Healthcare Marketing: Positioning and Differentiation - Research Paper Example

? Positioning and Differentiation Paper - Health Care Marketing Introduction Health plans are undergoing tremendous alterations in the competitive arena that challenge their competitive position in the market over the next few decades. Stagnation in terms of growth has been evident in the commercial market. Various cost containment strategies comprising care, disease and utilization management have been quite successful in combating healthcare cost trends in the present era. In order to administer and enhance their competitive position, it is quite significant for the healthcare organizations to move beyond the traditional capabilities and hence enforce new paradigm (Deloitte, 2012). The main objective of the paper is to identify the positioning and differentiation strategies of two healthcare organizations i.e. Cascade Valley Hospital & Clinics and Overlake Hospital Medical Center. The study will also endeavor at finding similarities and differentiating aspects between the two healthcare organizations. Differentiation and Positioning Strategies of Overlake Hospital Medical Center Overlake Hospital Medical Center is a nonprofit regional medical centre that provides its patients with highly developed medical related services. The organization is monitored by a Board of Directors. The company has nearly 2500 employees and has nearly 1000 active as well as courtesy physicians as the workforce (Overlake Hospital, 2012). It can be mentioned that innumerable strategies are employed by the healthcare organizations in order to keep themselves competitive. Overlake Hospital Medical Center situated at Belluvue has commenced a cardiac blog. Through this cardiac blog, the organization aims at educating the patients regarding the methods through which heart diseases can be prevented (Overlake Hospital, 2012). The company comprises of a mobile optimized site providing certain features such as location, ‘emergency room wait times’ along with patients and visitors information. The site has been offering its users with wellness tools to offer consumers education (Slideshare, 2012). Based upon the demonstrated success, the company continues to acquire endorsement in the execution of the consultative sales as well as marketing strategies. This strategy has been created in order to attract, retain and thus ensure that all the parties involved are satisfied with the policies and the strategies of the company. The company has positioned itself as a liaison between nursing, administration along with human resources, foundation and community in order to collectively influence the resources, associations and policies so that Overlake Hospital can be placed as one of the most preferred hospitals/employers in the domestic market as well as abroad. Health Grades have offered Overlake Hospital with five-star designation on numerous grounds. Overlake Hospital offers high quality of care and support to the patients who are suffering from cancer as well as other emergencies. The integrated cancer care team of the hospital generally has one objective which is to offer the patients suffering from cancer with expert care that has been customized to the unique requirements of each of the patients. The trademark of quality care is compassion, skilled care as well as speed at Overlake’s new Emergency & Trauma Center. The unit is considered to be the only Level III trauma centre on the Eastside (KMPG, 2011). It has been observed that the hospital offers care without charge and at reduced rates to the patients who are capable of qualifying for charity care as per the rules and the regulations of the hospital. During the year 2010 and 2011, the cost of charity was nearly US$5561000 and US$4507000 respectively (KMPG, 2011). Overlake Hospital as a part of its differentiation strategy offers care to the Medicaid patients at a price which is quite below the cost of offering the services. The hospital is also involved in numerous other activities in order to maintain competitive advantage. It has been apparent that the company is involved in offering community education classes in various health related topics such as adult first aid, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), infant and child safety, positive parenting, smoking cessation and living wills among other topics that serve for the betterment of the community at large. One of the strategies adopted by the hospital is that it has a cancer resource centre that integrates support groups, provides counseling and thus offers access to the latest information on cancer at zero cost. Overlake Hospital has coordinated senior care program whose chief objective is to help the seniors of the organization with the general health, exercise, referral as well as therapeutic needs. In order to differentiate the services offered by itself from that of the others for the purpose of attaining competitive advantage, the hospital endorses physician offices to practice electronic medical records upon requests (KMPG, 2011). Differentiation and Positioning Strategies of Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics (CVH&C) was initiated in the year 1909. The mission statement of the organization is to offer the patients with outstanding and friendly healthcare which is close to home. The vision statement of the organization is to be the healthcare organization of choice for the community (Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics, 2012). The primary care physicians, specialists, registered nurse practitioners along with other certified physician assistants tend to offer the best customized care in a small clinic environment that is endorsed by a full range of health care resources at Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics. The patients are not required to travel far to obtain quality care. There are experienced teams of professionals in most parts of the world who are ready to offer care to the patients. The patients can attain annual check-up related services or have surgery by the primary care specialists who can offer medical expertise as needed by the patient (Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics, 2012). It is observed that previously the organization did not have an adequate telecom technology which hindered the process of offering the best possible patient care. With All Phase, CVH&C possesses a system that is functional and is quite easy to administer. The main objective of the telecom technology is to enhance the customer service by responding to the incoming calls quickly and efficiently (All Phase, 2012). In a move to improve patient care, enhanced market stability and search for other ways to work together in a cohesive way, Cascade Valley has signed an inter-local agreement to work in a collaborate way with other healthcare organizations and thus preserve the independence, local identity as well as autonomy of each hospital. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics, by working in a collaborative way the company will be capable of strengthening its market position in a challenging business environment (Island Hospital, 2012). The organization has a Novo Help Desk Software which is new ticket tracking system. When the company receives a ticket, it is routed to the IT individual for the purpose of processing, reducing the backlog and saving huge deal of time. The software has enhanced the usability and thus it has assisted the company to increase flexibility (Novo Solution, 2012). The company, Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics positions itself as one of the quality and cost effective healthcare service providers in the United States. Product differentiation is the concept of alterations in the features of the products within the similar market. A hospital tends to differentiate itself from others in numerous ways. Location is one of the differentiating factors and specialization in specific type of care is considered to be another differentiating factor. Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics generally differentiates itself from other hospitals in terms of quality of care that it offers to its patients. One of the pertinent facts is that consumers’ expect to obtain high quality care at every hospital which generally makes quality, a crucial differentiating factor (Swayne, 2006). Similarities between Two Healthcare Organizations The main similarity between the two hospitals is that the common objective of both the hospitals is to offer quality healthcare to the citizens of Washington. Furthermore, both the hospitals are active members of the Washington State Hospital Association. The hospitals are supposed to be accountable towards the community in which they are operating. Being a member of Washington State Hospital Association, both the hospitals are supposed to offer community health programs and activities as stated in the policies of the association. The hospitals are supposed to offer necessary healthcare to the indigent patients who are not capable of paying for the services (Peace Health Southwest Medical Center, 2012). Differences between Two Healthcare Organizations The main difference between the two hospitals is that Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics is generally considered to be a part of the community based healthcare system. It offers personalized care and full range of services. On the other hand, Overlake Hospital Medical Center is considered to be a nonprofit and non-tax endorsed regional medical centre. It offers a range of services along with providing women’s programs, cancer care, and gender and specialty surgery among others. Conclusion In order to remain competitive in the marketplace, it becomes quite significant for the healthcare organizations to differentiate their products and services and thus position themselves in a unique way that can attract a substantial portion of the customers. Quality of care is considered to be one of the most essential factors for the patients while choosing the healthcare organization. It is quite crucial for Overlake Hospital Medical Center and Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics to offer their patients with high quality of care to maintain competitive advantage in the market. References All Phase. (2012). Regional hospital group replaces ‘ill’ phone system with modern, efficient VoIP telephony. Retrieved from http://www.allphasecom.com/pdf/resources/aphz_casestudy_cascade%20021809%20final.pdf Cascade Valley Hospital and Clinics. (2012). Our mission, vision, & values. Retrieved from http://www.cascadevalley.org/about/missionvalues.php Deloitte. (2012). Medical management: competitive differentiation in an era of health plan commoditization. Retrieved from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Luxembourg/Local%20Assets/Documents/Whitepapers/2009/dtt_wp_healthplancommoditization_05052009.pdf Island Hospital. (2012). Paul Maughan PhD believes in Island's optimum level of care. Retrieved from http://www.islandhospital.org/imageuploads/repository119.pdf KMPG. (2011). Overlake hospital medical center. Retrieved from http://www.overlakehospital.org/pdf/Audited%20Financial%20Statement%20OHMC%202011.pdf Novo Solution. (2012). Cascade Valley Hospital & Clinics case study. Retrieved from http://www.novosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/casestudy_cascade.pdf Overlake Hospital. (2012). About us. Retrieved from http://www.overlakehospital.org/about-us/ Overlake Hospital. (2012). Overlake opens new medical clinic in downtown bellevue. Retrieved from http://overlakehospital.org/about-us/news/2010/bellevue/ Peace Health South West Medical Center. (2012).Community benefits. Retrieved from http://www.swmedicalcenter.org/community Slideshare. (2012). Enabling provider patient connectivity through mobile optimised web and app environments. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/oneman23/himss-2012-mobile-patient-connectivity Swayne, L. E. (2006). Strategic management of health care organisation. United States: John Wiley & Sons. Read More

 

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