HA575 Unit 6 Assignment: Marketing Tools in Healthcare - Rural MN

This assignment analyzes healthcare marketing strategies, specifically focusing on skilled nursing facilities in rural Minnesota. It begins with an overview of skilled nursing facilities, their role, and the demographics of the chosen location, Minnesota, highlighting the significant senior adult population and the challenges of access due to cost. The core of the assignment evaluates three marketing tools: newspaper, television, and radio advertisements. It explains the rationale behind selecting these tools based on their potential to reach the target audience. The assignment also discusses the advantages of these tools, such as their effectiveness in reaching the elderly population, and acknowledges the disadvantages, including the limitations of radio, potential disruptions in television signals, and the higher costs compared to other marketing approaches. The paper concludes with a call to consider social media as a marketing tool. The assignment uses supporting evidence from various research studies and references to justify its claims and recommendations.

Running head: HEALTHCARE MARKETING
HEALTHCARE MARKETING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1HEALTHCARE MARKETING
Overview of healthcare organization:
The specialised care facility that has been chosen as the area of focus in this paper
includes the Skilled Nursing Facility. According to Gilligan and Lowe (2018), a skilled
nursing facility is compared equivalent to the special facility or a unit of the hospital that
provides appropriate care services from the nursing professionals and a multidisciplinary
team of care professionals. A specialised nursing facility comprises of a team of RN,
nutritionist, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, audiologists and speech therapists who
cater to the holistic needs of a patient suffering from chronic illness disorders (Gilligan &
Lowe, 2018). These care organizations primarily render care services that are aligned to the
specialised care needs of the patients and also assist patients with activities of daily living.
The evidence base in this context reveals that a total of 377 authentic and certified Medicaid
and Medicare nursing facilities are available across Minnesota (Skillednursingfacilities.org,
2019). In addition to this, the cumulative bed capacity for the patients can be compared
equivalent to 28,968 and the approximate monthly expenditure of availing services within the
35% of the top ranking facilities is equivalent to $7034 (Skillednursingfacilities.org, 2019).
The overwhelming increased expense accounts for the reason why the access to these care
facilities is remarkably poor.
Demographics of the selected location:
Minnesota is located within the Northern Midwestern region of the U.S and the total
population base of Minnesota is equivalent to 5,655,925 (Worldpopulationreview.com,
2019). Approximately 60% of the population is based within the Minneapolis-St. Paul
metropolitan area and the remaining 40% is distributed across other regions
(Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019). In addition to this, statistical evidence further reveals
that out of the total population base, approximately 803,718 of the entire population base are

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senior adults. Further, the average household earnings of the population base can be
compared equivalent to $41,827 on yearly basis (Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019). Out
It should further be noted that the epidemiological studies mention that approximately
60% of the total proportion of the senior adults suffer from chronic illness disorders which
adds to the disease burden of the elderly (Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019). Further, the
increased cost of availing services within the best advanced nursing facilities in Minnesota
leads to poor access. Also, it is integral to note in this context that 63% of the 5-star advanced
nursing care facilities are located across the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, which
reduces the availability of care services in other regions of Minnesota
(Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019).
A number of research studies mention that the integration of affordable specialised
nursing facilities within the entire geographical region of Minnesota would help to improve
the quality of life of the senior adults and at the same time improve the existing life
expectancy (Ben Ayed & El Aoud, 2017). Integration of affordable specialised nursing care
service facilities within Rural Minnesota would help to acquire positive patient outcome and
alleviate the standard of living of the aged and the ageing population.
Advantages of using marketing tools at the identified location:
The three marketing tools that would be used to advertise affordable specialised
nursing care facilities would include, Newspaper, Television and Radio Advertisement. The
rationale for the choice of the three marketing tools can be explained as the effectiveness of
the chosen marketing tools to reach out to a major proportion of the rural population base of
Minnesota (Ben Ayed & El Aoud, 2017). As has already been explained a significant
proportion ( ~34.3%) of the rural population base includes old age adults, advertising on
Newspaper, Radio and Television would help to create a maximum impact and acquire a

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maximum consumer response (Mukherjee, 2015). Research studies on leisure and lifestyle
choices of senior adults suggest that more than 87.24% of the senior adults aged 65 years and
older like to spend their leisure time in watching television, listening to radio or reading
newspapers (Cutilli et al., 2018). Based on the supporting evidence, the choice of the three
marketing tools can be justified. Therefore, it can be expected that the using the three
mentioned marketing tools of television, radio and newspaper maximum impact can be
created which can help to promote the idea of skilled nursing care facilities.
Disadvantages of using marketing tools at the identified location:
On analysing the statistical evidence on the population demographics it can be stated
that the chosen marketing tools to advertise the proposed facility would help to acquire the
attention of the targeted audience (old age) population. However, a limitation of using radio
as a marketing tool can be explained as the shift in consumers leisure taste. Radio
advertisement has been studied to only create 15% to 20% of marketing impact (Cutilli et al.,
2018). Further, the use of newspaper and television in recent times have been studied to
create an awareness impact of 70% to 73% among the targeted audience (Cutilli et al., 2018).
However, risk factors pertaining to poor signalling or interrupted power supply can impact
the level of awareness created by television as a marketing tool. Another limiting factor could
be streamlining the targeted audience to old age adults (Mukherjee, 2015). The use of social
media advertisement could help to create a wider impact on a broader targeted audience.
Also, the cost of using the three marketing tools would be higher compared to other economic
marketing tools (Ben Ayed & El Aoud, 2017).

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References:
Ben Ayed, M., & El Aoud, N. (2017). The patient empowerment: A promising concept in
healthcare marketing. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 10(1), 42-48.
Cutilli, C. C., Simko, L. C., Colbert, A. M., & Bennett, I. M. (2018). Health literacy, health
disparities, and sources of health information in US older adults. Orthopaedic
Nursing, 37(1), 54-65.
Gilligan, C., & Lowe, R. (2018). Marketing and healthcare organizations. CRC Press.P.90
Mukherjee, A. (2015). Role of communications in healthcare marketing. International Journal
of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 9(4).
Skillednursingfacilities.org (2019). Minnesota Skilled Nursing Home Facilities - view all
skilled nursing home facilities in MN. [online] Skillednursingfacilities.org. Available
at: https://www.skillednursingfacilities.org/directory/mn/ [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].
Worldpopulationreview.com (2019). [online] Worldpopulationreview.com. Available at:
http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/minnesota-population/ [Accessed 10 Sep.
2019].