Looking at innovative multihospital systems: how marketing differs.

Multihospital systems are an important and growing component in the health care delivery system in the United States. Because formalized marketing is relatively new in multihospital systems, the potential to increase the marketing productivity of member hospitals is great. The more is known about how these systems function, the more effective will be the public and private decision making involving these systems. To that end, the authors position marketing in multihospital systems as an innovative technology and examine comparative profiles of innovative and noninnovative multihospital systems. More innovative systems, scoring higher on the marketing innovation attribute index, are characterized by greater information systems and communication support, as well as a stronger commitment to the marketing function. Strategic implications and future research directions are explored.