine the utilization of its products or services.
Outline a marketing strategy for the health care provider you selected.
Recommend at least three (3) separate ways the health care provider you selected could shape the buying decisions of its customers.
Provide at least three (3) qualified sources, e.g., peer-reviewed journals, professional organization Website, or health care provider Websites.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
Marketing and Healthcare
Your Name
January 29, 2017
Your Instructor’s name
The course title
The Impact of Marketing to Healthcare Providers
In today’s ever-changing technological, cultural, and social space, it would not come as a surprise when a company or an organization would spend millions of dollars into simple advertising. However, many of us would still be curious when we see health-care organizations spending as much as corporations from other industries in the same field. Perhaps, this difference is due to the fact that health-care providers (more especially public hospitals) are usually seen as non-profit organizations which are only dedicated in treating illnesses, providing well-being and healthcare, rather than engaging in a more capitalist stance. However, this does not mean that health-care organizations have shifted their main objectives from ‘helping others’ to gaining the most profits for themselves. Rather, the author of this articles believes that these fluctuations should be seen with more clarity under a more positive light. This article would draw from the author’s experience while working in one of the best health-care providers in Arizona – The Saint Luke’s Medical Center. More particularly, this article would focus on the reasons why there is a dire need for marketing their services, in today’s context.
Advantages of Integrating Marketing strategies with Health-care
According to Greene (2015), “Hospitals and health systems have been spending more on advertising in recent years”. In relation to this, a lot of studies and other literatute have been dedicated towards understanding the benefits of marketing for both the healthcare organization and its patients. Perhaps, one of the best benefits of marketing is the reduction of costs for access to better quality healthcare CITATION Day13 \l 1033 (Dayaratna, 2013). This reduction of cost, refers not only to the financial issues of the healthcare, but also to the cost-efficiency of the treatments. According to Dayaratna (2013), this access to better quality heathcare is due to a phenomena that he calls as ‘competition in healthcare’. In most cases, this competition is aimed at gaining the most profits through having more patients in their care. Although, this may be percieved differently by other people, it is worth noting that this competition have significantly reduced the cost of quality heathcare and the increase the efficiency of the health-care providers. Aside from the decrease of cost for accessing quality healthcare, another advantage of marketing health-care is that ‘educational materials’ could be accessed through infographics, comercials, documentatries, and other methods of marketing one’s provider. Usually, these materials are diseeminated online, such as those of the MayoClinic and Saint Lukes Medical Center CITATION Bie12 \l 1033 (Bierbaum, 2012). Aside from the reduction of cost and disemination of educational materials from distant places, another benefit of marketing is that it makes the crowd (and the other concerned parties) more aware of the different options that they have in choosing their treatments. They now have the capability chooseing what would be the best ‘bang for their buck’ services are available out there CITATION Bie12 \l 1033 (Bierbaum, 2012). Of course, advantages do not come without its own counterparts. Some of the common disadvantage of intense marketing campaigns in healthcare organizations are “misleading informations”. Misleading infomration could be categorized into many type which might very from simple (failure to comply with one’s promises) to severe (deceit and bogueses). Nevertheless, it is worth notable that the advantages of integrating marketing with healt...