Unit 4 2nd Response

Good afternoon class, A marketing plan includes everything from understanding the organization’s target market and competitive position in the market, to how the organization intends to reach patients, differentiate themselves from their competition and most importantly marketing is the process of listening to patients and the marketplace. Healthcare organizations that consider themselves knowledgeable about their patients are often surprised when they find out what their patients really want.

For example, I had a colleague who worked in the facility that specialized in services for the elderly was planning to build a large retirement center for the frail elderly. The management team, planners and marketing staff had years of experience  working with these people and they went about designing apartments that would be attractive to them. They figured that 90% of the people in this project would be women who were 85 and older, and theorized these women would have long-standing interests in caring for their homes and cooking. Therefore, these experts planned to construct one-and two-bedroom apartments. After a month of planning, the marketing department decided to conduct a focus group with the elderly consumers. What they found out from the focus group is not what the elderly women wanted.

This market-based orientation requires health care professionals to accept the fact that the marketplace should have an impact on decision-making. For example, the growth of a clinic may depend on the establishing of new office hours based on expressed patient needs, or the clinic’s relationship with a healthcare system and how successful that overall integrated system is in attracting patients in the market relative to the competition. Many professionals find it difficult to engage patients in these discussions or to allow them to participate in decisions.

Dr. Louison