AMANDA SMITH PROJECT

Final Project: Health Care Services Marketing Plan

Throughout this course, you have considered the value of developing a health care services marketing plan and have determined the relevance of this process for the practice of health care administration. As you refine your skills for developing health care services marketing plans, you will be able to define, develop, and implement health programs, initiatives, or offer health care services. In addressing the needs for your target audience or community, your organization or agency will be better poised to offer effective health care delivery.

For this Final Project, review the components you submitted throughout the course and reflect on Instructor feedback. Then, revise the components and consider the short- and long-term implications of your health care services marketing plan.

The Project (17 pages, not including references)

· Component 1 (submitted in Week 2)

· Component 2 (submitted in Week 4)

· Component 3 (submitted in Week 5)

· Component 4 (submitted in Week 6)

· Component 5 (submitted in Week 7)

· Component 6 (submitted in Week 8)

· Component 7 (submitted in Week 9)

· Component 8 In 2 pages, explain the short-term and long-term potential impacts of the health care services outlined in your health care services marketing plan.

Be sure to provide 10 to 15 references to support your entire health care services marketing plan submission.

NO PLAGIARISM PLEASE

Running head: Culturally Sensitive Health Services and Marketing Plans 2

Culturally Sensitive Health Services and Marketing Plans 2

INSTRUCTOR FEED BACK

Hello. Nice job discussing cultural considerations and sensitivity as it relates to your marketing plan. You also did a good job describing ways to overcome barriers. Great work!

Culturally Sensitive Health Services and Marketing Plans

Culturally sensitive healthcare refers to care that shows the ability to respond appropriately to the feelings, circumstances, and attitudes of groups of people who share a distinctive and common national, racial, linguistic, cultural, or religious heritage. Culturally the target population should be researched and considered before health care administrators marketing health care services and programs. It is also essential to assess the languages, cultural beliefs, and history of the target population to ensure effective communication (Tucker et al., 2020). The administrator should ensure that the target population receives the intended message appropriately. This paper outlines culturally sensitive and appropriate elements of the health care service of a marketing plan for rehabilitation services for nicotine addicts and how and why they might affect marketing plans.

The culturally sensitive and appropriate marketing elements for nicotine addicts involve implementing an approach that would ignore or diminish a patient’s race and cultural differences and serve the client’s actual needs without any judgment. Most nicotine addicts show high comorbidity with different mental illnesses such as anxiety disorders, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nicotine stimulates the brain’s pleasure centers, mimicking dopamine to make the bran start associating nicotine use with a good feeling. Nicotine alters the brain, leading to withdrawal symptoms when one tries to quit. The best way to ensure culturally sensitive and appropriateness are useful for the plan is by implementing the LEARN (Listen, Elicit, Assess, Recommend) plan. This plan ensures that the client’s needs are met without being racially profiled. Nicotine addicts are in all social classes. They have different stereotypes attached to their nicotine consumption. Some people also have an attitude towards nicotine smokers, making it hard for them to cope. The learning plan ensures that nicotine addicts are listened to and assessed effectively to recommend effective recovery programs for them.

It enables healthcare professionals to avoid focusing on cultural views and stereotypes that give nicotine addicts a hard time to quit smoking. The lean plan enables healthcare professionals to listen to the nicotine addicts’ demands and understand them. The elicit process involves encouraging addicts to take responsibility for their actions to get the help they need. The assessment approach consists of applying a lively setting for all behavioral issues associated with nicotine addiction without judging the addicts. The recommending stage ensures that addicts are enrolled in the correct programs to help them quit nicotine consumption. The negotiation process involves enabling the addict to understand their triggers and replace them with healthier habits to allow them to stop smoking as time goes on. Since nicotine is consumed by people of different ages, cultures, social classes, and religions, it is vital to understand a patient’s background to know how to approach them without being condescending.

The culturally sensitive and appropriate considerations may positively affect the marketing plan because they help address the clients’ needs without being judgmental. Medical providers might find it challenging to offer the necessary services because of unfavorable patient behaviors (Hunt, 2019). However, the marketing plan approach aims to help clients meet their goals to resume their everyday lives. Healthcare professionals should identify the best ways to approach the target population to get the message across correctly. Rituals and values should be prioritized because they play a vital role in marketing strategies since they focus on daily interactions. Individual thought processes also determine the effectiveness of the marketing plan because people understand and approach things differently.

In conclusion, the LEARN plan will help attain a culturally sensitive and appropriate marketing plan for nicotine addicts. They will have an opportunity to express themselves and get suitable recommendations and assistance from healthcare professionals on their journey to quitting nicotine consumption. Culturally sensitive and appropriate considerations are likely to positively impact the clients because they encourage them to open up to health care professionals without being judged.

References:

Hunt, J. (2019). Cultural Influences on Marketing Strategies. Retrieved from

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/cultural-influences-marketing-strategies-26121.html

Tucker, C., Arthur, T., Roncoroni, J., Wall, W., & Sanchez, J. (2020). Patient-Centered, Culturally Sensitive Health Care. Retrieved from

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Patient-Centered%2C-Culturally-Sensitive-Health-Care-Tucker-Arthur/beaf7460aa4bb5e788b4b6043cb867657c21c9c1

Running head: Health Literacy 2

Health Literacy 2

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

Hello! You did a good job discussing your population along with 2 barriers and potential solutions. Nice work!

Health Literacy

Health literacy is the ability of a person to process and understand the necessary health information required to make informed health decisions (Stewart et al., 2013). Primarily, an individual must read and comprehend essential health information to be considered health literate. Research indicates that individuals who smoke express low cognitive ability and are likely to make meaning of important health warning concerning smoking. Smoking affects the vascular system, which may have negative impacts on the cognitive functions of an individual. Health care practitioners must ensure the patients’ safety and that they are given the best quality care. The target populations must be considered and the population audience to meet the needs of the customers. It is difficult to target the appropriate audience while conducting health literacy since some audience may see the message as insulting, resulting in negative impacts on some individuals. Health care literacy has a direct effect on the effectiveness of marketing health care programs.

The target audience for my plan is tobacco smokers. The audience is among the people with low health literacy. They exhibit malicious health behavior as well as poor health outcomes. Nonetheless, they experience a high smoking prevalence and have a difficult time quitting. Despite the warning concerning smoking’s health hazards, they continue with the act and do not care about their actions’ long-term implications (McCormack et al., 2017). The use of relevant tools helps health practitioners to promote health literacy among the group. Besides, conducting assessments and tests helps in reaching the target audience. The test assessment is essential in implementing communication strategies that suit the target audience. The market plan will also have community outreach programs, where health experts reach out to the members of the society to teach them about the health effects of tobacco and recommended ways of evading the addictive effects of the drug.

The marketing plan will focus on the target audience’s health literacy that ensures information perception is adequate and influences the desired change among the target group members. The strategies that will be essential to the plan include media literacy involving social media and billboards to ensure effective marketing practices and promote uptake in the target audience. Media literacy will positively impact the targeted group since media spreads complimentary value messages effectively and has strong persuasive influence among the target group (Stewart et al., 2013). Besides, it can reach many people who share the same characteristics as the target group. Similarly, media can easily be integrated with other marketing aspects to enhance the delivery of the plan.

Primarily, the use of media programs and other brochures and education endeavors will enhance the tobacco program’s use and reduce the abuse of tobacco among the target group. The plan should take advantage of social events that attract many people to deliver their message. Most people are likely to smoke during parties and other events, which is an opportunity to reach the target population (McCormack et al., 2017). The first strategy to ensure the message reaches the target audience is writing the message simply and understandably to make it easy for the group’s interpretation. Besides, the message can be written in the language that is best understood by the target group to facilitate understanding.

References

McCormack, L., Thomas, V., Lewis, M. A., & Rudd, R. (2017). Improving low health literacy and patient engagement: a social ecological approach. Patient education and counseling, 100(1), 8-13.

Stewart, D. W., Adams, C. E., Cano, M. A., Correa-Fernández, V., Li, Y., Waters, A. J., … & Vidrine, J. I. (2013). Associations between health literacy and established predictors of smoking cessation. American journal of public health, 103(7), e43-e49.

Runninghead: Evaluation Plan 1

Evaluation Plan 2

Instructor Feedback

NONE

Describing the Overall Evaluation Plan: Formative and Outcome Evaluation

Different organizations are offering healthcare services, and therefore, competition in this industry has increased. To make sure that our organization can retain its market share and customers, few strategies must be put in place to attract customers. Marketing will help make customers aware of the services and products being presented by our healthcare organization, and therefore it is essential. Marketing is usually costly and requires a crucial process of developing a marketing plan and then implementing it (Ramsenthaler, 2016). A marketing plan is a report which outlines the marketing strategy being adopted by the organization. The implementation of this plan involves the strategies that will ensure that all the project campaigns are carried out within the set timeline and that all the costs are well budgeted. This paper will highlight the process of implementing a marketing plan in the subsequent paragraphs.

Processes of Implementing a Marketing Plan

Strategy implementation, also known as the marketing mix, is the costliest step in marketing and involves four cornerstones, which are pricing policy, product policy, communication policy, and distribution policy. Before implementing the marketing plan, it is crucial to identify a team responsible for implementing all the project campaigns for marketing. Communication is important at this stage so that all the team members are familiar with the implementation process’s objectives to ensure that this process runs smoothly (Richards, 2017). Timeline, timeframe, and the tools that are needed in the implementation of the strategies have to be laid out clearly so that they are easy to follow.

Marketing timeline and timeframe

Having a well laid out timeline helps plan all the activities being carried out in the implementation process and prevent actions from being mixed up. A timeline contains information such as the budget for a particular project, the group responsible for carrying out the project, and the time the project will run. For example, in my health implementation program, I choose to construct an annual timeframe meaning that my campaign activities will be distributed across all the twelve months. All the important events such as the hospital anniversary, HIV AIDS day, Cancer awareness month, and all other significant events in the hospital calendar must be included to plan effectively how marketing campaigns will be carried out. Also, the goals for each campaign project have to be clearly laid out so that I can track the success of the project (CosSchedule, 2020).

Tools needed

For implementing a marketing plan, several tools can be used to ensure that the implementation process is carried out smoothly. The use of project management software can help assign tasks of various projects to the team members and set the deadlines for all the projects. Having software makes it easy to make any necessary adjustments needed in the implementation process. A dashboard is also a needed tool that can help track all the marketing KPIs and metrics and then easily display the analyzed data to understand (CosSchedule, 2020). This will track if the marketing strategies have been successful according to the revenue being made by the organization.

Challenges

Lack of resources to implement the marketing plan is one barrier that I can face. This is because implementing a marketing plan is very costly and may require more resources than earlier budgeted. Therefore, I can adapt by being flexible in making budgets for different project campaigns and utilizing minimal resources provided (Richards, 2017). Also, it is best to choose a strategy implementation method which is accessible, affordable, and scalable.

References:

CosSchedule, (2020). How to Plan Projects, Events, and Campaigns With Marketing Timelines. Retrieved from https://coschedule.com/marketing-strategy/marketing-timelines/

Ramsenthaler, P. (2016). The 5 Elements of effective Marketing Planning. Retrieved from https://www.marmind.com/en/5-elements-effective-marketing-planning/

Richards, F. (2017). How to Create an Implementation Time-line for a Marketing Plan. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/how-8467396-create-implementation-timeline-marketing-plan.html

Running Head: Agency Mission and Vision 2

Agency Mission and Vision 2

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

Hello! You did a good describing your organization to include how the mission and vision supports your marketing plan. I’m looking forward to see it develop!

Agency Mission and Vision

Premium Home Health Agency

Premium Home Health Agency main aim is to provide the best healthcare services to different individuals who come to ensure better health. This company was able to open its doors to the public in the year 2001 to make sure that it has provided exceptional health in the comfort of the home. This means that individuals could easily access better health services and consult healthcare professionals from their homes. The main goal that the organization had is to make sure that it has been in a position to offer accessible, cost-effective, and optimum health to promote health, ensure there is the prevention of disease, and offer treatment that will improve the quality of life of the citizens (Berkowitz, 2016). The association’s staff is determined to make sure that they can communicate with other efficient healthcare professionals to be able to bridge the gap that lies between the patient and their families. This is to make sure that an optimum climate has been created for faster healing and wellness of the patient.

The organization’s team understands the significance of offering immediate services from professionals who are skilled and well-trained. Therefore, the association can take pride in employing the best healthcare professionals. At all times, the organization makes sure that it has done the best background check on the employees, verification of certificates and license, counterchecking the driving license carrying out the skill validation tests, and the onsite orientation before acquiring an employment opportunity. The continuous advocation of education is one thing that the group does to ensure that the staff has the right skills and knowledge. The field of medicine changes constantly.

This agency’s services include the best wound care, post-surgical care, care offered to chronic medical conditions, ostomy care, and injections. We also offered home-based treatment such as personal care and aiding in the homemaking services. The company also provides therapy services that are made up of the emotional disability and the impact that the illness has on the individual. There is a home dietician that is part of the services offered to determine effective ways of meeting different dietary needs of the patient. Apart from nutritional care, there is also the counseling services that are provided to the patients (Webb, 2016).

The Mission

To provide the best quality of healthcare services, cost-effective, skilled, and personalized care to those confined to their homes.

The target audience for this health agency is those individuals who cannot find their way to the hospital. For instance, the elderly individuals, those individuals living with a disability, and those dealing with chronic health illnesses.

The Vision

Premier Home Health works hard to ensure that they are the leading organization in offering home-based care and the best health care staffing services.

The corporation has been working hard toward ensuring that it is one of the best. Offering home-based care is one of the things that has given the company the best reputation.

The agency accepts referrals from different healthcare businesses. Through coordination and the required communication, the group keeps its clients informed of every step of the way to ensure smooth transition and continuity of care. The organization arranges for any special needs that the patients may have and continuously assesses the patients’ needs during their time with the professional from the corporation. The provision of quality healthcare has always been the priority of the organization.

The Marketing Plan

The marketing plan will be of great significance to the corporation in ensuring that it offers the best services and continuously improves care quality. The marketing strategies include:

· Using consistent healthcare branding. This helps the group be confident, especially when its expertise sets it apart from the other healthcare providers, hospitals, and doctors. One of the most significant things in branding is that the association needs to have a clear understanding of what its brand is all about (Clark et al., 2016). 

· Carrying out an evaluation. The presence of the company’s website acts as a new front door to the company’s success. The first impression the organization gives to a patient will either make the patient seek healthcare services or completely shun away from healthcare practices. Changes have to be made to the corporation website to cater for the experience of the patient. 

· To get more patients going for your website, it is important to build a responsive website. This website automatically adjusts to the screen’s size that the patient is using, for example, a computer, laptop, or phone. 

· Ask for reviews from the patients who have received your services. However, this should be done when they feel that they can do it. Having positive reviews from the patients increases the chances of having more loyal customers seeking the organization’s healthcare services. 

In the organization’s market effort, make sure that you follow up on the patient’s review with feedback. Sometimes, you cannot help it when the patient has a poor opinion about the agency’s services. The only thing that you can do is following up the idea given with feedback to indicate that you are working on the problem that has been addressed (Armstrong et al., 2018).

References

Armstrong, G. M., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2018). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson UK.

Berkowitz, E. N. (2016). Essentials of health care marketing. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Clark, J. A., Gates, B. J., McKeirnan, K. C., & Sclar, D. A. (2016). Assessed value of consultant pharmacist services in a home health care agency. The Consultant Pharmacist®, 31(3), 161-167. Retrieved from

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ascp/tcp/2016/00000031/00000003/art00005

Webb, R. (2016). Agency: Starting a Creative Firm in the Age of Digital Marketing. Springer.

Runninghead: Formative Evaluation 1

Formative Evaluation 5

Instructor feedback

Hello. You successfully provided examples of formative evaluation for your chosen health program and also described the purpose of formative evaluation to aid in your marketing plan. Nice work!

Formative Evaluation: Determining Intervention Needs and Approaches

Formative evaluation is an important thing and tool to use when coming up with a program that is to be developed and implemented. It helps provide information that is critical to improving and a given program and, at the same time, allowing it to achieve its ultimate objectives. Therefore, health care evaluation is a critical in-depth look through different processes that encircles a health care facility whose main aim is to fulfill its long-term and short-term goals. These healthcare aspects that are looked at in-depth include effectiveness, which its benefits are measured by developments in the health sector (Rostami et al., 2018). The formative evaluation process is carried in before a program is even implemented. This shows its importance in predicting that the program needs to target the results from this will at long last help, thus determining the type of program to be adopted to suit the kind and style of audience and community, respectively. Thus, this paper will take its time to look at and evaluate different examples of formative evaluation around the health sector in terms of programs that can be efficiently used in the marketing plan of the same. It will also look at how constructive methods can be included and mixed in designing a health care service marketing plan.

There are different types of formative evaluation programs that can be used to market a healthcare program. This evaluation designs help in a great way to assess health marketing and disease prevention programs. Each of this type uses different approaches and, collection of data and measuring the data collected.

Process evaluation is a formative evaluation method whereby it takes time to assess the type of program and activities or services that the healthcare program targets to take. It also deals in evaluating the quantity that is the magnitude of the program in that the extent to which the program will have an impact on both the community that it targets and the people and the number of individuals per kilometer squared that it wants to reach out to and affect. The process evaluation type of formative evaluation also sees that it evaluates the program’s quality and the services that the same needs and hopes to achieve in the long run (McGowan et al., 2018). When this is captured in the formative evaluation program, it will be a good marketing plan whereby the goals and the long-term objectives of the said healthcare program are set to achieve in the end.

Outcome evaluation is a formative evaluation type where the evaluation looks at the proposed program’s short-term and long-term goals. These goals and objectives are put in a way that will explain the changes in conditions related to health, the type of life that is lived. In this case, the objective will be a quality lifestyle and behaviors that should be adopted in the long run, which should be positive behaviors that will eventually lead to the better living of the program’s people. The objectives stated in this e type of formative evaluation are supposed to clear and precise, which will be an added advantage to the program’s marketing strategy. (Parry et al., 2017).

The formative evaluation methods are basic and straightforward. It is important to note that the ultimate goal for this formative evaluation process is to monitor the thing that they are applied to and, at the same time, give active feedback that can be used by the designer to improve the program (Lee et al., 2018). The main things that these methods look to achieve are identifying strengths and weaknesses and targeting the areas that need to be corrected. It also helps identify the areas that the prospects of the program are struggling at and provide immediate solutions to the same. For instance, in the process evaluation technique, the program will draw a concept that will be represented in the form of a picture that will try to develop a simplified model of the program easily understood by the individual parties. This will include the activities that the program targets to take and how it will take it. This is important since it will provide a road map of the whole program in a nutshell and how it can be achieved. The method will also capture the entire program’s main points to capture the activities that include the quality, quantity, and magnitude of the said program (Lee et al., 2018).

To conclude, formative evaluation is an important tool to have while seeking to propose a program that an individual or an organization has. This tool is essential since it helps make the whole program focused and makes the program easy to achieve its ultimate short term and long-term goals in a scheduled timeline that will not stress the program itself. Therefore, the importance of this cannot be underestimated in any field that one wants to explore. In our case in the health sector, formative evaluations have so much information that can be learned from and correcting mistakes for future correctness and perfectness, which will result in the long run foster success of the said program..

References

Lee, A., Sandvei, M., Asmussen, H. C., Skougaard, M., Macdonald, J., Zavada, J., … & Gudbergsen, H. (2018). The development of complex digital health solutions: formative evaluation combining different methodologies. JMIR Research Protocols, 7(7), e165. Retrived from,

https://www.researchprotocols.org/2018/7/e165/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

McGowan, J. J., Cusack, C. M., & Poon, E. G. (2018). Formative evaluation: a critical component in EHR implementation. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 15(3), 297-301. Retrieved from,

https://academic.oup.com/jamia/article-abstract/15/3/297/728289

Parry, G. J., Carson-Stevens, A., Luff, D. F., McPherson, M. E., & Goldmann, D. A. (2017). Recommendations for evaluation of health care improvement initiatives. Academic pediatrics, 13(6), S23-S30.retrieved from,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285913000995

Rostami, P., Ashcroft, D. M., & Tully, M. P. (2018). A formative evaluation of the implementation of a medication safety data collection tool in English healthcare settings: A qualitative interview study using normalisation process theory. PloS one, 13(2), e0192224. Retrieved from,

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0192224

Running head: Social Media Tools for Health Care Services 1

Social Media Tools for Health Care Services 2

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

Hello. Good idea for the marketing plan,. In addition, both media platforms you selected are appropriate for this assignment. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops. Thanks!

Social Media Tools for Health Care Services

The healthcare service that I want to create is a marketing plan for rehabilitation services for nicotine addicts. My interest in this topic is not about the thrill of creating awareness, but because nicotine addicts are among the most struggling drug addicts there is. Cigarettes’ smoking is a habit that has a high rate of addicts and a hard habit of quitting (Kemp et al., 2017). Therefore, such a service will help people of all demographics to get medical help to stop. One should note that not all smokers enjoy smoking; according to research, most smokers have testified to enjoy the relief they get from their nicotine withdrawal symptoms but immediately after they start feeling a negative mood change.

Statistically, 71% of smokers regret smoking, 21% do not know their regret status, and 8% outrightly say that they do not regret smoking (Leek et al., 2019). This service is essential for the more significant percentage that regrets and is unable to quit the habit. There are numerous benefits of quitting smoking; for instance, smokers’ average life expectancy is reduced by ten years compared to nonsmokers (Leek et al., 2019). Smokers are also at a high risk of diabetes, lung and heart diseases, and a smoker that quits before 40 reduces the chances of dying from a smoking-related condition by about 90%. Besides, no human being wants to live with the fear that their life is shortened compared to the average person. The potential targets would be older adults of the age of 29-40.

Social media has brought a tremendous change in the health industry. Its use has increased because of its ability to get beyond geographic and physical barriers. The two social media tools that I’ll use for the marketing plan is Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook presence is essential for a basic social media plan for any healthcare organization. The platform and its users are constantly developing for the better, making it a profitable business platform. There are many about 200 social networking sites; among them, Facebook is the leading with about 700 million registered users, including about half of the American population.

Facebook is the right choice for my marketing plan because of the high number of people on the site and the 1.79 billion daily active users. A survey conducted on the benefit of social media on healthcare by the National Research Corp, more than 40% of the respondents’ bank on interacting social sites for health updates, and almost all folks rely on Facebook for information. This means that using this platform for my marketing plan will ensure that I reach many people than any other social site (Martin & Birgit, 2020). Facebook may not be 100% reliable for all healthcare processes, but studies have proven that it is efficient for healthcare marketing.

Twitter is a real-time messaging service that can work over multiple networks and devices. In 2006 the site was launched as a free microblogging service where users can write and read short messages from numerous users. Users also receive message updates from authors they have chosen to follow (Martin & Birgit, 2020). This is an excellent site to ensure that healthcare marketing projects will work. The main aim of Twitter is to create a community of followers and provide information for passive research. Generally, people have increased in using technology, and social media sites have been a means to business as today, companies are done digitally. This makes Twitter one of the main platforms for marketing.

This site’s importance is that as much as it does not drive so much traffic at a go, an advertiser is sure that the people following them are interested in the product or service. Therefore, Twitter is essential for the health marketing plan. Statistics show that there are one billion smokers in the world. This number indicates that there is a large number of smokers, about 3/4, are using social media.

Social media will generally be useful in my healthcare marketing project because little time in a week can go a long way in ensuring that the message is out to different people in different geographical areas. Statistics show that about 84% of marketers can generate traffic within six hours.

References:

Kemp, E., Bui, M., Krishen, A., Homer, P. M., & LaTour, M. S. (2017). Understanding the power of hope and empathy in healthcare marketing. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Retrieved from 

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCM-04-2016-1765/full/html?fullSc=1

Leek, S., Houghton, D., & Canning, L. (2019). Twitter and behavioral engagement in the healthcare sector: An examination of product and service companies. Industrial Marketing Management, 81, 115-129. Retrieved from 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850117301128

Martin, S., & Birgit, G. (2020). Intensive WOM-behavior in the healthcare sector–the case of an Austrian hospital’s Facebook site. International Review on Public and Non-Profit Marketing, 17(3), 331-352. Retrieved from 

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12208-020-00250-7

Running head: Engage Target Audience/Communities 1

Engage Target Audience/Communities 5

INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

Hello! You did a good job discussing your population along with 2 barriers and potential solutions. Nice work!

Engage Target Audience/Communities

Community engagement is a way that ensures community members, or the proposed focus group has access to the proposed service, and they can contribute and understand what the service is all about. The group develops functional capabilities that help them to participate fully. Community engagement is also essential because it ensures the services to be provided will meet the needs of the group being served. Engaging the target audience means knowing and understanding the audience. This paper discusses the ways and barriers that a health care administrator faces when beginning to target a specific group.

Patients should be engaged in prenatal care because pregnant women can make informed decisions to improve their care, health, and babies’ health (Lally & Lewis, 2015). Patient engagement involves a patient and a group that gains education about the benefits of the service(s) that will be provided and the risks while sanctioning them to make well-versed decisions in acquaintance with the healthcare practitioner(s). Pregnant women should often be engaged because they have more tasks awaiting, especially after delivery.

This kind of group needs to be educated, which can be done using verbal and written communication methods. Education and communication are some of the best strategies that can be applied when engaging with this particular group. Because when the group is educated about the condition and the services to be offered as well as their choices, they will feel more empowered to partner with the care provider or administrator (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2018). Oral communication includes meeting with this group and telling them about the free prenatal care service. This can involve illustrations such as how the free service will help them and why the service is free. By doing this, there will be no more anxiety. Written communication involves illustrating the free prenatal care service either on a white/blackboard or a sheet/manila paper.

In this case scenario, it clear that this group has not had access to a traditional healthcare service delivery. The best way that Andre will have to deal with this is by holding a public education campaign that will help inform the women about maternity practices or the service going to be rendered (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2018). Public campaigns are also useful in ensuring there is an excellent relationship between the provider and the group.

This group (pregnant women) should be encouraged to ask questions. Questions are the best way of engaging or bringing up a debate, and in this case, everyone can contribute. This group can be afraid to ask questions, and so if encouraged, they can open up what they want and how they want it. Other than asking questions, feedback should be encouraged. The administrator should provide a channel where the group can make comments based on the care they are going to receive.

Shared decision-making is a strategy that is useable to engage pregnant mothers. This includes a collaborative process where there is a close relationship between the patient/group and the provider. The most applied methodologies for facilitating shared decision-making process consists of the patient decision aids. This kind of strategy is very significant because it has drawings and structures that illustrate the procedures, treatment conditions, and fact sheets. Also, they include filmed videos between healthcare practitioners and patients in a similar situation. Pregnant women, in this case, make informed decisions based on maternity care. This strategy is said to lessen decisional conflict as well as nervousness.

Cellphones are common, and they should be utilized in this case scenario. Almost every pregnant woman has a cell phone and knows how it is used. Cellphones can be applied for calling, texting, doing research, or even emailing. This means that this group of pregnant women can reach healthcare providers using these devices through calling, sending a text message, or emailing. This group can also do some research based on health info then use the information to make better decisions. There are free cellphone messages such as Text4baby, which deliver evidence-cognizant info about pregnancy, natal and caring for infants.

There are several barriers that the healthcare administrator will encounter while promoting this health service marketing plan. Language is the most significant barrier because if the health care administrator fails to use simple language, the group obtains little practical edification about the service (Chegini et al., 2020). If this group does not have continuous education, they may end up not getting the intended message at the end of it all. The best thing or strategy that can be employed to deal with this barrier is to use simple language that is easily understood. Most pregnant women understand simple language.

Even if cell phones are ordinary, they aren’t familiar to all, and some of the people in this particular group may not have access to cell phones or some may have smartphones, but they don’t know how they are used. As stated earlier, cellphones can be utilized to promote the prenatal health service, but this becomes a barrier when some people within the group do not recognize how they are utilized. At times, technology is intimidating to those who rarely use (Chegini et al., 2020). To ensure everyone understands how cell phones are used, the healthcare administrator can show them practically. For instance, Andre can use one cell phone belonging to the group member to send a text message, call or even send an email. This way, the group will understand how the cellphone is used.

Culture is also a barrier, and most of them may refuse to engage. The group comprises people from different cultures, and even if some will be into the plan, some may not be because of their cultural beliefs. Some cultures do not believe or accept treatment, and they avoid comprehensive medical information. The health care administrator should have an interpreter from that particular culture who will help define the free prenatal care service’s importance.

References

Chegini, Z., Janati, A., Babaie, J., & Pouraghaei, M. (2020). Exploring the barriers to patient engagement in the delivery of safe care in Iranian hospitals: A qualitative study. Nursing open, 7(1), 457-465. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nop2.411

Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L. (2018). Target marketing in the health services industry: the value of journeying off the beaten path. BMC Health Services Research, 18(3), 17-21. Retrieved from

https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3678-5

Lally, S., & Lewis, V. (2015). Maternity Care Patient Engagement Strategies, Vol. 12. Oakland, CA: Intgrated Healthcare Association.[Google Scholar]. Retrieved from

https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-MaternityCarePtEngagementStrategiesIHA