Community Health Case Study: Fair Town Hospital

In this case study, the focus is on Community Health managed by (HMO). HMO serves multiple states, and the region where membership growth in Community Health has been lackluster is the east city region. Despite economic disparities and hardship, a commitment to expand its primary care services to Fair-town, a suburban area of the east city region. This is mostly due to the opening in clinics serviced by Community Health in the area. Fair- town is a suburban area growing in population, and the target of Community Health has set a goal of 3,000 to 6,000 thousand new members over the next two years after the completion of the Fair-town Clinic.

Stakeholders to whom Community Health intends to Market

The main purpose of opening the new clinic

is to create a convenient healthcare location, and capture new membership as well as maintaining existing members.. This marketing plan intends to target people migrating into Fair-town area as well as existing members that currently live nearby within 10-15 miles of Fair-town. This case study indicates that there is a large opening for service providers in in the eastern city, and the Fair-town clinic intends to fill those opening. Stakeholders with whom Community Health should have and develop a relationship are the customers/client, employees and suppliers/distributors expending Fair-town and the city in order to spread the good news about the clinic to every individual and it’s surrounding. The notion of “paying attention to key stakeholder relationships” (Freeman, 1999: 235) is and has been a major theme in the strategic management literature. In fact, superior stakeholder satisfaction is critical for successful companies in a hypercompetitive environment (D’Aveni, 1994). Fair-town city should be able to provide healthcare options for its citizens

Environmental Context of Marketing Plan

According to study research, any marketing plan that has environmental factors that will play in the success or failure of the venture (Berkowitz)

Regulator Factors

According to study research, regulatory factors include legal issues and requirements, and in many health care communities, such as Fair-town, programs cannot be instituted without prior government approval. For example, strategies, such as paying physicians for referrals, are illegal, and regulatory factors especially, promotion in community health for the Fair-town marketing plan is necessary to be regulated

Social Forces

Social forces include demographic and cultural trends to which organizations must be sensitive. An aging population, a changing work ethic, and a culturally diverse marketplace are some of the issues to consider when developing marketing plans. This mean, since the population of Fair-town is growing by leap and bounds, the marketing plan must reflect those demographic factors, such as the promotion of diversity.

Technological Factors

Technological factors affect few industries more dramatically than they do health care.

It is these technological forces that can change the viability of any service. Until the 1950s, the treatment of polio victims constituted a major revenue stream for many hospital facilities. As we know, this disease was all but eliminated by the technological achievement of the Salk vaccine in the 1950s. This new clinic in Fair-town will be equipped with new medical equipment and tools, and when it comes to providing services to consumers, study shows that they value progressed technological companies especially, when it comes to healthcare choices (Berkowitz ). According to study research, 32% of adults use the internet as their primary source of healthcare information as of 2007, and the numbers continue to rise (Berkowitz). Sharing of information readily available about Community Health and the new clinic in Fair-town will be a complete boost in the marketing plan and the community

health.

Economic Factors

Economic factors include changes in income distribution or fiscal conditions such as borrowing rates that can determine any company’s investment plans.

As will be discussed in Chapter 3, the rising cost of health care has led one major customer group corporations to work more aggressively with their health care providers in seeking solutions to rising costs. Indeed, over the past decades, rise in healthcare cost, has grown by leaps and bounds and this is affectionately due to modern technological advancement in the medical industries as well as the insurance providers, such as Community Health. Having a competition in Fair-town is a good thing to have simply because economic situation will be beneficial to ensure that Community Health is able to provide insurance and care to consumers.

Competitive Forces

Competitive forces are the final uncontrollable element in any marketing plan. Strategies and programs must be developed in light of this constraint and should reflect the considerations that exist in the marketplace. In order for Fair-town Community Health clinic to grow, it is essential to capture as many memberships from that demographic as possible, simply because competing with employer provided insurance plans could be of a greater challenge, again this information must be reflected within the marketing plan.

Target

Markets

The targeted market must be both the people migrating to Fair-town, and individuals that are members of Community Health who are currently living in or within 10-15 miles of Fair-town. The new clinic is going to be located within the city limits of the town, which is a good thing, because when it comes to healthcare, conveniences is one of the best things to have as a sick individual. The subtle nature of the target market definition must be underscored when talking about health care. This aspect of marketing is not meant to imply that the organization will deny care to anyone.

Organizational Structure

Without a doubt, I strongly believe that the organizational structure of the marketing plan will be market driven, and the goal for Fair-town is to obtain 3,000-6,000 thousand new memberships within two years, a situation that entirely dependent on a change in market forces. Indeed, the market is changing, however, due to increase in the population of Fair-town. Community Health is constructing this facility in response to changes in the needs of the market in the area. Since there is competition and availabilities of other health plans, a product driven approach doesn’t make as much sense as reacting to the change in the market climate.

References: Berkowitz, E. N. (2010). Essentials of Health Care Marketing, 3rd Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from

http://www.albany.edu/~pm157/research/stakeholders.pdf.