HA 605 Unit 4 Assignment - Application of Marketing Principles and Techniques

Unit 4 Application 1
Running head: UNIT 4 APPLICATION OF MARKETING PRINCIPLES AND
Unit 4 Application of Marketing Principles and Techniques
Selwyn Paul
St. Joseph's College
Health Care Marketing
HA 605
Stuart Lane
June 10, 2008

Unit 4 Application 2
Unit 4 Application of Marketing Principles and Techniques
New Product/Service Identification
1
. Submit a marketing analysis of:
(a) A service/product described in recent healthcare publications that is of interest to you but you
would not recommend adding to the current offerings of your HCO;
One recent interesting healthcare service that I researched but would not recommend to
be added to Maine Medical Center current offerings as an HCO is the emerging medical
specialty of Hospitalist. Though MMC utilizes independent doctors to function in the capacity as
Hospitalists, there is no formal Hospitalists specialty at MMC. An interesting article surfaced in
1999 in the February issue of Annals of Internal Medicine which sparked an argument about
whether the Hospitalist should become a separate specialty . (Kelley, 1999) This debate has
continued on to the present time even when Hospitalists are well established professionals. One
of the most recent articles on the subject can be found in the December 20 2007, issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ).
A marketing analysis of adding Hospitalists as a fulltime specialty include the following:
Market Analysis
Product or Service Analysis:
Hospitalists are MD’s who are specialized to take care of hospitalized patients. These
doctors focus primarily on general medical care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists are
involved in patient care, teaching, research, and leadership roles that focus on patent care.
Hospitalists are skill professionals who bring a world of knowledge and experience to the
hospital setting to help in the treatment and management of acute illnesses. Hospitalists work
closely with and collaborate with the patient’s primary care physician (PCP) and bring much

Unit 4 Application 3
needed relief to family physicians by managing their patients through the continuum of hospital
care. Hospitalists work in virtually every department of the hospital; at times they can be seeing
patients in the ED, and then follow them into the critical care unit. They are also involved in
organizing post-acute hospital care. (Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia [WFE], 2008)
Market Segmentation:
•
All primary care physicians
•
Hospitalized patients
•
Hospital staff/administration
•
Healthcare marketing firms
•
Advertising Agencies
•
Television/Radio/Newspaper
Target Market Segment Strategy :
Focus functions:
• Focus on hospitals that are short-staffed and spread thin (as far as Hospitalists work is
concerned)
• Focus counterparts in specialties such as neurosurgery, orthopedics, nephrology and
oncology who need co-managers for a wide range of their patients.