Hospital Marketing Techniques.doc

“Hospital marketing techniques and management towards the

successful process of hospital”

Dr.J.Thirubhuvan Dr.J.Thirubhuvan (1) (1), , (2)(2) U. Ali Rahoma and U. Ali Rahoma and (3)(3) Dr.J.Kavitha Dr.J.Kavitha

(1) Omer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of Medical Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Tel:(1) Omer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of Medical Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Tel: +218-91- +218-91-4706504, 4706504, E-mail:E-mail: [email protected]@gmail.com (2) (2) Omer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of MedicalOmer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of Medical Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Tel:Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Tel: +218-92-5358557, +218-92-5358557, E-mail:E-mail: [email protected][email protected], and (3), and (3) Asst Professor- Physiotherapy, E-mail: Asst Professor- Physiotherapy, E-mail: [email protected]@gmail.com, India, India.

Summary

Marketing can contribute to a service based organization to the lead of successful path. Effective management principles coupled with the marketing techniques like demonstration, public speech and relations and advertisement of the hospital resources and doctors’ profile and media interview on hospital and healthcare would administer any category of hospital into a successful process. This article focuses on the initiatives to be taken for implementing the modern psychological marketing techniques and management system that is required for a hospital.

Key words: Marketing , Effective management and marketing

techniques.

Author Details: Omer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of Medical Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Omer El- Mukhtar University, Faculty of Medical Technology, Tobruk, Libya. Tel:Tel: +218-91-4706504, +218-91-4706504, E-mail:E-mail: [email protected]@gmail.com

mailto:[email protected]




“Hospital marketing techniques and management towards the

successful process of hospital”

1.1 Introduction

In general management is the art of getting things done by

others. It involves administration of an organization that includes man,

materials and money. The 3M concept in services based organizations

like hospital requires an effective marketing techniques and

management system.

The management in hospital involves with proper planning,

investment, technology implementation and modern techniques,

organizing, motivating the people, controlling, centralization,

engineering and maintenance, hospitality, de- centralization,

marketing, recruiting, safety and security etc. In all the management

system marketing is the only instrument that can fetch business or

revenue to an organization. The effective marketing techniques once

assured are the basic instinct to earn revenue.

The implementation of automated marketing management

systems in hospitals can change dramatically the way in which a

hospital builds business by managing relationships with prospective

customers” (Anand, 2003). Several studies have measured the

effectiveness of hospital marketing activities by documenting, for

example, the percent response rate from direct mail campaigns and

the success rates associated with physician referral programs (Md.

Syed Hussain 2000). Nevertheless, the cause and effect of

relationship between marketing activities and subsequent hospital

utilization remains elusive largely because marketers have not been

able to eliminate from consideration of other factors that may prompt

a person to seek healthcare services.



Marketing management systems can demonstrate the effects of

marketing activities on patient revenues. For example, over a 12-

month period in 2005, a marketing management system implemented

at a 500-bed medical center of 150 hospitals of various management

in South India tracked more than Crore rupees in gross revenues per

month in incremental business attributable to marketing activities

(Robert louis et al 2007). This is because of the new patient’s entry

and the positive belief about the medication what is was inculcated in

their mind based on the marketing management.

Similary, A Pennsylvania hospital's marketing management

system found that of 1,000 individuals contacted for the first time

through hospital marketing activities, 250 became new patients during

a two-month period. In the same line marketing system used by an

Illinois medical center determined that approximately 225 new

patients and $200,000 in new patient business per month were related

to the activities of the marketing department (Joseph Kelviv 2006).

More importantly, marketing management systems can help

hospitals appreciate the larger role that marketing can play in

determining the needs of healthcare consumers, designing programs

to meet those needs, and directing consumers to those programs.

Such systems, in essence, can help manage relationships with existing

customers on a long-term basis.

1.2 Objectives of the study:

To study the Hospital marketing techniques and management.

To learn the concept of Hospital marketing.

To ascertain how best the benefits can be obtained without much

investments through marketing concept and management

system.



To assess the possibility of applying any other marketing

techniques and management system.

1.3 Scope of the study:

This article is a micro study on Hospital marketing techniques

and management towards the successful process of hospital. A primary

attempt has been made to apply this concept keeping in mind, most of

the successful hospital projects that are going on in India are due to

the effective marketing techniques and management system. The

benefits resulting from this study would yield various approaches to be

adopted in the field of hospital management. Certainly this would be a

basis for any private or governmental based hospitals.

1.4 Limitation of the study:

The article is based on the secondary data mostly and

observations made in the places visited.

Time, disparity, diversity, accessibility, and connectivity in order

to collect data are major limiting factor.

In most of the hospitals the marketing department is either not

there or merged with the administration or it is outsourced

entirely on a contractual basis. So the necessary data are not

found or not available or not revealed.

1.5 The Perfect healthcare market:

In its simplest form, marketing involves determination of

consumer needs and development of programs and services designed

to satisfy those needs. The marketer's job is to discover, using

demographics and other data, what products and services consumers



need and to formulate products and services consumers will buy to

satisfy their needs.

In the healthcare industry, the marketing process is complicated

by many unique variables: the wide variety of consumers of healthcare

services, such as the patient, the physician, the employer, and the

managed care entity; the conflicting roles of the physician, the

employer, and managed care plans in driving or containing healthcare

utilization; and consumers' lack of knowledge of the relationship

between many healthcare services and their personal needs.

Although the healthcare industry long has been recognized by

economists as an imperfect market, marketing has become an

important aspect of the healthcare business. Today, healthcare

organizations spend more than $2 billion a year on marketing, and

marketing continues to evolve with the changing dynamics of the

healthcare market (Arnold De Methogen 2006).

Healthcare marketing at the present time is moving away from

advertising and toward relationship building. For instance, in America,

the hospital marketing budgets have grown enormously every year,

rising from $385 million to the current level of $2.11 billion, the

advertising portion of the marketing budget has remained level for the

last three years since 1984. (www.chroniccare.org). A 1992 study

found that for every dollar spent on advertising, hospitals spend $1.45

on other marketing functions, including the implementation of

sophisticated databases to support strategies such as building

relationships. (www.dqeready.org).

Building relationships



http://www.dqeready.org/

http://www.chroniccare.org/

Relationship management, the newest form of healthcare

marketing, borrows heavily from the retail industry, which employs

channeling mechanisms that enable consumers to contact retailers

directly to voice their concerns or criticisms and to ask questions or

request information that enable retailers to inform consumers directly

of new products and services.

Relationship management is based on the realization that it is

five times easier to obtain repeat business from an existing customer

than it is to get new business from a new customer. This form of

marketing involves the use of information and referral tele services;

the development of a comprehensive marketing database that

segments potential customers into groups with common interests or

needs not only on the basis of demographics but also on the basis of

anticipated demand; and the use of marketing information

management systems that track the effectiveness of and the return on

investment from marketing activities.

Relationship management acknowledges the increasing role

consumers play in the selection of healthcare providers. Prior to the

introduction of prospective payment in the 1980s, physicians chose

hospital providers more than 60 percent of the time. By 1991,

consumers were selecting hospital providers more than 50 percent of

the time.(d)

Using relationship management, hospital marketing departments

identify individual consumers with whom they may build a relationship.

Rather than adopting a reactive posture and waiting for consumers to

contact them, hospitals become proactive. Hospitals identify previous

users of the hospital and facilitate access for these users to programs

and services that are particularly suited to their individual needs.

Moreover the marketing system of a hospital is a sensitive process that



requires a lot of truth and selflessness on the patients. Few of the

following effective research based marketing techniques and

management would clarify how one could adopt for hospital

management.

They are as follows:

Demonstration,

Public speech and relations

Advertisement of the hospital equipments and

Doctors’ profile and

Media interview on hospital and healthcare.

Demonstration

Demonstration of the hospital- its majestic view to the public

through news paper advertisement, television, radio, internet mode of

publicity, card board printing and circulation, pamphlet printing and

circulation, notice distribution, poster display and affixing etc can

concrete the inherency of the hospital in the mind set up of the people.

This effect brings the ‘Hospital for what popularity’ based on the

specialization what they have or familiar with that. The following table

about the hospitals is famous for the following specialization.

S.No Name of the Hospital Specialization Since

1 CMC, Vellore Multispeciality. 100 years and

above

2. Apollo group of hospitals Multispeciality. 50 years and

above

3. Reddy laboratories Ayurveda and

Siddha

50 years and

above

4. Malar Group of hospitals Multispeciality 50 years and



above

5. Miot Group of hospitals Ortho 10 years and

above

6. Life line groups Gastro 5 years and

above

7. Shri paramathi ayurveda Unnani and

Ayurveda

50 years and

above

8 Sri Sankaranarayana

Hospitals

Eye care 50 years and

above

9 MMM Cardiovascular

disease

30 years and

above

10 M.S Ramiah groups Cancer 50 years and

above

Source: Dept of Statistics, Govt of India. Chennai

Public speech and relations:

Public speech and relations are the sides of a coin to a hospital

both internally and externally to develop the hospital economically.

This can be done through the expert committee consisting of the

doctor’s team or the team trained to explain the various updates and

treatments available in the hospital. This process would enhance the

relationships between the doctors, hospitals and the patients. This

further would enhance the rural based hospital marketing thereby

constituting the bridge between the doctors and the patients.

The public relations effectively happened in the Andhra

Pradesh’s private based hospitals in rural areas through the nurses and

medical officers has earned the positive revenue and made them

aware about the various specializations available in the hospital. For

example Kuppam Medical College and Hospital based in Andhra

Pradesh, based on this program has spent only merely about 10 million



rupees for receiving one million patients from 267 villages in and

around Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka villages.

Advertisement of the hospital equipments

Advertisement is a part of marketing techniques. Developments

in the technology and art have easened the task of the advertising and

marketing through various means. With regards to the hospital

equipments marketing and advertising, it is important to explain the

public or make them to aware that the concerned hospital is equipped

with modern equipments and technology in order to ensure that they

are better than the competitors and on par with the international

standards and quality consciousness.

For example Proper advertisement on the purchase of latest

medical equipments in Kovai Medical centre, Coimbatore for Ortho and

Chest scanning; Cadiovascular bypass surgery medical equipments in

MMM, Chennai and Narayana Irudalaya, Bangalore; and Madras

Government Hospital, Central, Chennai have received good number of

patients for the cure of their diseases. This has resulted as an effective

marketing techniques and management system.

Doctors’ profile

Only in the medical profession the name and the fame of the

doctors profile is considered as equivalency of the God’s grace. For

example a well educated heart patients wants himself to be operated

from Dr.Cherian and Gastro disorder patients wants treatment only

Dr.Cynthia from M.G.R Medical college and hospital. Similarly for eye

treatment from Dr.Agarwal, for Ortho in Miot Hospital Dr. Vaidyanathan

etc.

The case to deal with the doctor’s profile exhibits not only their

efficiency; it is mainly their international psychological approach

towards the patient’s treatment. It becomes immaterial among the



patients what ever the money they charge or personal behavior that

such doctors have. It is all on the basis of the profile of the doctors.

Hence it is important to note the doctor’s profile as marketing

technique to be followed in the hospitals.

Media interview on hospital and healthcare

Media Interviews are the primary concern about the medical

care’s marketing system and technique. This involves large number of

people watching all over the world and clarifying their doubts

irrespective of the doctors and the patients especially. This is the basic

step to drive any patient by endorsing the type of treatments available

in the hospitals through the media. Out of 10 hospitals undertaken

their marketing techniques through the media, the revenue and the

patients care have also shown the positive growth over a period of

time. For example Life line hospital in Jaya T.V, Miot Hospital in SUN

TV, Sankara Nethralaya in Rural based local TV, Dr.Kamala Devi Gemini

Ganesan for Raj TV etc have had a good result of patients

management through media interviews and concerns.

Therfore it is rest assured that the media interview can also be

one of the best marketing technique and management system.

1.6 Conclusion:

What ever may be the organization, the economic conditions of

any organization depends largely on the system of marketing

techniques. Proper marketing techniques and management systems

are like an engine to an hospital what so ever the medications and

infrastructure that the hospital have. Therefore it is important and

inevitable for revenue generation, the various techniques to be

followed for the successful process of a hospital.



1.7 Reference:

1. Dr.Anand Kumar (2003): ‘Hospital patients importance’- an

exclusive interview in the daily news paper ’The Hindu’, on

August 25th, 2003

2. Dr.Arnold De Methogen (2006): Customer relationship in

Hospital, Mc grawth publications, New York

3. Dr.Joseph Kelviv (2006): Hospital network and e-medicine;

An exclusive interview in Bangalore Mirror, Pg 36.

4. Dr.Md. Syed Hussain (2000) : Medical theraphy and

implications,

5. Dr.Robert louis, Dr.John Abraham and Dr.Shalini et al

(2007): Medical treatments availability

6. (www.chroniccare.org

7. www.dqeready.org


http://www.dqeready.org/


http://www.chroniccare.org/

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Hospital Marketing Techniques.doc