Assignment: Vila Health: Market Analysis
Welcome to Vila Health, your virtual health care organization. Congratulations on being selected to serve as the health care administration intern to the vice president of operations at St. Anthony Medical Center! In this role, you will interface with a variety of virtual leaders to construct a new marketing plan for St. Anthony's Labor and Delivery service line.
Currently, there are two major competitors in the Minneapolis marketplace. Your role is to examine St. Anthony Medical Center's current Labor and Delivery service line, describe how this service is marketed to the public, and to make recommendations for future improvement. St. Anthony is at break-even status with respect to profitability, and the board of directors is wondering if this is a service line worth continuing, given that it does not appear to directly contribute to the bottom line: profit.
To start your strategic health care marketing and consumerism activities, it may be helpful to scan a widely used approach for marketing planning. Marketing expert Philip Kotler has developed an eight-step plan that can greatly simplify and streamline your efforts (Fortenberry, 2010).
Overview
It is necessary for all members of a health care leadership team to contribute to the overall success of the organization. For this reason, strategic plans are utilized to focus on service offerings of a health care organization. Part of this process involves determining the direction in which the organization is headed, including positioning the organization for optimal results. To customize an organization's service offerings to prospective consumers, considerable market assessment must precede development of plans. In this assignment, you will engage in an assessment of the overall health care marketplace, and then assess a subset of the marketplace. Specifically, you will analyze the service offering for Labor and Delivery at St. Anthony Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Part of your market analysis will include use of a tool for external environmental assessment, followed by application of a tool for internal analysis of the Labor and Delivery service line. Additionally, you will examine the features, advantages, and benefits of the Labor and Delivery service line relative to competitors, along with a short list of important issues that are relevant for marketing plan development. Finally, you will share insights regarding critical success factors for labor and delivery services in the Minneapolis marketplace, return on investment, and organizational viability. As the intern to the CEO at St. Anthony Medical Center, you will be asked to seek information across various departments, and to explore existing internal resources for various tasks.
Instructions
• Conduct an external environmental assessment of the health care labor and delivery marketplace. Utilize at least one situational or environmental assessment tool from your studies or research.
• Using an internal assessment tool (such as SWOT), analyze St. Anthony Medical Center's Labor and Delivery service, and provide an executive summary and analysis of the internal organization.
• Integrate the external environmental and internal organizational analyses, and propose a list of relevant health care marketing issues.
• Share any insights regarding critical success factors, return on investment, and organizational viability.
• Communicate your response in a professional manner that is consistent with a master's degree level of scholarly work (clear flow of logic, analysis, integration of evidence based and authoritative sources, coherent sentences, correct spelling, use of TurnItIn source verification software, succinct/substantive use of language).
• This assignment corresponds with step three of Kotler's Marketing Plan as presented in Health Care Marketing.
Before you get started on the assignment, be sure to carefully read the scoring guide. This is your roadmap for success. Also, it is expected that successful interns will conduct research on model programs and best practices to include as recommendations (accompany recommendations with APA formatted citations and references in the list).
You may consider exploring accreditation for hospitals and nursing services. How does St. Anthony Medical Center stand? Do they have certifications, and if so are they visible on the Web site to consumers? What about patient satisfaction? Is this data on the Web site? Do they share medical and nursing expertise, and showcase innovative technology or services? How can St. Anthony Medical Center position itself as a unique leader in Labor and Delivery and women's health in general? Be creative, and think like a C-suite executive; try to imagine how growing this service line might positively impact the rest of the organization.
Submit your assignment by Sunday of this week. Remember to use APA format and style throughout.
Reference
Fortenberry, J. L., Jr. (2010). Health care marketing: Tools and techniques (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.