Development and Strategic Planning in Healthcare

Contemplate how the healthcare industry has become more competitive today as compared with 20 to 30 years ago. As an aspiring healthcare leader, discuss what this intense competition means to you, and the steps you need to take to make your hospital, clinic, or health system more competitive in the local market for medical services? Provide some specific examples.

Please include the name of the person or question to which you are replying in the subject line. For example, "Tom's response to Susan's comment."
ALSO PLEASE REPLY TO ANOTHER STUDENTS COMMENT BELOW 

Tad:

Healthcare has become a more competitive industry with the increase in insurance coverage over the last decades or so, more patients are entering the healthcare sector providing more opportunities for facilities to generate new revenues. There has also been an increase in the number of physicians per capita, about 10% in the last 20 years, this has contributed to higher competition among healthcare providers. The increase in competition should cause an equal rise in the importance of listening to the patients to find out what they want from their healthcare providers and attempting to provide for those wishes. Finding holes in the market and filling them is another important step that you could do to take advantage of competition in the market. If for example, the local market has difficult access to x-rays and other radiological services, possibly expanding into radiological service would be a good move for a private practice office. In-house laboratory services could be another potential market to expand in to.