Managers Role in the Development and Marketing of a Health Care Practice - Essay Example

?Mangers role in the development and marketing of a health care practice Introduction General practitioner looks after people’s health in the local community and handles a wide range of health associated problems. A GP practice offers advice on diet and smoke, health education, and run clinics among other general medical services. A GP practice is often managed as a team and involves healthcare assistants, nurses, receptionists, and practice managers. Managing a GP practices entails making their services information available to the intended group through effective marketing and promotion. Some GP practice has available leaflets to aid promotion (Balakrishnan, Soderstrom and West, 2007). The health care practice and sector is directly affected by public funds shortage and majorly by the development and marketing of health care practice, GP and the massive expansion of the possibilities of both therapeutic and diagnostic dynamics. There is also a an enormous generation of a steady increase in health care services demands leading to an increased consciousness in cost in the society (Balakrishnan and Soderstrom, 2000). This paper seeks to analyze the role of managers in the development and marketing of a GP practice: GP practice. This will be done through appreciating the need for effective promotion and marketing of GP practice, evaluating the issues of brokerage in the buying and selling of the practice and applying the essentials of starting a practice to meet the needs of health care by a particular client group. Essentials in selecting and developing a suitable practice environment A GP practice contributes a lot to the recovery of patients, especially to the aging client group. The role of GP cannot be ignored in health care practices and therefore effective management is warranted. For this reason, health care managers play a vital role in the development and marketing of health care practices. Health care managers direct, plan, and coordinate health care services and effectively manage a medical practice: GP practice in this aspect. When selecting practice environment, managers need to consider factors such as: location, patient profile, service to offer, competition, interior and exterior design, financial implications, and staffing. Managers need to effectively manage all aspects of health care practice in order to facilitate development and marketing of such practices. Some of the areas that need effective management in this case include: finance, human resources, government relations, marketing and public affairs, information systems, patient care services, GP administration, planning and development, material management, and medical staff. These areas of focus evidently ensure effective marketing and developing of health care practice (Burnett & Vincent, 2010). Health care practice management is important in development and marketing of health care practice (Baker and Baker, 2000). GP managers play critical role in the development and marketing of health care practice just as mentioned in the earlier paragraph (Arnaboldi and Lapsley, 2004). In addition, the development and marketing of health care practice requires an effective role of managers in the systems of integrated health delivery, technological innovations, ever changing requirements of medical regulations, and work restructuring. GP practice encourages preventive models of care, and a good manager masters the shift form curative models to preventive models and prepare for changes. In order to develop and market GP practice effectively without violation of medical regulation, managers ensure the improvement of quality and safety of patients in healthcare (Aptel, Pomberg and Pourjalali, 2009). The theoretical underpinnings deficiency to facilitate the improvement and understanding of development and marketing of health care practice through quality care and patient safety has been in many researches duly noted, this has however been disregarded by ineffective managers in spite of repeated suggestions that much more valuable marketing and development insights can be achieved through improving quality of care and patient safety (Alutto and Vredenburgh, 2007). Healthcare is rapidly changing in terms of where and how health care is given, how care is financed, and who provides that care. This has led to multiple efforts and attempts to effectively develop and market health care practice. Healthcare management needs talented managers who can manage change that is advancing in the industry. In the roles of manager in developing and marketing services of a GP practice, managers have the opportunity to make pivotal contributions in improving strategies to develop a GP practice in the community (Benn & Pinto, 2009). The traditional health care management aligned to the production process is unable to cope with the dynamics of health care practice development and marketing, therefore an improved health care management role would lead to a definite health care delivery optimization as well as effective use of resources. The development and marketing of health care practice is hence necessary to meet health care demands of the society. There is also a an enormous generation of a steady increase in health care services demands leading to an increased consciousness in cost in the society (Parand & Dopson, 2012). This calls for more professional development and marketing of health care practice and management in health care organizations. The need for effective marketing and promotion of the practice Brand In effectively marketing and promoting the GP practice brand, the managers ascertain that they have trained and suitably qualified staff that is able to handle any particular increase in the patient numbers. The competitive advantage of the service offering practice should be able to separate the practice from the area of competition. My patients as a general practitioner would be preferable the elderly as indicated earlier. It would be better to see the elderly patients more often compared to the middle aged patients due to the nature of GP services we offer. Taking care of the elderly in a hospice would obviously help the revenue sought. It is also important to add that the current location, U.K Newham in the Tower hamlets borough is big enough to handle any increase in patient volume (Ameiss, Ehlen and Hutchison, 2003). There is need for effective marketing and promotion of the practice as a means of encouraging and easing medical access by clients. For example, marketing hospice services to the aging group is important in that it creates awareness among the elderly of the possibility of access to the hospice services. The importance of managers in development and marketing of a GP practice is to keep the practice effective and competitive in the market and industry through offering services demanded at low costs and provided by the best medical practitioners (Allen and Sullivan, 2006). Marketing of a GP practice is very beneficial and therefore needed for development of health care practice. Marketing or health care practice increases the return on investment. For example, GP services offered in hospice as discussed earlier ensures maximum return, this is because the aging population is increasing and the need to cope with day to day life is mandatory (Pinto & Vincent, 2012). Many elderly groups seek help in the hospice facilities. Marketing of GP practices ensures effective communications and quick responses from the client groups. Marketing also helps in specifying target groups, for example for the hospice facility, marketing of the GP services would particularly target the elderly group. Generally, managers play pivotal role in enhancing development and marketing of GP practice. Health managers practically need to focus on all aspects of health care (Benn, Burnett, Pinto & Vincent, 2012). In order to develop and market a GP practice effectively, managers need to partner will all the relevant health care professionals in order to provide the best quality care, ensure that the facilities have a strong operational, medical, and financial foundation so as to serve both patient group and community needs (Aidemark and Lindkvist, 2004). In addition, effective development and marketing of GP practice can be ensured through aiding communication importance to community health issues and ensuring that the health organizations through which the GP practice offers aid to the client group provide timely and accurate information concerning public threats. Due to this, managers need to have marketing and promotional knowledge as well as skills such as leadership, communication, budgeting and strategic planning. This will ensure that GP practices are effectively developed based on need and marketed and promoted effectively to increase awareness among client groups (AICPA, 2012). Health care managers play pivotal roles in the development and marketing of GP practice. They are very important in debate over reform. Management skills are required to improve and sustain upon health care delivery advances for the benefits of particular client group (Abernethy and Lillis, 2001). Evidence shows that in order to initiate a GP practice development and marketing, managers need to give more attention o health care delivery issues rather than issues of policies. For example, there is much debate on US stage assuming that the prevailing system of health care delivery is given, yet technological innovations in health care delivery could help client groups potentially and the system of health care in the United States in general. Managers need to emphasize routine health care practice which is a fertile source of technological innovations in health care (Cooper, 2004). This contributes greatly to the development of heath care practice as mentioned in the earlier paragraphs. The brokerage issues in the buying and selling of a practice The issues of brokerage in the buying and selling of GP practice services such as hospice services to the elderly are very controversial (Arndt and Bigelow, 2000). Although marketing and promotion of such services is important in creating awareness among the elderly, buying and selling of such services still remain an issue in medical practice. The need to professionally run health care system is increasingly growing along with the industry of health care itself. This makes brokerage issues in buying and selling a practice inevitable. There is a continuous need for inclusive GP practices due to the increasing community population especially the aging populations who need special health care services in order to increase their life expectancy. This recalls for the need for development and marketing of GP practices that should be directly championed by managers. In championing the development and marketing of health care practice, communication plays a pivotal role (Brett &Vincent, 2010). Development of a GP practice requires that managers recover from the global economic crunch. The managers need to ensure that health care practice continuously grow for effective application. Marketing and development of GP practice such as GP discussed earlier requires managers to serve effectively as chief executives, planners, and administrators in order to handle the health of all community populations (Iskander & Vincent, 2009). Essentials of starting a practice to meet health care needs of a particular client group GP practice is a very important aspect in meeting the needs of specific client group. It would be vital to start up GP practices such as those offered in hospice facilities. There is a significant need to start up hospice facilities in order to meet the demands of the aging population client group, who are unable to cope with their day to day activities. Due to the rapidly evolving need for health care management, there is an evitable need to communicate to the population in a way to create awareness of the availability of health care practices. This can effectively be done via marketing of the said health care practice (Amato and Schreiber, 2013). It has also become crucial with the general increase in the levels of health literacy of population, to disseminate health information and address health concerns through developing health care practice that meet the demand of a particular client group. Some of the specific areas that managers are keen on in developing GP practice include: health awareness creation, disease prevention, relationship between doctor and patient, and the general mastery of issues of general health care (Burnett, Iskander & Spurgeon, 2010). There is also an increasing need to develop and establish a leadership system with ability to apply contemporary organizational techniques enabling successful delivery of maximum benefits to the community population. A consequent increase in the efficacy of modern technologies making health care sophisticated. Managers therefore need to direct development and marketing of GP practices in order to meet the demands of the client groups (Shebl & Franklin, 2012). Conclusion In summary, health managers are agents of GP practice development and marketing. They play vital roles that enhance the practice and effective delivery of quality care and patient safety in the medical work environment. Managers are charged with health care system responsibility for specific functions and operations in order to ensure effective development and marketing. The health care practice and sector is directly affected by public funds shortage and majorly by the development and marketing of GP practice, GP and the massive expansion of the possibilities of both therapeutic and diagnostic dynamics (Pellett & Vincent, 2010). Health care practice management is important in development and marketing of GP practice. Health care management shows the need for effective marketing and promotion of the practice as a means of encouraging and easing medical access by clients. Health care managers direct, plan, and coordinate health care services and effectively manage a medical practice: GP practice in this aspect. This paper has analyzed the role of managers in the development and marketing of a GP practice: GP practice. This has been done through appreciating the need for effective promotion and marketing of GP practice, evaluating the issues of brokerage in the buying and selling of the practice and applying the essentials of starting a practice to meet the needs of health care by a particular client group (Dopson & Vincent, 2012). Bibliography Abernethy, M. A. and A. M. Lillis. 2001. Interdependencies in organization design: A test in hospitals. Journal of Management Accounting Research (13): 107-129 AICPA. 2012. Health Care Entities - AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide. AICPA. Aidemark, L. and L. 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