MHA 506 Week 6 Ethical Marketing Plan Example

An Ethical Marketing Plan for Outpatient Joint Replacement: Targets, Budget and Calendar, With a Fiduciary Test Every Message Must Pass

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

MHA/506: Ethical Marketing: The New Health Care Economics

Week 6 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The health system, its targets, budget and plan are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.

When the chief executive of a composite three-hospital nonprofit system approved the outpatient joint replacement program, she gave the director of strategy and marketing one instruction beyond the budget: grow the program without ever embarrassing the system. This paper presents the ethical marketing plan that answers both parts of that instruction, drawing together the analyses of consumer behavior, segments, the market opportunity, the value proposition and the brand.

Objectives

The plan sets objectives for the first year. Volume: 520 outpatient knee and hip replacements, with at least 60% from working adults and active retirees. Referrals: primary care referrals to the system's orthopedic surgeons rising 15%. Experience: 90% of patients reporting that they knew what to expect during recovery. Employer: one signed bundled contract. Safety: 90-day complication rates at or below the hospital's.

Target Segments

Priority segments are working adults aged 50 to 64, active retirees and the region's largest self-insured employer, with primary care physicians as the most important referral audience. Patients whose other illnesses make same-day surgery unsafe are guided to the hospital program, and caregivers get information through every channel.

The Value Proposition

In brief: same-day surgery backed by a hospital, recovery support that continues at home and, for employers, a single predictable price.

Service

The service includes surgeon selection criteria, same-day discharge, a first-night call, therapy within two days, a named nurse for 90 days and, under bundled contracts, no added charge for treating specified complications during that period.

Price

The system's posted prices remain public. The employer bundle is priced about 8% below the sum of separate charges. Patients receive written estimates of their out-of-pocket costs before surgery. Few patients use price information, and in a national survey only 13% of adults with out-of-pocket spending sought it before care (Mehrotra et al., 2017), but clear estimates build trust and help those who do look.

Place

Surgery is performed at the surgery center near the growing northern suburbs, with evaluation and therapy available at clinics across the region and hospital backup five miles away.

Promotion

Promotion emphasizes physicians and useful information: visits by the program's nurse navigator to primary care practices with referral guides and outcome reports; surgeon videos answering common questions; a caregiver guide; community talks at senior centers; search advertising linking to educational pages; and a proposal to the employer's benefits team.

Budget

The first-year budget is $420,000: $140,000 for physician outreach and the nurse navigator's outreach time, $90,000 for video and written content, $70,000 for search and targeted digital advertising, $50,000 for community events, $40,000 for the employer program and $30,000 for measurement and patient surveys.

Calendar

Months one to three: physician outreach and content launch. Months four to six: community talks and the employer proposal. Months seven to twelve: review of results, adjustment of channels and publication of first outcome data.

Why Ethics Is Built In

Marketing health services is not like marketing consumer goods. A bioethics analysis argued that decisions about health care services involve information asymmetries, high stakes and patient vulnerability, which ground fiduciary responsibilities for providers and institutions, and that common advertising techniques can mislead patients and compromise those relationships, justifying stronger standards (Schenker et al., 2014). A patient deciding on surgery is relying on the organization's word, and marketing spends that trust.

The Five-Question Test

Every message, image and campaign must pass five questions before release. Is every claim accurate and supported by our data? Does it present benefits and risks in balance? Does it describe typical results, or clearly label exceptional ones? Would it be fair to a frightened patient in pain? Does it comply with privacy and inducement rules? The program's medical director and the compliance officer review all materials and can stop any message.

Setting Honest Expectations

Honesty about recovery is also good practice. In a study of 1,703 knee replacements, about 19% of patients were not satisfied, and unmet expectations were the strongest predictor of dissatisfaction (Bourne et al., 2010). All materials describe realistic timelines, including that full recovery can take months and that some patients continue to have pain.

Legal Limits

The program will offer nothing of value to patients to induce them to choose it, such as gift cards or free services beyond permitted items, and nothing of value to physicians for referrals. Outreach to physicians is educational. Patient stories require written authorization, and review replies never disclose patient information.

The Employer Program in Detail

The employer bundle deserves its own plan because a single contract could deliver a fifth of first-year volume. The proposal includes a fixed price covering surgery, implants, anesthesia, the first-night call, therapy and 90 days of follow-up; a return-to-work coordinator who works with the employer's occupational health nurse; monthly reports on each employee's progress, shared only with consent; and quarterly reviews of total cost. The system also offered to present to employees at lunchtime sessions on arthritis and when surgery makes sense, with no pressure to choose the system.

Measures

The dashboard tracks cases by segment and referral source, primary care referrals, patient-reported expectations and satisfaction, 90-day complications, cost per case, the employer contract and any ethics or privacy concerns raised. Results are reviewed monthly by the program team and quarterly by the system's leadership.

Competitor Responses

The plan anticipates competitors' responses. The physician-owned center may cut prices for the employer or offer its surgeon owners more operating time; the national surgery center company may open nearby. The system will not match every price but will compete on outcomes, coordination and the warranty, and will publish results so buyers can compare. If a competitor makes claims the system believes are misleading, it will respond with its own data rather than attacks.

Staff as Part of the Plan

Front-line staff shape how patients experience the brand and what they tell others. Schedulers, nurses and therapists received training on the program's promise, how to explain prices and how to respond to an unhappy patient. Their feedback on what patients ask about most is collected monthly and used to update content.

What Would Stop the Plan

The plan includes stopping rules. If 90-day complications rise above the hospital's rate, promotion pauses until the cause is found. If patients report that materials misled them about recovery, the materials are withdrawn and revised. Growth that comes at the cost of safety or honesty is not success under this plan.

Review and Adjustment

At six months, the director will compare results with objectives, move budget from channels that underperform to those that work and revise any message that patients report as misleading.

Conclusion

The plan meets both parts of the chief executive's instruction. Measurable objectives, focused segments, a marketing mix built on a deliverable value proposition, a realistic budget and calendar and clear measures aim to grow the program. A fiduciary view of health care marketing, a five-question test with the power to stop messages, honest expectations and legal safeguards aim to ensure it never embarrasses the system or misleads a patient.

References

Bourne, R. B., Chesworth, B. M., Davis, A. M., Mahomed, N. N., & Charron, K. D. J. (2010). Patient satisfaction after total knee arthroplasty: Who is satisfied and who is not? Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 468(1), 57-63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-1119-9

Mehrotra, A., Dean, K. M., Sinaiko, A. D., & Sood, N. (2017). Americans support price shopping for health care, but few actually seek out price information. Health Affairs, 36(8), 1392-1400. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1471

Schenker, Y., Arnold, R. M., & London, A. J. (2014). The ethics of advertising for health care services. The American Journal of Bioethics, 14(3), 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2013.879943