HCA 615 Missed Opportunities Case Study

Sample Answer

Ramifications of Crestwood Hospital’s New Billboard

The position of Crestwood Hospital’s billboards makes them very troubling to the Briarwood Medical Centre. The billboards negatively impact the external environment of the latter hospital while positively promoting its competitor. As such, they will begin to raise doubts in the minds of Briarwood hospital patrons while making potential new customers curious as to the services offered by Crestwood Hospital. Consequently. Crestwood Hospital will gain a competitive advantage over its competitor given the location of the billboards.

Studies on the effectiveness of billboard advertisements such as Fortenberry and McGoldrick (2019) reveal that they are noticed by patients, receive a favorable view from them, and effectively influence the sequence of events that result into patronage. Thus, if Briarwood’s patients have issues with the services being offered, their patient satisfaction will be low, which may compel them to shift their loyalty to the competitor. Further, other community stakeholders may begin to also shift their allegiance to Crestwood if they have had issues with Briarwood.

It is probable that patients and the community stakeholders have had satisfaction issues with Briarwood services given how the hospital started losing its market share for a decade when other players started operating in the region. Therefore, with the aggressive advertisement made by Crestwood, the scenario may be replicated, which will make Briarwood lose its share in the market.

Why Michael Thwarted the Opportunity to Use Billboards

The issue of marketing and advertising in health care has courted controversy for as long as it has existed. Whereas others believe that it brings benefits, its impact on patient perceptions and hopes has remained contentious. A school of thought exists to the end that people in the learned professions such as medicine and law should desist from open advertisements so as not to devalue them. In addition, Michael shares the sentiments of healthcare advertisement opponents due to its costly nature.

To these people, such costs can go towards improving other areas of the services offered by hospitals which may improve the quality of care in a continuous manner. The patient perspective also matters herein as such advertisements can induce false hopes (Murphy, Laczniak, & Harris, 2016). These reasons give credence to the refusal of certain managers and patients to buy into the effectiveness of health care advertisements despite supporting evidence.

Further, advertising offers false hopes to patients by making them believe that the physicians will always cure them irrespective of their condition. On the other hand, as part of marketing, advertisements divert the focus of a health care facility to outstripping competitors instead of improving the services offered to patients, which is their core mandate.

Countering Crestview Hospital’s New Billboards

Fortunately for Briarwood Hospital, the marketing focus has shifted from the product to the services being offered. In the present health care dispensation, intelligence marketing has become more pronounced and effective in retaining and increasing patronage. Clark (2006) posits that adopting a marketing strategy focused on “customer intelligence knowing the needs preferences, and desires of patients and providers” (p. 2), forms a critical part of contemporary health care marketing. Using the new budget,

Susan needs to invest in state-of-the art technology to gain insights into their patients’ mindsets regarding what constitutes a good service. In addition to patient data, Susan also needs to obtain physician and employee data through surveys and observations. The analysis of such data will reveal the areas that the hospital needs to improve in order to ensure patient satisfaction, which acts as a prerequisite for loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion (Fortenberry Jr., & McGoldrick, 2016).

Through these strategies, the hospital will ensure they retain their loyal patrons and receive new ones due to word-of-mouth advertisement by the present patrons to their families and friends.

How the Board Should Address Michael

The Briarwood Hospital’s Board should logically call for a meeting with Michael so as to discuss the billboard debacle. During this meeting, the board should seek Michael’s perspective on why he deemed the billboards as unnecessary. Through his answers, the board will determine whether Michael had better marketing strategies and whether his cost-cutting bias would improve the delivery of services by the hospital. Therefore, Michael’s tenure at the hospital will be contingent upon the justification that he will offer during the meeting.

Being in Susan’s Position

The position that Susan found herself in was not enviable. However, if I were in the same position, I would have contacted Briarwood Hospital’s Board. She was armed with data-backed evidence that the billboard advertising would help the hospital retain its market position in the area and possibly acquire new patrons. Moreover, she had led marketing efforts at the hospital for nearly a decade while Michael had served as a CEO for less than a year (Fortenberry, 2011).

Therefore, it would be in order for her to bring the issue to the attention of the board citing her experience but without being disrespectful to Michael. During this decision, she should explain that her first commitment is to Briarwood and its wellbeing and that the billboard presented a great opportunity for advancing the hospital’s agenda. Indeed, the billboards offered a great opportunity to the hospital and its consolidation of the market and as such, the board needed to make a quick decision.

Further, if she had presented the issue to the board and a decision made to her favor, the Briarwood Hospital’s billboards would be the ones appearing there and not Crestwood’s.

References

• Clark., P. A. (2006). Healthcare marketing in the 21st Century beyond promotion to constructing experiences to achieve high performance. Health Marketing Quarterly, 23(3), 1-7.
• Fortenberry Jr, J. L., & McGoldrick, P. J. (2016). Internal marketing A pathway for healthcare facilities to improve the patient experience. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 9(1), 28-33.
• Fortenberry, J. L. (2011). Cases in health care marketing. Sudbury, MA Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
• Fortenberry, J. L., & McGoldrick, P. J. (2019). Do Billboard Advertisements Drive Customer Retention? Expanding the “AIDA” Model to “AIDAR”. Journal of Advertising Research, JAR-2019.
• Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R., & Harris, F. (2016). Ethics in marketing International cases and perspectives. Taylor & Francis.