Health Care Marketing: Non-Profit

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HEALTH CARE MARKETING: NON-PROFIT VS. FOR-PROFIT Introduction. The nation houses nearly 5,000 community hospitals, with almost sixty percent being non-profit, and roughly twenty percent non-profit (American Hospital Association, 2014). Both non-profit and for-profit health care organizations share contrasting similarities and comparable differences. Most notably, each type of organization share particular strategies in marketing, as discussed below. Non-Profit Marketing Techniques. Similar to most organizations, non-profit health care entities cater to their respective community through charitable, scientific, educational, recreational, social, cultural, political, governmental, and/or religious efforts (Rados, 1981). Non-profit marketing…show more content…
From an external point of view, patient satisfaction and loyalty is of utmost importance for a health care manager to consider. Lack of patient commitment can cause non-profit hospitals to fall out of the intense competition. Strategic hospital marketing is imperative to not only shape a hospital's image, but to also attract loyal customers (Chen & Kao, 2011). As manager, I would begin by seeking to improve customer satisfaction, maintain loyalty, and assure positive health outcomes. In order to trump competition, one must be willing to face the toughest challenges the non-profit health care market creates. Convenience is typically a top priority for consumers in the health care industry (Goedert, 2011). When technology is of high quality, the organization's atmosphere and services may affect and show the same, if not, greater standards of quality. The biggest challenge non-profits face is being able to show adequate credibility as a tax-exempt organization. My marketing strategy would include community involvement and benefits as its top priority. Instead of being challenged by the patients it serves, non-profits are faced with taxpayer scrutiny. The question is raised whether or not the community is truly benefitting from a tax-exempt organization. To put this challenge into perspective, Doyle (2011) found that a certain non-profit health care system only used about 1.7 percent of their total operating revenue for patient care and services to the needy within its several communities, albeit a $58 million charitable effort. Hospitals like these are faced with higher standards and tighter charity regulations, a focus that should be prominent in any non-profit health care marketing strategy. Balancing charitable actions with quality care is significant in the survival in a competitive health care

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