http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2057/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7af5a782-fcbd-4599-ad57-9851e90761b9%40sessionmgr11&vid=12&hid=11
Purpose
of the Article
In this age of
technology and fast-paced information delivery, both patients as well as
healthcare professionals are well informed about healthcare through internet. Internet
now is an instrument to be updated about symptoms of diseases and informed
about providers, services, and quality. Hospital marketers see the internet
instrumental to service and reputation of their programs. Therefore, the use of
internet technology by hospital marketers becomes a pivoting tool for marketing
strategies.
Online
marketing strategies become most effective for branding, customer satisfaction
and comparison of services. Most of these parameters are centered on quality of
care. Internet serves as an effective tool for projecting quality of care to
healthcare customers accessing information through it. Internet then becomes a
mode of information delivery for patients seeking information about quality of
care given by most hospitals.
Basic
Findings
Benefits of internet access and information
delivery become a win-win case for both healthcare marketers and healthcare
consumers. Healthcare marketers market promotions, accolades, and patient
satisfaction remarks about their entities through the internet. On the other
hand, consumers access information through the internet easily and
conveniently. However, if all healthcare entities market their information over
the internet, healthcare consumers find an array of information which is easily
accessible only through a simple click of a mouse leading to increased
competition among healthcare entities. Consumers have an increased choice of
selecting what healthcare facility will be best for them. As a result, other
institutions who haven’t marketed well or who have gathered few merits fall
back on the competition to improve on aspects of patient care and
infrastructure.
Managerial
Implications
If
hospital marketers do not convey their practices easily then people are unaware
of hospital’s best practices for instance Joint Commission rewards, exceptional
accolades, quality service measures. On the other hand, if all hospitals market
themselves over the internet, there is an increase in accessible information
leading to increased competition among hospitals. Increasing competition on a
broad level leads to better healthcare delivery for all healthcare consumers
under ideal cases. As patients have access all facility websites, they can also
access negative information. Therefore for increased business, healthcare
marketers need to be astute enough to tackle patient grievances before it is
posted over the internet as negative information is held against the entire organization.
I fully agree that the increased use of internet is beneficial for both, patients as well as healthcare professionals. The patients have convenient and easy access to the information not only about the symptoms of disease but also about the treatments available at the various hospitals. The healthcare professionals use internet for advertising about their quality services and achievements. The usage of internet as advertisement mode attracts more and more competition, but is useful for patients as it leads to efficient services provided by the various healthcare professionals to avoid bad-mouthing, especially when it reaches thousands of people in seconds via internet.
ReplyDeleteInternet facilitates more information access not only for patients but also for students, professional and people who wish to learn. This broad spectrum attribute of information access via internet aids people to be equipped with knowledge. Advertisements through the internet shall benefit both prospective customers and sellers as well.
DeleteThe use of internet marketing for healthcare organizations is great for consumers and medical providers with good credentials. Consumers will be able to access specific medical information about their current or perspective physicians via provider websites. Especially with the rise of Managed Care Organizations (MCOS), it is likely we will see an increase in marketing medical professionals' quality-of-care data. This will give consumers the power to make an informed choice. Also, because the market will become more efficient, medical professionals with high performance will benefit because they will attract more patients, while those professionals without good care measures will be exposed (which will hopefully make them improve). This will be a huge benefit for consumers because it will force medical professionals to provide the best quality of care to their patients, without charging higher prices through health plans. Providers will thus increase their value by increasing their patients' accessibility to better services.
ReplyDeleteAccessibility of knowledge and information via internet is convenient and at ones own disposal of time. Patients when aware of medical services out there are able to pin point exactly what they want to their providers. This sifting out of options sorts a lot of confusion for both parties thus making healthcare more efficient.
DeleteHealthcare practices MUST use the internet for marketing their practice. When I needed to go see a chiropractor, the first thing I did was Google chiropractors in my area. I chose the Dr. based on reviews and quality of their website. They may be better Dr's out there, but the information on the internet was not there and they didn't get chosen.
ReplyDeleteFor patients, I think healthcare practices should be able to link all patients records online. I would like to be able to go see a specialist and that Dr have access to my records by going online and getting them from my normal Dr. It would save the Dr time by not having to ask me a million questions about my ailment. He could simply pull my record and see what was going on.
Online access of records must be well guarded as no patient would like his medical history and log of ailments to go public. Patient confidentiality must be respected at all times. If these records are stored in a format accessible via online username and password, the tendency for the account to be hacked is high. Moreover, the drives in which they are stored shall also be corrupted causing data loss.
DeleteI think use of internet is a great tool in the health care business. Just like Allen mentioned above I do the same thing when I have to choose any doctors. I try to find the best doctor in my area and read the reviews of the patient before I make an appointment. There is not doubt that there are a lot of benefits of using internet in the health care business but still have some down side to it. For example healthcare related blogs, in many instances they are very beneficial to know the symptoms and treatment but at the same time people use those blogs to match their symptoms and try to use the treatment mentioned in the blog and fail to go to the doctor. The symptoms that the patient have may be similar to the one in the blog but that might not be from the same disease that the patient is suffering from. This could lead to lots of bad things happening to the patient.
ReplyDeleteAs a consequence of bad things happening to a patient, the patient can sue the doctor against medical negligence charges. This may become a professional lawsuit causing legal hassles.These days legal hassles involve multimillion dollar claims or reimbursements that doctors and the facilities they are attached to pay as penalty for medical negligence cause by them.
Delete