Strategy For A Hospital That Is Introducing A New Diabetes Program (Essay Sample)

Marketing strategy
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General Product Information
The main aim of the diabetes care program is to offer quality based healthcare to diabetes patient and reduce the cost patients have to incur in the wake of higher drug costs. The product is the healthcare industry's most comprehensive cover meant to improve the care of diabetes patients while at the same time controlling their planning costs. The marketing plan for the diabetes program will focus on having professionally written marketing materials, promotional events, networking and ensuring that patient satisfaction and word of mouth advertising. The marketing plan will differ from other marketing plans available to consumers through creating a momentum in the community which will be set up through establishing a presence.
The presence of the program will be designed with a combination of strategies such as networking events, having all promotional materials whether written or electronic drafted professionally, conducting promotional events and making the services readily accessible to all patients. The value of the services offered by the healthcare can be observed by how they help the patients and also reducing the price of healthcare and diabetes drugs. The dream of every patient is to access quality healthcare at an affordable cost, and our healthcare facility offers that chance.
Consumers
Healthcare consumers have some options when it comes to accessing healthcare in different hospitals. The most common choices in the market include healthcare maintenance organization plans, participating provider options and consumer-driven health plans. These are the same type of health care access options that are available to the facility's target audience. The consumer-driven healthcare plan is preferable for patients who do not visit hospitals often and thus is not ideal for a diabetes patient. Participating provider option is also no preferred for diabetes patients since it has a high-cost upfront and costs more finances throughout the year. Health maintenance organization plan is mostly preferred since it has lower cost upfront and cheaper premiums (Khalil, & Hussain, 2014).
Communication between consumers mostly happens through word of mouth and electronically. For instance, a consumer who is happy with a certain product is certainly going to tell their friends. Whether the communication is from consumers, physicians or pharmacies, there are some implications such as who is going to purchase the product or not. Communication from consumers has the most implications for healthcare users are likely to trust information coming from their fellow customers.
Impact of Outside Agencies
Outside organizations such as government organizations have a lot of impact on the services that are available to the healthcare consumer. In most cases, the impact comes in the form of competition whereby the government agencies are subsidized and thus have the capability of offering the same services at a lower cost. Poor government control and oversight also mean that such institutions provide poor quality services, but most patients prefer them due to the low prices that they usually offer (Luca, & Suggs, 2010).
Impact of Regulations
Healthcare reforms have a lot of effects on the healthcare consumer products and services as they are meant to make treatment efficient, ineffective and customer friendly. Some healthcare reforms such as the Affordable care Act are changing responsibilities, traditional roles and authority of various healthcare stakeholders with the aim of streamlining operations in the industry. Healthcare reform will affect the target audience in many ways such as making treatment available and accessible even in remote areas, changing the healthcare system to be more patient-centered as well as delivering the services to be cheaper than they are at the moment. The healthcare reforms will also affect the process of marketing to the target audience since every consumer will be keen on coming to healthcare facilities which only provide quality services (Luca, & Suggs, 2010).
Anticipating the Changing Market
Some changes are happening in the healthcare industry whereby consumer's options for healthcare are changing to focus on effectiveness, efficiency, value, affordability and accessibility. Consumers have ready information on the type of healthcare they want and thus making it harder for healthcare providers to dupe them. The aim of the company is to make sure that the diabetes care program stays relevant to the healthcare needs and wants of the consumer. For instance, the program will be patient-centered where each type of care provided will be tailor made for...