I. Management Summary
The FM General Hospital aims to develop its growth marketing strategy, and the purpose of this plan is to present a market penetration strategy to address the health care trends projected over the course of the following five years. Specifically, it is expected that outpatient care and sub-acute care (i.e., home health) will be the most important trends in health care delivery and marketing in the future. It is also expected that targeting millennials with different sources of educational health materials, including websites and print materials, will be required to improve relationships between those groups of patients and the health care providers at the hospital.
The proposed health care services are designed for all patients, but they will mostly benefit patients in remote areas with low accessibility to primary health care facilities. Furthermore, establishing a stronger relationship between millennials and health care providers is expected to have a significant impact on their decision to seek primary care from providers working at the hospital.
The hospital has a strong information technology infrastructure and a partnership with local community centers, which will facilitate the development and market penetration of the proposed services. However, stronger competition is also expected because sub-acute and outpatient care are not dependent on physical location, so the hospital will compete with health care providers on state and national levels. Nevertheless, it is expected that outreach in the local community and the development of patient education programs online and in print will address different needs among existing patients and expand the population currently served.
II. Economic Projections
The four most important national trends in health care in the United States include: (a) the increasing outpatient care trend, (b) the need for alternatives to primary care, (c) the development of the sub-acute care market, and (d) consumer empowerment (Amor, “Marketing Strategy”). It is expected that the number of outpatients will grow by 17% by 2020, whereas the demand for TeleHealth is expected to grow by 20-50% per year until 2018. Furthermore, the development of various health care tools, including mobile phone applications and technological devices, people will expect more transparency in provider-patient relationships, and millennials in particular will be open to health-related information from different sources (Bhattacharyya, “Healthcare Marketers”).
Based on the analysis of national trends in the United States, a marketing penetration strategy is recommended to expand the current services provided by the facility and provide long-term outpatient care to both the local community and remote patients. Patient education also needs to be expanded because consumer empowerment in health care is gaining traction with the increasing availability of technological devices and online sources of information. Therefore, in addition to providing personalized remote care, patient education programs should also be adapted to different types of media and delivered to patients online, where newer generations will more likely encounter that information and start building relationships with the care providers at the hospital.
III. The Market – Qualitative
The prospects for the proposed service include patients who live in remote areas and patients who require continuing care in an outpatient setting. Health care delivery to those populations will be enabled by TeleHealth technologies. The millennial generations and patients who are interested in availability of health-related information from different sources, such as websites and mobile applications, will also benefit from the implementation of new patient education programs. It is estimated that 30% of millennials consult websites and online communities for health information rather than consulting primary care providers (Bhattacharyya, “Healthcare Marketers”). Therefore, making information accessible to them online will increase the chance of building long-term relationships with those groups.
IV. The Market – Quantitative
It is not possible to predict an accurate quantitative benefit to the investment proposed in this marketing plan. However, it is evident that the shortage of health care personnel in primary care by 2020 is expected to be approximately 45,000 people (Amor, “Marketing Strategy”). Therefore, as patients will turn to alternative sources of information and treatment in the future, the development of TeleHealth programs and multimedia patient education programs will address the needs of patients without direct access to primary care providers.
V. Trend Analysis
Outpatient services and sub-acute care were not provided at this health care institution previously, so it is not possible to identify trends in the development of those services based on previous implementations. However, the prognosis is favorable because a significant shortage of primary health care providers is expected by 2020, so making a transition to preventive and remote care delivery is expected to improve the number of patients served and revenue generated by the hospital.
VI. Competition
VII. Problems and Opportunities
The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis for this marketing plan is presented in Table 1. The facility has a strong information technology infrastructure, which is necessary to implement sub-acute care, whereas the partnerships with local community centers will facilitate the marketing efforts of the new clinical services provided by the facility. However, staffing and financial resource allocation could prove to be harmful for the implementation of the proposed program because additional staff will be required to work with outpatients. Furthermore, government regulations and competitors outside of health care facilities are subject to change over the next five years, so it is not possible to predict how they will affect the long-term effects of the proposed plan.
VIII. Objectives and Goals
The short-term objective of the marketing plan is to develop new care delivery models suitable for patients in remote locations and outpatients, as well as market those services via local community health centers. The long-term objective is to develop and maintain relationships with the community in order to establish trust and quality of care in the local community by means of patient education and care delivery transparency.
IX. Action Programs
A total of two actions will be implemented to ensure that the proposed marketing strategy is realized. First, a community outreach program will be implemented to advertise the outpatient care program and sub-acute care option to the local community. Second, the development of multiple patient education programs, which will include both online and print media, will be necessary to ensure that all generations receive information in their preferred formats. As the hospital builds stronger relationships with the local community and offers patient-centered models of care delivery, the number of patients who trust and seek primary care from the hospital will continue to grow.
Works Cited
Amor, Julie. “Marketing Strategy for the Medical Practice.” Amor Consulting, 22 April 2015, http://www.mgma-gkc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Healthcare-Marketing-Strategy-MGMA-4-22-15.pdf. Accessed 27 January 2017.
Bhattacharyya, Suman. “Healthcare Marketers Focus on Emotion and Interactivity to Reach Millennials.” Advertising Age, 15 November 2016, http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/healthcare-marketers-focus-emotion-interactivity-reach-millennials/306744/. Accessed 27 January 2017.
