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Executive
Summary
The
Struggle for Equality in Healthcare Continues
Everard 0. Rutledge, Ph.D., FACHE, vice president, Community
Health, Bon Secours Health System, Marriottsville, Maryland
All
healthcare providers, both institutional and individual, must make
every effort ensure that every person who seeks their medical care
is offered competent, sincere, and equal treatment options. Unfortunately,
this ideal scenario does not take into account the lack of diversity
among care providers and the lack of culturally competent policies
within healthcare delivery settings. As a result, many care providers
continue to follow racially biased treatment practices and many
organizations continue to ignore their public trust of providing
fair treatment to everyone, regardless of skin color, gender, economic
capabilities, etc. Although developing and implementing a diversity
plan and culturally competent policies is very complex practically,
politically, and programmatically for traditional institutional
care providers, it must be done. The key ingredient to this effort
is the absolute commitment and support of the organization's governing
bodies and executive management.
Institutions
can certainly volunteer and begin to develop such programs that
foster recruitment, selection, and retention of culturally competent
care providers to ensure that equal healthcare is received by their
patient populations. However, many institutions are already besieged
by too many healthcare challenges to vol-unteer for such an effort.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
and the National Council of Quality Assurance can certainly help
jumpstart this effort by establishing an accreditation standard
that requires all healthcare providers to establish and practice
culturally competent care within their organizations. Providers
must also embrace the diversity that is a part of our society and
must not let race or ethnicity be a determining factor in offering
treatment options.
For
more information on this article please contact Dr. Rutledge at:
everard.rutledge@CareAlliance.com.
Executive
Summary
Hospital
Marketing Orientation and Managed Care Processes: Are They Coordinated?
Kenneth R. White Ph.D., FACHE, associate professor and director,
Graduate Program Health in Administration, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Richmond, Virginia; Jon M. Thompson, Ph.D., professor
and director, Health Services Administration Program, James Madison
University, Harrisonburg, Virginia; and Urvashi B. Patel, M.P.H.,
research associate, Department of Health Administration, Virginia
Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
The
hospital marketing function has been widely adopted as a way to
learn about markets, attract sufficient resources, develop appropriate
services, and communi-cate the availability of such goods to those
who may be able to purchase such services. The structure, tasks,
and effectiveness of the marketing function have been subject of
increased inquiry by researchers and practitioners alike. A specific
understanding of hospital marketing in a growing managed care environment
and relationship between marketing and managed care processes in
hospitals is a growing concern.
Using
Kotler and Clarke's framework for assessing marketing orientation,
we examined the marketing orientation of hospitals in a single state
at two points in time-1993 and 1999. Study findings show that the
overall marketing orientation score decreased from 1993 to 1999
for the respondent hospitals. The five elements of the Kotler and
Clarke definition of marketing orientation remained relatively stable,
with slightly lower scores related to customer philosophy. In addition,
we evaluated the degree to which selected managed care activities
are carried out as part of its marketing function. A significant
(p < .05) decrease in managed care processes coordinated with the
formal marketing function was evident from 1993 to 1999. With increasing
numbers of managed care plan enrollees, hospitals are likely focusing
on organizational buyers as important customers. In order to appeal
to organizational buyers, hospital executives may be focusing more
on clinical quality cost efficiency in the production of services,
which will improve a hospital's position with organizational buyers.
For
more information on this article or to request a survey instrument
please contact Kenneth R. White at: knwhite@vcu.edu.
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