A planning and marketing prototype for changing health care organizations.

The U.S. health care industry is undergoing a radical transformation. The consolidation of excess hospital capacity, fierce competition within a shrinking medical marketplace and a growing number of competitive health plans (PPOs and HMOs) are causing a major structural realignment within most health care organizations (HCOs). This realignment has resulted in a much greater reliance upon strategic planning and marketing by HCOs to cope with market-driven competitive challenges. Health care organizations must identify a new cadre of health professionals to support strategic planning, market promotion, market research, market sales and product line management. This new cadre must hold the value that customers (physicians, patients, and employers) are the most valuable asset of the health care organizations. The planning and marketing prototype depicted herein is designed to help HCOs find, differentiate and keep customers.