One other aspect of hospital marketing is the demands of the patient.
I worked with an emergency room doctor who complained that his patients sometimes demanded a certain prescription by name. I asked him what he did. He said that studies show that “patients feel their emergency room visit is not complete” unless they receive a prescription. So, he gives every patient a prescription.
The same is true of cesarian sections. Women prefer to schedule around their birth, while natural childbirth is an inconvenience.
Hospitals that don’t fully service the demands of their customers find that, if they do not exceed expectations, their customers will go elsewhere. That’s how marketing became King in health care. Optimize every visit. Plus, it’s obvious just watching a little bit of today’s television commercials that drugs are presented as “optimization”. It illustrates necessity driving necessity to all points of diminishing returns.
I’m just saying, get the best return, no matter who you are. We all agree on that. A colon hygienist, like me, sees many diminishing returns provided by society that most people would not imagine.
So, stay tuned. S.