Competition, Marketing Mix, and Pricing

Running head: MARKETING AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM !1

Marketing and the Health Care System

Joanna Nasser

Professor Mary Neilson

HSA 305

10/16/2017

MARKETING AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ! 2

MARKETING AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Introduction

Under the federal regulations, healthcare providers are defined as the institutions that

provide a wide range of health care services to their patients. They include nursing homes,

primary care centers and hospitals. On the other hand, individual health care providers are the

clinical psychologist, physicians, nurses, clinical social workers and the midwives. All of them

should be authorized by the state to practice the health services. In this respect, the health care

system is mandated with the provision of all the possible services in healthcare and to make use

of the necessary facilities needed by the patients as they come for both inpatient and outpatient

treatment. As indicated by the WHO, the healthcare system is supposed to incorporate all the

activities, which have the ability to restore, promote and maintain the health of the patients

through the help of the healthcare givers who provide their services within the organization, in

the community and the general environment that constitutes the health policy as suggested by

Kotler, Shalowitz and Stevens R. J., 2008. In this case, it is important for health care providers to

not only offer quality services to the patients as well as to create awareness on the services that

they offer to the public. This makes it necessary to apply proper marketing strategies. In

particular, the marketing strategies that are used in the effort to promote various healthcare

service providing facilities include the ability to design a comprehensive and effective marketing

plan that helps to communicate the organizational message, missions and values through varied

approaches that attract the client. For instance, the Eden Medical Centre in Castro Valley in

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California has made an effort in marketing by making use of brochures and online marketing

tools in the effort to increase the number of their customers.

The Impact of Marketing on the Eden Medical Centre in Castro Valley

Since they started using advanced marketing strategies to reach out to their customers, the

Eden Medical Centre has witnessed a lot of positive changes. In particular, the marketing

approach has impacted on the facility in a positive way by bringing about a sustainable form of

competition. It is apparent that with the current market, the healthcare sector needs to undergo

changes in order to fulfill the needs of their customers. This has been attributed by increased

awareness that has made them more knowledgeable hence the search for services that are of high

quality, accessible, convenient and efficient. The hospital has realized this through the ability by

its executives to foster a dedicated interest in the selection of individuals who contribute

significantly to the success of the business operations (Sovina and Collins, 2003). As such, the

quality of services offered to the patients has improved thus creating a positive impact on the

performance of the hospital. As a result, there has also been an increase in the financial aspect of

the hospital, the operations and the general reputation.

Strategy to determine the utilization of products and services

As a result of this, the Eden Medical center has also achieved the traditional objective of

marketing in the way that it attracts patients and enables the generation of business. Usually, this

is the result of the importance given to the use of marketing strategies on the patients. It comes

with the realization that the most valuable asset of any hospital is its current customers.

Therefore, the marketing tools should be used on them since a public opinion is developed from

MARKETING AND THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ! 4

the word given by others about the hospital. In this way, the other strategy that has been applied

by this facility in the form of positive and proper customer relations has contributed significantly

to the progress in terms of recommendations and heightened revenue. Some of the marketing

tactics that have been applied by the healthcare provider to produce a positive impact include the

location of the facility. It is accessible to most of the customers thus making it easy to reach at

any time. The others are the quality services offered and the affordable pricing when compared to

that of its nearby competitors. All of these factors have positively contributed to the positive

financial recital by the hospital. It has made an impact on the operational performance of the

urban hospital and helped in its marketing. Moreover, there has been the innovative impact that

has been developed by the good relations between the physicians and the patients through the

promotion of cost effective care and services, community relations and a lesser influence of the

specialized sales forces on performance.

Marketing strategy

It is also possible for the health facility to make use of other strategies such as the use of

fundamental strategic logistics of marketing. This relates to the ability to match the services to

the requirements of the patients. This strategy makes use of the basic characteristics to match the

ability by the organization to achieve within its environment. With hospital marketing, it is

possible to achieve great success in the current projects and the future development of better

strategies that will help in the development of new products, services, programs, and projects. It

involves the provision of a rational and significant support to the plan in order to attain

effectiveness in the organization and customer satisfaction. Some of the influential factors that

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have increased the marketing demands in the healthcare facilities include the increased amount

of expenditure as a result of elevated hospital expenses, an increase in the accountability levels,

which has resulted to the need to review the services provided by healthcare facilities by the laws

and legislations as well as the need to place more emphasis on the customer requirement from

the board of directors.

Shaping the buying decisions of the customers

In this sense, the Eden Medical centre can shape the decision of its customers to buy its

products by making use of the information technology, improving the associations with its

supplies as well as enhancing the e-health platform. In order to improve healthcare businesses in

the current world, there is a need to use information technology as a marketing research tool. The

improvement of associations will help to get better products and services from the supplies. The

establishment of an e-health platform will ensure proper keeping of patient records and

convenience in accessing the services. It is necessary to make use of the internet as a

fundamental tool that will not only link the patients to the hospital web but also publish disease

information regularly. As suggested by Hibbard, Stokard and Tusler (2005), there is incredible

need to advance the quality of healing facilities through the awareness, center split and

inclination to the client.

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References

Hibbard, J. H., Stockard, J., & Tusler, M. (2005). Hospital Performance Reports: Impact On

Quality, Market Share, And Reputation. Health Affairs, 24(4), 1150-1160.

Kotler, P., Shalowitz, J., & Stevens, R. J. (2011). Strategic Marketing For Health Care

Organizations: Building A Customer-Driven Health System. John Wiley & Sons.

Sovina, J., & Collins, C. J. (2003, August). The Effects of Organizational Brand Equity on

Employment Brand Equity and Recruitment Outcomes. In Academy of Management

Proceedings (Vol. 2003, No. 1, pp. B1-B6). Academy of Management.