Marketing of Non-Profit Hospitals in the Metropolitan St. Louis Area

Author

Anne C. Albers RN, Fontbonne College

Year of Award

1987

Degree

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

College

College of Business & Professional Studies

Degree Program

Business

Department

Business Administration

Keywords

Marketing, Healthcare, Hospital, Injured, Sick, DRG, Medicare

Abstract

Healthcare marketing is a new and under-utilized field. The marketing of non-profit hospitals has been even less utilized due to the business orientation that it leads most hospitals toward. Until recently there had been no need for marketing in healthcare and in the non-profit competition hospital in was limited particular because the and reimbursement for care provided was given without question. The Diagnosis Related Grouping (DRG) has changed all that so the need for marketing has arisen. Marketing was originally looked at to help with advertising then as it progressed the hospitals found that it was an extensive evaluation system to encompass the entire hospital. The uniqueness of non-profit ·hospital marketing presents numerous areas in which there need to be modifications from the standard business approaches.

The St. Louis non-profit hospital system is the topic of my thesis and their approach to marketing. Through a personal survey of the marketing departments of fifteen of the twenty-three non-profit hospitals in St. Louis I have compared them to the initial chapters that are an analysis of the specialized areas that are involved in marketing a non-profit hospital in general. The St. Louis healthcare area is strong in non-profit hospitals as they represent eighty-eight percent of the hospitals in the metropolitan St. Louis area which includes St. Louis city and county, Missouri. This comparison of the actual and the textbook cases has shown that there are a variety of different stages and types of marketing in the St. Louis area non-profit hospitals. The variations in the marketing approaches and applications type of care that are seen according to the size and the institution provides, The need for more extensive use of marketing is definitely noted along with the improved application of the present styles. The probability of the cause for these lapses is the relative newness of marketing in the non-profit healthcare system. Non-profit marketing has a long way to go but it is progressing fairly rapidly in its growth as a industry.

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Recommended Citation

Albers, Anne C. RN, "Marketing of Non-Profit Hospitals in the Metropolitan St. Louis Area" (1987). All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects. 559.
https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/all-etds/559