Stopping Outshopping – Marketing Strategies in the Health Care Industry

Read the case study titled “Stopping Outshopping”, located in the online course shell. Then, use the Internet or Strayer databases to research similar marketing strategies in the health care industry.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

Based on the textbook’s summary of Timothy’s philosophy of continually striving for excellence, determine whether or not Scarlet Hospital was prepared to compete with the establishment in Salem even before the highway improvement mandated such an upgrade in delivery health care services.
Examine the potential lessons that the “Stopping Outshopping” case could teach health care executives about complacency.
Evaluate the potential value of Michael Porter’s Five Forces analysis and SWOT Analysis for effective decision making, in its ability to help Scarlet Hospital protect its market share and thus decrease the chance of losing patients to other institutions in Salem.
Appraise the value of the Balanced Scorecard model in its ability to help Scarlet Hospital executives reinforce its defensive marketing strategy.
Propose a one (1) page offensive marketing strategy (i.e. communication, branding, innovation, etc.) that Scarlet Hospital should deploy in order to turn the table on Salam-based health care providers and improve its competitive marketing position.
Use at least five (5) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Stopping Outshopping in Scarlet Hospital – Marketing Strategies in the Health Care Industry

This paper discusses the strategies that Scarlet hospital in Walnut Grove should implement in order to retain its client base, and even gain more patients for service delivery. This entails the development of an offensive plan following the ongoing extension of an interstate highway between Salam, the nearby competitive city, and Walnut Grove. This is in line with the experiences in the past two decades where a lot of changes have occurred within the healthcare industry exposing it to an incredible upheaval (Fortenberry, 2010). This, in particular, is a common case in rural environments where new structures and behaviours emerge due to the available support from the existing traditional practices and establishments. According to Mclaughlin and Hays (2008), this is a fact that applies across all community healthcare facilities, which have, for a long time, been offering their services in their local markets. Such facilities do experience threats following the improvement of communication facilities, which, also, facilitates the invasion of competition.

In reference to the summary from the textbook about the philosophy of Timothy of striving to maintain excellence, it is clear that Scarlet Hospital did not have substantial preparations in line with establishments in Salem prior to the mandated highway improvement. The main agenda of the management of Scarlet Hospital has been to maintain a certain level of quality of healthcare service in their facility Ch.32. The fourteen year leadership of Timothy Rogers did not create any infrastructural changes to the facility especially if they expected growth of their client base. The hospital management chose to maintain the bed capacity of the facility at 350 beds irrespective of the growing population in Walnut Grove and hence, the number of patients Ch.32.

Complacency, as Fortenberry (2010) asserts, is an enemy of growth in any service industry. It is a degrading habit to remain satisfied with the ways things are, and never striving to make them better than their current state. This case, “Stopping Outshopping’ provides a lot of potential lessons to health executives. One of the lessons is that a continuous competitive spirit is supportive to service growth in such an industry. Advertisement of a service should match the quality of the service offered by the facility on the ground (Fortenberry, 2010). All health executives should make growth of their services their priority agenda. Health executives ought to increase the capacity of their facilities in order accommodate more patients. Besides, they should increase the number of staffs to attend to the expected large number of patients. Another lesson is that health executives should not limit their concerns to the area of jurisdiction alone; they should extend their services to the neighboring cities by creating braches of their facility. From this study, health executives should learn to drop the assumption that their facilities are the best. They ought to ensure that service improvement in their facilities occurs on an on-going basis in order to maintain the level of satisfaction of their clients CH.32. This should happen following the recognition that always in all aspects of service provision and, therefore, feeding the expectations of their clients is essential for maintaining them.

There are Michael Porter’s Five Forces analysis and SWOT analysis, which Scarlet Hospital can implement to protect its market share and reduce chances of losing clients to competitors. The first one is that Scarlet should assess the threat of new entry into their market (Magretta, 2011). The hospital executive management should strive to upgrade their technology to the level of their competitors’ in order to maintain their market position. Through provision of quality and affordable service, the hospital management should increase the level of confidence of Walnut Grove in Scarlet Hospital services as a way of creating a barrier to new entries. Scarlet Hospital should, also, assess the threat of substitution in the market (Magretta, 2011).

They should improve their way of doing things to match the standards in the market. This would assist in reducing patient movement from Walnut Grove to Salem for similar medical services. Scarlet Hospital should, also, acknowledge the existence of competitive rivalry (Magretta, 2011). Completion of Highway creation between Salem and Walnut Groove will allow easy movement to Salem competitive services. Scarlet Hospital, therefore, should import such services to their market in order to contain patient movement. Scarlet Hospital should, also, assess the buying power of their clients in order to impose fair charges for quality services (Magretta, 2011). Finally, Scarlet Hospital should assess their supplying power and ensure that they offer high quality services in a manner that is unique enough to retain their clients in a competitive market (Magretta, 2011). It is essential for Timothy Rogers to note that, in Porter’s Five Forces, innovation is the most essential element as far as strategic decision making to develop an effective defensive plan is concerned.

A balanced scorecard is an essential strategic decision making tool, which is helpful to most managers heading government, business or nongovernmental institutions. The value it has lies in the manner in which it reminds managers about vision and strategy in regards to customers, financial issues, learning and growth, and internal business processes (Bergeron, 2006). A balanced scorecard is essential to Scarlet Hospital because it provides an indication of the extent of its operations within its mission statement. It enables it to provide the kinds of services that match the expectations of their clients. It, also, assists Scarlet Hospital to analyze its position in the market in terms of market share, client satisfaction and quality service provision. Finally, it can, also, help Scarlet Hospital management to examine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Bergeron, 2006).

For Scarlet Hospital to be able to turn its tables in the looming threat of competition, it has to deploy a steady offensive marketing strategy in order to remain competitive in its service provision. Scarlet Hospital requires establishing mobile clinics, a service that was never there initially. This would help to create a new impression of the hospital to the extent of attracting new clients especially from within the locality and the neighboring cities. Scarlet Hospital management should, also, consider opening branches of the facility in the neighboring cities especially Salam, which harbors a high population of people. This would help the hospital to extent its facilities to a large client base. This would help it secure to retain and even extend its position in the market. The management of Scarlet Hospital should consider having sufficient professional expertise in all aspects healthcare services (Fortenberry, 2010).

This would ensure that its loyal clients do not move to other institutions in Salam for specialized treatment. It is necessary for Scarlet Hospital management to extent advertisement of the facility to the neighboring regions. This can happen through local media and installation of bill boards alongside the roads and city streets. Finally, the management of the facility requires improving the overall quality of service provision. Improved service quality is the best marketing strategy in any service industry. This is essential in creating loyalty among clients. In conclusion, a lot of changes have occurred within the healthcare industry for the past two decades exposing it to an incredible upheaval. From the case study provided, it was clear that Scarlet Hospital did not have substantial preparations in line with establishments in Salem prior to the mandated highway improvement. Complacency is an enemy of growth in any service industry. It is a degrading habit to remain satisfied with the ways things are, and never striving to make them better than their current state.

There are Michael Porter’s Five Forces analysis and SWOT analysis, which Scarlet Hospital can implement to protect its market share and reduce chances of losing clients to competitors. A balanced scorecard is an essential strategic decision making tool, which is helpful to most managers heading government, business or nongovernmental institutions. For Scarlet Hospital to be able to turn its tables in the looming threat of competition, it has to deploy a steady offensive marketing strategy in order to remain competitive in its service provision.

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