Differentiation and Positioning of St Barnabas Hospital and North Central Bronx Hospital - Research Paper Example

Differentiation and Positioning of St Barnabas Hospital and North Central Bronx Hospital Comparison of how two hospitals in the socially disadvantaged and high needs area of the Bronx seek to individually cater for growing health requirements of New York City’s most diverse area of ethnicity 9/22/2008 Type the Name of your University Type your name Introduction Positioning and differentiation are common terms in the field of marketing. These are the focus of any business who wishes to succeed in their chosen field. By identifying and putting into practice specialist areas, businesses who seemingly offer the same services can draw in people to use their services. Generating enough money to improve services for those who have little or no money to pay for medical services is the challenge in areas like the Bronx. During this paper the ways in which two hospitals meet this challenge and the community needs will be explored. Positioning In general terms positioning deals with the setting of the image or identity by which a business will be known for. It is vital in marketing to set any service apart from the others offering similar options. This is often described a finding a niche and is where differentiation is applied. The question answered with positioning is how can this business get the largest slice of the consumer pie? Bringing money in is the key objective for any busienss. Even non-profit organizations must make enough money to run their services. Filling the needs of a community is important to any business, in health care it may be the driving force. But the two principals’ work off each other, even a company having community needs as a motivation still must generate money to operate. Similarly, if a business seeks only to make money without filling community needs, they may find consumer cash harder to come by. Position in the market relates directly to how much of the market share the business commands. What position one business holds as compared to similar service providers is the target information. For small business the markets may be local only. For large corporations the competition is often worldwide. Differentiation Differentiation deals with how a business might achieve strong market positioning. Many strategies are used in the differentiation of a product or service. To get a consumer to return after using a product or service will be based on the memory of the experience. A good experience etches into the long term memory, as does a bad one. How are customers drawn to a product for the first time? Marketing gives them a reason to remember it, but not that alone is not enough. Consumers need to remember why this product or service is better than the rest. The promise of fulfilling a perceived need must be met. A good example is wanting to watch a movie. Before video players people went to the movie theaters and relied on television. Once video cassette players came into vogue, movie theater participation dropped. Why go out for one movie when many movies could be enjoyed from home. Even if a trip to the video store was necessary, people could rent movies for the week. Then the inception of cable television movie channels, or internet movie delivery saw the decline of video movie users. Movie theaters needed repositioning by finding new ways to differentiate their services. Movie makers using more technology in special effects certainly helped. The sound and visual effects of a theater is hard to beat. And so it goes on. (Jack Trout, 1996) Positioning and Differentiation in Health Care What importance does it hold? This is a very valid question in an industry which seems to have an unending and growing stream of needy consumers. Why is there a need to even consider the marketing positioning and differentiation within hospitals? All hospitals offer healing to the ill, there will always be people who need health care; surely there will always be a decent market share for any hospital. Hospitals need increasing amounts of money to continue providing quality equipment, staffing levels and available beds. Quality care in areas of the socially disadvantaged is considered a basic human right. Government money goes some way to achieve this, but drawing in monies from outside of this will give a stronger position, not only in operation but in way the community as a whole is perceived. Role of Hospitals in Socially Disadvantaged Areas The way in which hospitals operate their services has changed a great deal. Not only do they offer emergency services and care for the ill but they now take a good deal of responsibility for follow up care and dealing with the reasons why their community may need medical care. It’s not enough to simply provide physical healing. Today’s care involves providing solutions through education and opportunity to better the lives of their patients, and their families. Even those with no money need medical attention and, even more so, support in ways to improve their lives beyond the physical care. Hospitals everywhere are becoming more focused on providing pinpointed care to cater for growing needs in certain areas. This leads to two main areas for hospitals to operate under, “Low cost and high differentiation”. (Stephen Michael Shortell, 1999) The Bronx The Bronx makes up part of the “inner core, or central business district of New York”. This area holds more people living there than jobs provided. Residents can come from the poorest to the wealthiest of social status; however the two living areas are not mixed. (Berger, 1978) South Bronx has the reputation for the area of the most concentrated ethnic mix and social disadvantaged in New York. Two hospitals that are a part of several servicing the Bronx area seem on the surface to offer similar care. St Barnabas Hospital St Barnabas has a wide range of services available and caters to the community in a somewhat holistic approach. However, even in its blanket medical services it does specialize in a number of areas. This list is directly quoted from the St Barnabas Hospital Website: “Breast Health Care for Women of All Ages Cancer Center Cardiac Cath C.A.R.E. Unit: Center for Aging and Rehabilitative Excellence Chemical Dependence Services Child Advocacy Center Designated AIDS Center Look Good... Feel Better Lymphedema Treatment Program Mobile Mammography National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Pastoral Care Rehabilitation Center SHARE: Self-Help for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer Social Work Services Speech Language Pathology/Audiology Certified STROKE Center Support Groups Teen Pregnancy Program Uterine Artery Embolization Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Program” (Hospital, 2005-2008) All of which demonstrate not only dealing with current medical needs but also caters for the social needs and improvement in quality of life for community. As the world’s population ages, targeted health care emerges as a way to differentiate a service. Teen pregnancy and high unemployment bring not only a medical need but the need for skills-based learning, and a ‘prevention rather than cure’ approach. But to do this aftercare becomes a primary objective. Teaching young mothers how to properly care for babies may make a big impact on breaking the cycle of falling easily into getting pregnant again, and also to see children are treated well and may not become part of the cycle when they are teens themselves. Educating and empowering women on health issues and taking care of their bodies can reflect directly on self esteem and self worth women feel. Other high need areas are chemical dependence and alcohol related incidents, by addressing these St Barnabas carves a niche in community care that extends far beyond the physical. North Central Bronx Hospital “Our Hospitals Mission: The patient is at the center of all our endeavors. The primary mission of North Central Bronx Hospital is to provide quality, cost effective, primary and acute care services to our community in a respectful, professional manner, regardless of ability to pay.” The hospital’s mission statement shows part of the differentiation strategy for the North Central Bronx Hospital. Demonstrating their commitment to providing quality care to everybody regardless of social status they single out four main area’s of specialization in addition to their regular medical services. “Sports Medicine and Joint Reconstruction, Child and Adolescent Crisis Intervention, Growth and Recovery Program, and Partial Hospitalization Program”. (www.nyc.gov, 2004-2008) Sport has become a way out of the cycle for many of the youth in disadvantaged areas. Not all of the Bronx can be considered to be extremely disadvantaged, but every aspect of the community has needs. Focusing on a huge market like sports injury is a fantastic marketing strategy. Good positioning in this manner opens up the potential for consumers to come across the world for top sports medicine care. The other stand out service is the “Partial Hospitalization Program”. This allows patients to receive hospital care without the need to be a patient in the hospital for a continuous day and night scenario. Those people with family commitments or an adversity to the thought of a hospital stay can still receive treatment and return home. The North Central Bronx Hospital is a 911 receiving hospital and offers a high level of emergency patient care. Conclusion After looking at the services both hospitals offer to a similar consumer base it becomes clear how each gains their positioning and differentiation. St Barnabas focuses on the holistic community care approach, providing immediate and aftercare both physically, emotionally, and socially. Also education and support services are in place to empower people to change their lives and the lives of their families for the better. This works to improve the social standing of the area and brings confidence to people who live out of the area to safely use the services on offer. North Central Bronx Hospital also has community care and support programs, and these come in the way of psychiatric care as well. Even with similarities in the problems which need to be addressed in the health care needs both hospitals have found ways to differentiate their products to bring people in to use their services. The importance in being able to draw consumers who want to use their services, rather than just those who are there because they have to be i.e. emergency services or low income, means generation of money. This generation of income is vital in socially disadvantaged areas. For health care services to uphold their main objectives of providing the best care for those who can least afford it, or those who least desire to be there, they must have income from those who choose to use their services because the hospital holds the best market positioning in the area. Works Cited Berger, A. S. (1978). The City: Urban Communities and Their Problems. Chicago: WM. C. Brown Company Publishers. Hospital, S. B. (2005-2008). Services, St Barnabas Hospital. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from St Barnabas Hospital Website: http://www.stbarnabashospital.org Jack Trout, S. R. (1996). The New Positioning: The Latest on the Worlds #1 Business Strategy. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Professional. Stephen Michael Shortell, A. D. (1999). Health Care Management: Organization, Design, and Behavior-4th Edition. Clifton Park, New York: Thomson Delmar Learning. www.nyc.gov. (2004-2008). Home Page, North Central Bronx Hospital Website. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from New York City Government Website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/ncbh/home.html Read More