Nature and Characteristics of Services in Hospitals:

Services have four distinctive characteristics. In the case of hospital services that must be given
special consideration when designing marketing stratagies1. They are

Intangibility:

Services are intangible- that i.e, they cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they
are produced. In the case of hospital, a patient purchasing cosmetic surgery cannot see the result
before the purchase; and a patient receiving chemotherapy cannot know the value of the service
in advance. Under the circumstances, purchase requires confidence on the provider.

Inseparability:

A service is inseparable from the providers. It’s very act of being created requires the sources,
whether a person or machine, to be present. The dental services cannot be produced and
delivered unless the dentist is here. And a patient cannot be X-rayed unless the X-ray machine is
there. Inseparability results in a limitation of the number of people who can receive a service. A
dentist many work only eight hours a day, serving on average two patients an hour, or sixteen
patients a day.

Variability:

An artificial heart operation by a doctor is likely to be of higher quality than the same operation
performed by a physician with little or no experience. And the doctor quality can vary depending
on his energy and mental state at the time of the operation. Therefore a service can be highly
variable, depending upon who is providing it, when it is being provided, and even who else is
there as part the service experience. Hospitals should make an effort to provide not high
consistent quality in their service offers, and to monitor the consistency of quality with customer
satisfaction monitoring system.

Perishability:

An unoccupied nursing home bed is lost forever. In the same way some physicians charge
patients for missed appointments because the appointment time with no patient to serve is lost
revenue for the physician. So services cannot be stored. When demand is study the perish ability
of service is not a problem to the hospitals. When demand fluctuates significantly, hospitals have
problems. The emergency service of a hospital must be staffed and equipped to handle
emergencies at all times, even most of the time there are no real emergencies. Hospital can be
matched demand and service capacity by following different strategies. Now we will see the
services offered by hospitals.

Challenges for services:

Problem: Too many avoidable patient days.

Problem: Desire for physician integration but very few employed physicians.

Problem: Unhealthy community.

Problem: Poor communication between providers.

Problem: Physician and nurse shortages.

Direct hospital marketing:

Health care marketing has arrived swiftly and with significant impact upon the hospital scene.
From the early days of rejection and suspicion of only a few years ago, it has now taken its place
with other hospital management functions. Still, however, hospitals have not yet reached the
degree of expertise that exists in other sectors. One of the reasons why hospitals have not fully
emerged to the level of marketing expertise as many of their traditional business counterparts is
that many of the areas of both the science and art of marketing have not been fully developed.
One such area is direct mail marketing. Presented here is an overview of the advantages and
functions of hospital direct mail marketing. A variety of examples are given with a more
thorough case example being provided by Lee's Summit Community Hospital in Lee's Summit,
Missouri. The successful direct mail marketing campaign there should be both an inspiration and
a model for success for other hospitals. Space limitations prevent the authors from some of the
more exacting details of mail marketing and, of course, successful campaigns do not happen by
magic. They take careful planning, strategy, and execution. They also require a coordinated
organizational and human effort to be successful. But direct mail marketing does offer a
potentially new arena of marketing for most hospitals. The expertise, skill, knowledge, and
technology are in place. All that is really needed is the commitment on the part of the hospital
leadership.

Liaquat National Hospital:

Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College, located at the center of the city is the largest
private sector tertiary care hospital serving the society for the last 56 years. This non-profit
organization, which started out with four outpatient services and 50 beds, has now approximately
700 beds covering an area of nearly 53 acres with 30 medical and surgical specialties providing
both inpatient and outpatient services keeping the tradition of delivering distinguished health
care facilities LNH excels in providing the most advanced methods of diagnosis and treatment of
nearly all clinical disciplines. It has the latest diagnostic, therapeutic & preventive healthcare
facilities and is equipped with state-of-the-art advanced technology and fully-equipped operation
theaters. It provides 24 hours emergency, pharmacy, laboratory and radiology services including
nuclear medicine facilities.

OUR SPECIALITIES:

- Anesthesiology - Internal Medicine

- Breast Diseases - Infectious Diseases
- Cardiology - Nephrology
- Chest Diseases - Neurosciences
- Cardiac Thoracic Surgery - Oncology
- Dental and Maxillofacial - Ophthalmology

- Dermatology - Orthopedics
- Diabetic Care and Endocrinology - Pediatrics
- ENT - Pediatric Surgery
- Emergency Care - Plastic Surgery
- Gastroenterology - Psychiatrics
- General Surgery - Rheumatology
- Gynecology & Obstetrics - Urology
- Hematology - Vascular Surgery

The 8 PS:

People:

The patients, clients, customers, prospective patients, providers, staff, management everyone
involved in the healthcare organization, facility, or practice.The people who deliver a service are
a significant ingredient in the product itself. Consumers evaluate service and satisfaction based
on perceptions and personal interactions. A patient doesn’t have much insight to a physician’s
clinical skills, but they will know if they are pleased based on dealt with them as a person. Your
reputation and your brand are not yours alone—it’s a matter of teamwork.

Product:

Presenting the correct product (goods and/or services) with values that meet or exceed the needs
and expectations of the target market.

When was the last time you took an unbiased and critical look at yourself—products, service,
value proposition, facility—the works? For a toothpaste company, the “product” is a box on the
store shelf. But the product for service organizations is usually defined in terms of personal
happiness: less tangible than a pretty box and not easily quantified.
The primary determinant is in knowing that customers perceive and receive value and
satisfaction by way of your healthcare practice or organization.

Price:

The amount paid in exchange for the value received. Price must be competitive and lead to
profit, but may vary within promotional and/or bundle purchase options.

Price is a toughie in the healthcare industry. Sometimes there are few or no options: Price is what
it is, or maybe it’s paid through an individual’s insurance. Elective care or cosmetic procedures,
of course, are a different animal. Anywhere in this spectrum, price is also a function of value,
competition in the marketplace, and affordability. Take a serious look at those areas where there
is flexibility, and be open to adjusting prices.

Promotion:

The many and various forms of communicating with the target audience to effectively present
benefits, answer needs and inspire action.

For this list, it’s convenient that Promotion begins with a P, but some healthcare professionals
react negatively to the “retail” or “blue-light-special” connotation. A better label for this category
is communications, meaning all the direct and indirect ways of expressing yourself (your
practice, your brand, your services) to those who need and want your services.

This includes both personal and direct interaction (one-to-one, inspiring referrals), and
interacting with many (advertising, public relations, publicity). In all instances, this is done in a
professional way. The objective is to critically examine how, where and when you let others
know about what you can do for them. (And those in need want this information.)

This is also where you consider changes in the media that’s in play. A few years ago, nobody had
a website. And a few moments ago, Social Media Marketing had yet to be invented. Some
newspapers have disappeared or gone online only. Magazines and other publications, online and
in print, adjust to capture audiences.

Place:
Presenting products or services to the customer (patient, client, end-user) in the right place and at
the right time.

The most obvious “place” is the office, facility, SurgiCenter—where the product meets the user.
In healthcare, the place for purchase decision is often separate from where and when
product/service is delivered. Keep this spectrum in mind…a change in location can impact the
decision to buy. And it’s likely that more than one “place” is involved when there are multiple
providers in the practice and/or multiple offices.

(Importantly, place can also refer to your marketplace demographics, or even the world if you
deliver services over the Internet.)

Packaging:

What the customer perceives and experiences about you, your product/service—tangible and
intangible—in every form of visual contact. (Sometimes “Physical” or “Physical Evidence.”)

This is not only the hands-on, physical container of a physical product…the definition is also
experiential, and often more so for healthcare marketing. Look at this through the end-user’s
window, and everything counts. Take a fresh look—as if for the first time—at the appearance of
the physical office or location, the impression of your reception area, the look and feel of
brochures and website, and even the appearance of staff.

Some doctors never walk through the front door of their own office. Try it. You might be
surprised to see what patients are seeing as they form their first impressions. (First impressions
take about 10 seconds to form…and you’ve only got one shot at it.)

Packaging can also refer to how you bundle services (think of a plastic surgeon offering a
“mommy makeover” —lipo and tummy tuck—for moms who have finished having children).

Positioning:

How your brand, product or service is perceived in the hearts and minds of customers and
prospective customers.

Positioning means, “Why you?” Another toughie.

Think of positioning as what you would want people—both patients and prospective patients or
customers—to say about you? Would they use the same words that are part of your marketing
message? Acknowledged experts in positioning, authors Reis and Trout, say that what your
customers think and say about you is an absolute critical success factor. And that saw cuts in both
directions—positively and negatively.