Hospital Marketing

Hospital Marketing

Hospital is a social institution for delivering healthcare, offering considerable advantages to both patient and society. It is considered to be a place for the diagnosis and treatment of human ills and restoration of health and well-being of those temporarily deprived of. Above all, it is a social institution responsible for protecting the social interests and a non-profit organisation.

We have failed in improving the medicate facilities keeping pace with the growing requirements but have been successful in making the environment unhealthy which is found raising the pressure on both the government as well as the private hospitals. In view of the prevailing condition, we expect much more from hospitals government of private. By marketing medicate services, the hospitals would not only serve masses but would also be efficacious in inculcating mass awareness to prevent ailments and to decrease the number of prospects.

Marketing of medicare services means, making available the medicare services to the users in such a way that they get quality services at a reasonable cost. The social marketing principles focus on making available the services even to those segments of the society who are not in a position to pay for the prices. It is in this context that a managerial approach to formulate a sound service mix is required.

Marketing Mix for Hospital Services

The components of marketing mix namely, product, price, place and promotion could be applied for effective marketing of hospital services.

Product mix

The service programming for hospitals include different types of services required to protect the public interests. The services have been classified as line services, supportive services and auxiliary services. The first one, line services include emergency services, outdoor and indoor services, intensive care unit and operations theatre. This is also called core services.

The supporting services in a true sense determine the quality of services made available by medical and para-medical personnel.

The auxiliary services consists of registration and indoor case records, stores management, transportation management, mortuary arrangement, dietary services, engineering and maintenance services For effectives marketing these services are to be managed in an effective way.

Promotion Mix

In the medicare services innovating the promotional measures and inculcating mass awareness are important for promotion of hospital services. For making available right services to the right users at the right time, it is essential to instumentalise the personal promotion. In this context, both the core and para-medical personnel play an important role. To be more specific, the frontline personnel have been found playing an outstanding role. If nurses neglect patients, if receptionist miscommunicate users, prospects, if doctors do not show human approach, the medicare services even after the availability of

most sophisticated equipment and technologies, most efficient doctors and nurses, most comfortable buildings and infrastructural facilities would fails in delivering the goods to the society. Ultimately, the personnel determine the magnet of success and not the supporting forces.

Advertisement and publicity measures are important to promote medical services. While advertising, the hospitals and health care centres should make possible creativity in their campaigns, messages and slogans for the prospects to avail the services.

Service promotion is an important dimension of promotion, which is found instrumental in the generation of efficiency, formation of a team spirit, establishment of a work culture and more so a personal touch in service. This requires a team work and involvement of all the medical and para-medical personnel.

The word of mouth communication also plays an outstanding role. The satisfied users act an agent in spreading the message to their friends, relatives and others, who are found motivated and prefer to user the services of that hospital as and when the circumstances necessitates so.

Price Mix

Now the hospitals need to invest a lot on the sophisticated equipment and technologies to improve the quality of medical aid. Increasing cost on inputs in found aggravating the setting the task of fee structure

which makes possible a fair synchronization of u hospitals should be in proportion to the income of the users which would engineer a sound foundation

for qualitative or quantitative improvements. For a social institution like hospital, a discriminatory fee structure is suitable, since it provides even weaker sections of the society an opportunity to avail the quality medical services.

Place Mix

For effective distribution of medicare services it is essential that the hospitals should be able to provide basic medical services at different parts of residential areas and also to rural areas in particular. Further, wherever there is concentration of users‟ lik hospitals must be able to take their services to those places.

To conclude for marketing of hospital services innovation is a must. The aim should be to serve the society; to improve quality; to make services cost effective; to minimize the medicare needs and in due course to minimize the pressure on hospitals.