A Leslie Kline Lukas & Associates Case Study

Hospital Marketing Support

Introduction

A rural hospital wanted to increase market share in its service area.  The administration was concerned that local and area people might be choosing a larger regional hospital for primary and secondary health care needs.  Leslie Kline Lukas & Associates was asked to conduct research with all of the hospital's key audiences.

Goals and Objectives

• The goal was to determine current market share, key audience's perceptions about the hospital and its competitors, and to provide direction about what the hospital should do to retain current patients and attract new ones.

Strategy

Because there was no prior research data, Leslie Kline Lukas & Associates compared current perceptions among all key audiences.  The following research supported the approach:

• personal interviews with medical staff, hospital board members and employees;
• focus groups with former patients and non-patients; and
• a random telephone survey among people who had been hospitalized in the past five years.

Results

The survey results indicated:

• although administrative staff and the board anticipated a negative perception of the hospital nursing staff, the general public rated their care as good;
• the hospital had a strong market share;
• the hospital was the region's first choice for primary care;
• a neighboring community had animosity toward the hospital's community, but not the hospital itself; and
• visiting physician specialists conducting outpatient clinics were not well-known.

Results indicated that, although the hospital needed some modernization, people felt fortunate to have it and would choose it if they needed primary care.  They would rely on their physician to refer them elsewhere if necessary.  They did not feel that a hospital in a community of this size was lacking services, although many did not know about outpatient clinics conducted by visiting physician specialists.

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