Marketing is the voice of the healthcare industry. Marketing strategies in the healthcare industry should be strengthened in order to meet the challenges of the healthcare industry. Marketing is the identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customers needs profitably. The basic need of a patients is to be cured. The most satisfying need of every patient who enter a hospital, the welcoming nature of the front office is the first step to healing. Therefore the gap between the service providers that is healthcare workers and the beneficiaries should be filled considerably. Therefore marketing helps to maintain positive relationships with current patients because they play a major role in recommending friends and family to hospitals, and further boosting revenue.
Practicing Marketing; and it's Challenges in the Healthcare Industry
1. Practicing Marketing; aanndd iitt''ss
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IInndduussttrryy
Dr. Joe Sarprasatha
Amoah-Binfoh Kenneth
Priscilla Bempah Botwe
SRM University School of Management
2. IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN
“Marketing is the voice of healthcare industry”
Background:
Recent global changes in healthcare industry,
Marketing assuming importance for survival /growth of
hospitals.
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commercial practices neglecting rudimentary
practices.
3. Healthcare marketing as a concept and its
importance
Healthcare marketing is a complex equation bbeeccaauussee mmoosstt
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The most important service to consumers is the service of
health care because we are directly affected by it every day,
said Leonard Berry (1999), Therefore marketing helps to
maintain positive relationships with current patients because
they play a major role in recommending friends and family to
your hospital, further boosting your revenue.
8. MAJOR CHALLENGES OF MARKETING,
HEALTHCARE SERVICES
Simplicity of the Concept of Marketing by
(Senior Executives)
Healthcare professional understood the
concept as advertising and sales not in its
holistic view.
Health professionals, especially clinicians,
did not have the same goal and objectives as
administrators.
Uncertainty, technology, and new era of
healthcare application
10. DATA ANALYSIS
Questions for Health workers Labels Total
(N=10)
Percentage
(100%)
1.Understanding the elements
in healthcare market
a. Yes
b. No
46
40
60
2. Availability of Marketing
department in the hospital
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Disagree
d. Neither
1351
10
30
50
10
3. Channels for promoting
healthcare services
a. Referral System
b. Medical Edutainment
c. Community Outreach
d. Social Media
3142
30
10
40
20
Questions for Patients N=40 100%
4. Satisfaction as to the
treatment /medical care
a. Yes
b. Can’t say
c. No
81
3
19
20
32.5
47.5
11. 5. Opinions of patients
about the doctors
a. They are sympathetic
b. They are indifferent
c. They are rude
20
41
6
50
10
40
6. Channel of
information about the
Hospital
a. Patients Referral
b. Medical Edutainment
c. Social Media
d. TV
20
721
1
50
17.5
52
7.5
7. Assessing the
pricing system of the
hospital
a. High
b. Medium
c. Low
572
8
12.5
17.5
70.0
8. Complaints about
delay due to lack of
cooperation / co-ordination
No
Can’t say
Yes
12
8 20
30
20
50
13. • It was also found that most doctors were sympathetic
and understanding though a few were rude.
• There is a lot to desire on the front of cooperation
between the various clinicians and departments’
service providers.
• A good many patients were not satisfied with the
services rendered by the hospital and the undue
delay was a cause to worry.
• The study finds in very unclear terms that a
professional marketing expert should be employed, to
restructure the marketing strategies, define the
market promotion mix strategies and how to integrate
the clinicians and administrators to understand the
needs and wants of patients.
14. CONCLUSION
The gap between the service providers and beneficiaries
needs to be immediately filled.
• This has to be done by a highly responsive marketing
professional.
• There could also be an aggressive marketing strategies
(medical edutainment, social media, direct marketing,
Micromarketing and building patient relationship
management (PRM).)
• When these strategies are institutionalized the market
position (i.e. brand image) of the hospital will rise from
being ordinary to excellent.
Many senior executives thought they understood the concepts, but never really made the commitment, organizational, operational, and financial to implement the concepts successfully.