Marketing Health Services

For today’s health care professional, clinical expertise is not enough—one has to know the market. Even when a facility has its own marketing department, practitioners are regularly called on for their input. Health Services Marketing: A Practitioner’s Guide clearly and succinctly explains the range of marketing activities and techniques, from promotions to pricing, so any health professional can learn to navigate this bewildering but increasingly important aspect of healthcare. Richard Thomas’ step-by-step guide for developing a marketing plan and carrying out a successful campaign offers a hands-on approach to proven methods for staying a step ahead of the healthcare marketing game: The health industry as seen from the marketing perspective. Healthcare products, and the consumers who need them. What marketing can (and can’t) do for a medical practice. Demographics and beyond: how social marketing works. Where your marketing dollar goes: staying on budget. Market positioning: knowing the competition, building the strategy. Evaluating a marketing plan’s effectiveness. Plus dozens of forms, checklists, and questionnaires to simplify the process. Useful to practitioners and administrators alike, and equally suited to the for-profit as to the non-profit organization, Health Services Marketing gives the reader valuable tools to reach out to consumers and build lasting relationships.

"This book explains the traditional and contemporary approaches that healthcare marketers rely on and that enable healthcare organizations to rise above current trends and turmoil to position themselves for the future healthcare environment"--

Health Service Marketing Management in Africa (978-0-429-40085-8, K402492) Shelving Guide: Business & Management / Marketing Management The application of marketing to healthcare is a fascinating field that will likely have more impact on society than any other field of marketing. It’s been theorized that an intrinsically unstable environment characterizes this very relevant emerging field, hence raising new questions. Changing regulations, discoveries, and new health treatments continuously appear and give rise to such questions. Advancements in technology not only improve healthcare delivery systems but also provide avenues for customers to seek information regarding their health conditions and influence their participatory behaviors or changing roles in the service delivery. Increasingly, there is a shift from a doctor-led approach to a more patient-centered approach. In Africa, the importance of marketing-driven practices in improving the delivery of healthcare services cannot be overemphasized. The issue of healthcare delivery and management is significant for policymakers, private sector players, and consumers of health-related services in developing economy contexts. Scholars have strongly argued in favor of marketing and value creation in healthcare service delivery in Africa. Each country in Africa has its own issues. For example, long waiting times, unavailable medications, and unfriendly staff are just a sampling of issues affecting the acceptability of healthcare services. These examples highlight the need to utilize marketing and value creation tools in the delivery of healthcare services. Furthermore, there is a need for the integration of service marketing and management principles to enhance the delivery of quality healthcare across Africa and other developing economies which is the critical focus of this book. This book responds to calls for quality healthcare service management practices or processes from developing economy perspectives. Focusing primarily on African and other developing economy contexts, this book covers seven thematic areas: strategy in healthcare; marketing imperatives in healthcare management; product and pricing management in healthcare; distribution and marketing communications in healthcare; managing people in healthcare; physical evidence and service quality management in healthcare; and process management in healthcare.

This book aims to comprehensively address several modern concepts and practices in health care marketing not sufficiently addressed by existing literature. This includes the integrated nature of health care marketing, operations management, IT and human resource management; increased use of digital technology and social media; emphasis on enhancing customer-patient experience when strategizing and implementing health care marketing; application of modern services marketing concepts to health care marketing mix, among others.It also addresses recent changes in the U.S. health care industry. Some key issues covered are the increase in federal and state government involvement and oversight of health care delivery; increase in laws and regulations affecting health care management and marketing; growth of specialized health care markets such as Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act; globalization of health care and greater focus on legal and ethical health care marketing practices.Modern Health Care Marketing is an essential read to understand the integrated nature of health care marketing in the technologically driven, customer/patient-focused and globalized environment. It is also a useful reference for professionals to pick up best practices on addressing challenges faced in the modern health care industry.

Learn useful strategies for marketing health and wellness programs. This important new book presents a cross-section of current research and commentary on wellness and prevention issues. The 17 authors—representing 11 different institutions—are some of the most active health care consultants in the academic community. They discuss studies for hospital based programs, workplace programs, and governmental and educational institutions. Marketing for Health and Wellness Programs is essential reading for hospital administrators, faculty physicians at teaching hospitals, public health professors, government health service administration employees, corporate managers and personnel administrators, insurance industry managers, independent health and wellness consultants, and staff members of health trade publications.

Essentials of Health Care Marketing, Fourth Edition will provide your students with a foundational knowledge of the principles of marketing and their particular application in health care. Moreover, the text offers a perspective on how these principles must shift in response to the changing environmental forces that are unique to this market.

Marketing in Healthcare-Related Industries captures the concepts and complexities of marketing healthcare in today’s environment. The book provides detailed conceptual and practical insights that will be of great benefit to healthcare scholars and practitioners. Topics on healthcare marketing have been carefully selected to provide wide coverage and are illustrated by mini-cases with a highly practical marketing tool kit for healthcare managers included. The healthcare sector in the 21st century face a multiplicity of challenges, which include changing disease patterns, more technology-driven health interventions, a more assertive and quality conscious clientele, as well as a rapidly growing for-profit segment of the industry. This places more responsibilities on healthcare service providers in both the public and private sectors, to deliver value-for-money services at competitive costs. To respond to the changing business environment, a carefully crafted marketing approach is needed by all players in the industry to create value and sustain the confidence of clientele and stakeholders. Praise for Marketing in Healthcare-Related Industries: "Marketing in Healthcare-Related Industries is a timely book as the healthcare industry grows more customer-focused and faces increasing pressure to deliver high-quality service at more affordable costs. This book will serve as a roadmap for practitioners as it synthesizes insights from many marketing researchers into useful and actionable advice. It should also help students easily master the application of marketing principles to the healthcare industry with tools like review questions at the end of each chapter and mini-cases to apply marketing concepts." ~ Dr. Bruce A. Huhmann, Department Chair and Professor of Marketing, Virginia Commonwealth University "Marketing In Healthcare-related Industries could not have come at a better time. Just as the epidemiological and demographic transitions have changed the cycle of planning, resource allocation, delivering, monitoring and evaluating healthcare (especially in developing countries), shrinking domestic and donor resources for health, and ambitious agendas like the Universal Health Coverage 2030 Agenda, make it imperative that healthcare providers do more with less. This book provides a clear road map to a MARKETING TRANSITION, which links healthcare and marketing in a way hitherto not so clearly outlined. The Toolkit will be a valuable tool for undergraduate and graduate students in healthcare provision, as well as health practitioners who have traditionally not been trained in this area. I commend it highly as a must-read book in this area." ~ Dr. Victor Asare Bampoe - Former Deputy Minister of Health, Ghana and currently Director & Coordinator, Global Financing & Technical Support, Joint United Nation Programme on HIV&AIDS, Geneva "A truly remarkable scholarly work of our time. An easy-to-read and insightful book that captivates the reader, whether practitioner or student." ~ Dr. Abigail Mensah, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana "This book is well-written, easy-to-understand, and very up-to-date in its approach to marketing in healthcare-related industries. It is useful for undergraduate and graduate students as well as healthcare practitioners." ~ Dr. Gouher Ahmed, Professor of Strategic Leadership & International Business, Skyline University College, UAE