A Marketing Study of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Abstract
The cardiothoracic surgery service at WRAMC is attempting to expand its workload by developing and promoting a referral network. While the CT service has identified that excess capacity exists within WRAMC to perform additional CT procedures, the service had not conducted a marketing audit or produced a marketing plan. Before the service could initiate any significant promotions, it had to first identify: (1) the number and type of potential referrals that existed within each catchment area; (2) the process by which patients in these catchment areas accessed CT care; (3) who made the decision as to whether a potential patient accesses care through the military health care system or through CHAMPUS; and (4) what factors influenced the decision makers to issue a non-availability statement or refer patients to military health care facilities. During the audit, four factors were identified as being relevant to market accessibility: strength of the civilian competitors, size of beneficiary population, attitude of referring military providers, and patient travel considerations. As the results of the audit suggest, the CT service needs to promote itself to its customers and build name recognition. Creating familiarity with and desirability for the service among patients and providers should negate some of the distance concerns.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA324276
Entities
People
- James D. Mclain
Organizations
- Academy of Health Sciences