Patient retention: the practice management challenge under managed care.

The increasingly competitive environment of practice management has become more complicated with the growing penetration of managed care and capitation. Although successful growing practices have always focused on attracting new patients into the office, future efforts must also be directed at retaining the current patient. Additionally, capitation will require that a practice redefine the profile of a patient valuable to the practice. This article provides a perspective on the valuable patient in a capitated setting as well as some strategies to build better relationships with patients to retain their loyalty. Finally, this article proposes a system to monitor the ongoing satisfaction of patients to retain loyalty.

Marketing the pathology practice.

Effective marketing of the pathology practice is essential in the face of an increasingly competitive market. Successful marketing begins with a market-driven planning process. As opposed to the traditional planning process used in health care organizations, a market-driven approach is externally driven. Implementing a market-driven plan also requires recognition of the definition of the service. Each market to which pathologists direct their service defines the service differently. Recognition of these different service definitions and creation of a product to meet these needs could lead to competitive advantages in the marketplace.

Physician attitudes about advertising are changing.

Marketing in the health professions is a topic of considerable disagreement. A large scale survey in 1981 indicated strong physician opposition to any form of advertisement to obtain patients or promote services. High response rates to mail questionnaires indicated intense physician interest. A follow-up survey performed five years later revealed remarkable changes including tacit acceptance of physician and hospital promotional activities, and increasing usage of marketing techniques as a standard medical practice. While physicians still believe that patients select services without regard to cost and that it is difficult to advertise quality care, physicians are increasingly aware of the fact that marketing techniques are being utilized to promote high caliber care at cheaper rates. If the current trends continue, marketing will become an integral part of medical practice in the near future.

Media and message strategies: consumer input for hospital advertising.

In summary, the results of the study suggest that a potentially large segment of consumers views advertising as an appropriate way to communicate about hospital services and rates. These consumers are unique not by traditional measures of audience/patient sociodemographic characteristics, but rather by their values and outlook toward hospitals and health care providers. Effective hospital advertising should recognize this segment's perspective in the message that are part of overall advertising strategy.

The marketing audit: a tool for health service organizations.

Recent articles have explained the philosophy of marketing health services. Highlighted here are the important concerns in the "hands-on" development and implementation of a marketing plan.