The Development and Marketing of Health Care Practice - Essay Example

? The Development and Marketing of Health Care Practice Write essay about the development and marketing of a health care practice, in a chosen setting or for a chosen service user group. Development and marketing of healthcare practice has become an immense need for both medical professionals and patients. For instance, to introduce a new health care service area, to attract patients and investors, manage the competition, secure and maintain patients’ loyalty, introducing new businesses or availing the service opportunities (PHILIP KOTLER, 2008). Since now patients look for the best services along with maximum quality and care therefore practitioners are moving towards building their exclusive practice brands (ANANDHI VIVEK DHUKARAM et al., 2010). This paper aims to discuss the marketing and development of a complete health care practice brand specifically aimed at cardiac patients. Internal Analysis At Cardiac Healthcare Services we aim to provide primary and secondary medical services to the cardiac patients. Primary services means all the facilities and medical treatment required by severe patients with chronic cardiologic diseases such as familial hypercholesterolemia, heart attack, etc (PERRY ELLIOTT et al., 2011). Secondary services include awareness programs, counseling on genetic and hereditary diseases, etc. In order to carry out all these services effectively there is a qualified team of 15 doctors specialized in cardiac diseases along with 50 nurses and a highly professional administration board comprising of 5 executives and other staff workers (COMPLETE, EXPERT THERAPEUTIC SERVICES FOR CARDIAC PATIENTS, 2013). The unique point in our service is the facility of ‘nurses-led clinics’ which will focus only on patients’ education (SCHADEWALDT V. et al., 2011). This would be a unique selling point on the basis of the fact that our direct competitors are not offering this service. Our target market would include patients of coronary heart diseases coming from within the country. This will surely help us in achieving our forecasted revenue and profits for future expansion of business. Since coronary heart diseases are rapidly increasing in both men and women around the world, for instance, in UK alone death rate because of coronary heart diseases is 68.8 per 100,000 which indicates its severity and potential for future business in this area (CORONARY HEARTH DISEASES: WHO, 2011). The place currently owned by the business can handle 4 times more patients as compared to our competitors’ present patients’ volume. Moreover, there will be extended healthcare services such as telephone and online consultations, home services for severe patients, awareness programs and flexible appointment hours. This will facilitate in giving health assurance to the targeted patients through active involvement of practice managers. External Analysis Following is the External Analysis (ODIES C. FERRELL et al., 2010): Demographic Analysis: Our initial development time line extends to five years after which the developing and marketing strategies will be reviewed. Our aim is to offer medical services within the country for next five years therefore we have collected data regarding the cardiac disorders of our target market. In UK, people are often found having inherited cardiologic problems such as Mitochondrial Diseases (VASCO EIRIZ et al., 2005). There would not be any age limit for our target patients since inherited diseases might show symptoms in early, middle or later ages depending upon the case and its severity. Medical Treatment of Cardiologic diseases is often very expensive; however, we plan to project high quality services with minimum costs through utilizing modern medical technology. This will increase our annual revenues due to minimized cost in addition to developing customer satisfaction (VASCO EIRIZ et al., 2005). Specialty Analysis: Nurses-led clinics would act as our specialty services. Patients who maintain history of cardiologic diseases would be offered expert advices, education and care in order to reduce years of life lost. Competitive Analysis: Assessing different business strategies of competitors is important due since in healthcare everyone is dealing in homogenous services i.e. providing diagnostic and treatment facilities with negligible differences. Therefore practice managers need to evaluate their performance with respect to competitors in the market so that they can efficiently develop and market their brand. To effectively deal with competition we would have to be proactive rather than reacting at the market situation in order to be safe from significant monetary losses and patient’s share. Mission, Goals and Objectives Mission Statement: To provide baseline and extended healthcare services to the patients of inherited cardiologic diseases on the national level. Goals: In the next five years we plan to achieve: National recognition of the brand and its unique services. Introduction of extended health care services. Business expansion through increasing patient share. Objectives: To achieve above stated goals we would have to actively participate in social services, research and development in addition to progressing in the competitive healthcare environment. 4 P’s of Marketing (PHILIP D. COOPER, 1994) Product (services): We shall be providing exclusive services to the patients of inherited cardiac diseases which includes: awareness programs, patient education, risk assessment, early diagnosis, laboratory and intensive care unit, nurses-led clinics etc. These would be beneficial for the business in terms of revenues and greater patient share. Patients would be able to avail maximum facilities under single healthcare practice brand. This will also help practice managers in their career development since they would have to deal with different cases and situations on regular basis. Place: The clinic is located at the city centre where target patients can easily reach and avail the services. Along with this there is no hospital in this areas dealing especially in nurses-led clinics. Price: Average income of middle class in UK ranges from 20,000 to 25,000 pounds (MIDDLE INCOME HOUSEHOLDS, 2013). The price of our services varies as per the complexity of diseases and the laboratory tests it requires. However, the price of overall service packages would not go beyond the affordability of middle class patients. Promotion: Company would be availing the print media, newsletters, social networking websites and company’s own website for promotion purposes. This will facilitate us in marketing more efficiently since now people search online for healthcare practice brands before actually going for the treatment. Practice managers would have to look after all the promotion strategies in order to limit them to our goals and objectives. SWOT (MARIE A. CHISHOLM-BURNS et al., 2010) Strengths: Highly experienced and qualified medical staff and administration. Strong knowledge of the overall patient demographics and needs. Sound location and advanced medical equipments. Weaknesses: New in the healthcare business. Comparatively less number of medical staff as per the patients’ volume. Opportunities: Huge market of patients with inherited cardiac diseases. Increasing trend of gaining awareness and attending patient education programs. Threats: Competitors might soon develop nurses-led clinics. Overall economic and political conditions might challenges company’s budgets and revenues. Customer Segmentation There will be following customer segmentation (PHILIP KOTLER, 2008): Patients with severe cardiac diseases. Patients with base line disorders. Patients seeking medical advice and assistance. Strategic Marketing Plan The strategic marketing plan will be focusing on the following factors (MARIA BOEHM et al., 2003): Print Media: Continuous advertisement in newspapers, magazines and medical research journals would be done in order to build awareness about the brand. Website: The Company’s official website will offer services such as online appointment and counseling. This will significantly help patients who cannot visit the practice centre. Moreover it will be benefit us in developing distant practicing methods and techniques (ALI AHMAD AWAD RAWABDEH, 2007). Building the Practice Brand Since brand is responsible to communicate the projected services of a company therefore it must have all the elements which describe its uniqueness and quality healthcare experience (CHARLES HANDY, 1993). Quality: As per our quality policy we shall be delivering consistent services with the help of advanced equipment and highly qualified medical professionals (M.S. SAJID et al., 2007). Positioning: We shall be positioning our brand considering the service patterns and overall health requirements of our target market. Delivering above the standard healthcare services would be our distinction in healthcare practicing which will help us attaining the required positioning in the minds of our patients. Communications: The services of the company have to be communicated well to the target market to develop a successful healthcare practicing brand. For this purpose extra training on communication will be given to our medical staff (PRIMARY CARE TRAINING COURSES AND RESOURCES, 2013). Long term Perspectives: Successful brands do not emerge over the night therefore we would require to consistently striving on long term basis to achieve the desired goals (LEIYU SHI, 2010). Internal Marketing: If the medical staff itself is not satisfied with the internal environment of the company then it is almost impossible that such a staff can develop customer loyalty. Therefore our focus would be on the personal and professional development of the working staff, doctors and nurses (NIGEL PIERCY et al., 1990). Partnerships: Since good partnership relations with the government authorities, law enforcement agencies, local bodies, health care association, etc is extensively required. Therefore we would be fulfilling the demands and requirements of all partnerships in order to remove possible obstacles in our way of delivering quality services. Customer Loyalty Our specialty service i.e. nurses-led clinics will give its expert advices related to particular issues of patients. Nurses would be focusing over the awareness programs and assessment of care and risk factors which usually arise in post treatment phase. This will actually facilitate the company to maintain customers and build good brand image (PRACTICE MANAGERS, 2013). Facing the Challenges There will be a team of well qualified practice managers to identify and resolve all the current market and healthcare challenges. This team is also responsible to act as marketing intelligence so as to observe various business activities of our competitors. This will actually help us in maintaining a proactive attitude rather than being reactive (KENNETH H. COHN et al., 2008). Future Forecasting There are immense business opportunities for the company in future due to the increasing rate of inherited cardiac diseases. The future is also holding various challenges for us including increasing number of competitors, change in technologies, environmental issues and the global politics (STEVE MORLIDGE, 2010). Conclusion The Patients of Cardiac diseases especially those with inherited abnormalities have increased with an immense rate over the time (RAMON BRUGADA, 2010). This has compelled the company to come up with a health care practice brand. Our distinguishing feature includes nurses-led clinics which aims to provide beforehand medical advices and assistance. In order to build a successful brand we have developed a comprehensive marketing strategy which clearly defines our internal and external environment, target market along with its demographics and other key marketing variables. The company will be offering quality cardiac health care services to the patients. Services would be highly affordable and available to the middle class (JAMES R. LANGABEER, 2008). References Ali Ahmad Awad Rawabdeh, (2007) An e-health trend plan for the Jordanian health care system: A review, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, volume 20, page 516 – 531 Anandhi Vivek Dhukaram, Chris Baber, Paolo De Stefanis, (2012) Patient-centred cardio vascular disease management – end-user perceptions, Journal of Assistive Technologies, volume 6, page 105 – 122. Charles Handy (1993), Understanding Organizations, Penguin Adult. Complete, Expert Therapeutic Services for Cardiac Patients (2013), The University of Arizona Medical Centre, viewed: 29th April, 2013. Coronary Heart Diseases (2011), World Health Rankings: WHO, viewed: 15th May, 2013. Kenneth H. Cohn, Douglas E. 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Vasco Eiriz, Jose Antonio Figueiredo, (2005) "Quality evaluation in health care services based on customer-provider relationships", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 Iss: 6, pp.404 - 412 Read More