Abstract
The Norton Healthcare is a non-profit organization that operates Norton Hospital, Kosair Children's Hospital, and the Norton Healthcare Pavilion in the Louisville Medical Center. The healthcare society needs some agency to provide social goods, but because of their nature social goods are not compatible with the market mechanism. As there has been adverse effects of market power are offset by the provision of research in marketing for the children's ailments that is representative of the public mind to allow the hospitals to make public decisions without consulting directly as there needs to be appropriate methods in order to achieve effectiveness of such purpose and goals in the presentation of the proposed study for Kosair Children's Hospital per se.
Literature Review
''Many people believe that the goal of a marketing research and its system should be to improve the 'quality of life', range, accessibility and cost of goods and the quality of the cultural environment. They would judge marketing systems not solely by the amount of direct consumer satisfaction that is created, but by the impact of marketing activity on the quality of the physical and cultural environment. Most people would agree that quality of life is a worthwhile goal for the marketing system''. (Kotler, 1986, p. 21) There had been major change in the direction of the marketing development of the discipline and sometimes sole orientation was the managerial thrust. The discipline of marketing management evolved with its focus on company sales and profits by providing products and
services that satisfy consumers in an efficient manner in arriving at marketing decisions as well as responsibilities in such areas as health and
welfare, quality of life and civil rights are being investigated.
Moreover, childhood is the time when important elements of self-esteem are established in personality. Numerous studies associate a strong sense of self-esteem with the child's feeling of control over his environment. The inculcation of a sense of enforced helplessness may thus have more damaging results in a child than in an adult. Second, adult patients are beginning to act as their own advocates through the healthcare consumer movement and to seek changes in the system of adult health-care delivery. Thus, it is critical of the manner in which children are treated in hospitals to have an attempt to reveal the contradictions between the institutional goals and the caring goals of hospitals. The ailments that bring children to hospitals vary with the age of the child. Infants are particularly vulnerable to infections and respiratory diseases per se. Children's hospitals are also wavered under present regulations. Nevertheless, the hospitals are responding to a number of pressures for change. Furthermore, Kosair Crippled Children's Hospital opened on Eastern Parkway and rapidly established itself as the region's premier orthopedic and polio treatment facility. For decades, the hospital's doctors, nurses and therapists helped children benefit from advances in orthopedic treatment and polio care discovered elsewhere and by helping discover new treatments.
Statement of the Research Problem
During the year 1923 in the country Kentucky, poverty was commonplace with the rampant presence of diseases mostly affecting children such as typhoid fever, polio and smallpox often reached killing or disabling in their path. In the midst of despair, a group of Shriners shared an ambitious vision to prevent the ravages of these disabling diseases from the children of Kentucky to provide the highest quality health care possible for children who had nowhere else to turn. Thus, such issues carry marketing activities well beyond the usual bounds of marketing research action and have a host of interesting questions and challenges for investigation by marketing practitioners in the unfolding of the body of marketing knowledge, finding valid ways that marketing research is the cure for the children's ailments at Kosair Children's Hospital as the process calls for marketing research and the subsequent development of a well-conceived product and appeals moving through mass and specialized communication media through paid agents and voluntary groups to reach targeted audiences.
Research Question
Is Marketing Research the Cure for Norton Healthcare Kosair Children's Hospital's Ailments?
Research Objectives
Ø to assess the topic in areas where market research has been applied and could be extended in the future
Ø to evaluate appropriate research methods which have been applied successfully and the trend towards interactive and participative methods
Ø to provide information which influence the opportunities and challenges for market research in health and social care for the children
Ø to discuss the relevance of market research within the changing health context and give details to research methods and how they should be used in planning and management for the Kosair Children's Hospital
Methodology
Secondary Data
In part of the methodology, Kosair need to adopt ample marketing planning approach and that research in marketing appears to represent a bridging mechanism which links the knowledge of human behavior with the useful implementation of what that knowledge allows. It offers a useful framework for effective social planning at a time when social issues have become more critical. Moreover, physicians who work with children should be required to demonstrate a sensitivity to psychological and emotional needs just as they are required to demonstrate knowledge of physiological conditions. Therefore, the physician who will later work exclusively would benefit from the pediatric service, regardless of their ultimate career goals and must be prepared for their pediatric rotation and should incorporate material on the emotional side of children's illnesses and ways of dealing with children who suffer from specific ailments and taking
procedures.
Primary Data
Marketing strategies are important in a form of an open interview as well as the use of questionnaire surveys as the hospitals will have significant efforts to help find basic ways in providing cure for the children with ailments as well as to develop marketing strategies that focused on procedures, populations, and services as hospitals are competing for patients through direct marketing and advertising activities. More often, hospitals today are encouraging doctors to form professional associations to provide specialized services for profit contract basis. In addition, hospitals have identified those diseases which are profitable under the DRG system, and they seek to increase admissions of patients with the ailments. The marketing research have implications for human resource usage in order to take steps to run the hospital more like a business.
Survey Methodology
The questionnaire instrument is crucial in several hospitals along with the matrix program. The accuracy of the informants' recall was verified in two ways: comparing the answers of administrators and nursing directors from hospitals in which both responded and comparing informants' responses to published descriptions of their matrix programs.
The Questionnaire
The purpose for this questionnaire is to be able to find out and collate useful views and ideas from the people affiliated to Kosair Children's Hospital involving important information regarding marketing research as a cure for the children's ailments It is my honor to have your assistance to answer a series of questions. It won't take you more than 10 minutes to complete. Your views matter to each question is important in answering this questionnaire.
Part A Screening
1.
1.1
1.2
1.3 26 – 35
1.4
1.5
1.6
2. Sex of respondent
2.1
2.2
3. On the average, how many hours you would spend on your work at the Norton Healthcare along with children?
3.1
3.2 Below 1 hours
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
Part B Marketing Research
4. Do you consider marketing research as a cure for Norton Healthcare? If yes, why? (can only choose ONE answer)
Yes________
No_________
Why?______________________________________________________
For Questions 5, 6 and 7, please indicate the importance using "1" representing "VERY UNIMPORTANT" and "5" representing "VERY IMPORTANT"
5.
Good Quality Health Services for children
6. Do the above data affect your decision in choosing Norton Healthcare Kosair Children's Hospital?
Yes_____________
No______________
7. Do you agree that Kosair Children's Hospital Hong should impose marketing strategies to increase the number of admissions?
Yes_____________
No______________
- What practical suggestions do you have for solving marketing research issues? Mention only three
- Could the idea of goal setting required by the higher organization on a quarterly basis be a contributing factor for helping children with ailments? Explain your view.
- Is there a proper research program for nurturing providing discussions of the areas of concern?
Yes______________
No_______________
Briefly describe how helpful the program is in the space provided below.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- End of Questionnaire -
Timeline
Week One:
Drafting of the research proposal and the determination of such important and related studies to support any validity of findings and results
Week Two:
Collecting and Gathering of possible data information and appropriate research evidences
Week Three:
Finalization, Assessment and Evaluation of research discussions and its overall contextual process and be applicable for future research
Budget
The requested budget should not go beyond to its limitations and that the expenses in the realization of this study should be noted down properly and the budget should not exceed $100.
Bibliography
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Baker, G.R., Barnsley, J. & Murray, M. 1993, `Continuous quality improvement in Canadian health care organizations', Leadership in Health, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 18-23.
Berwick, D.M. 1989, `Continuous improvement as an ideal in health care', New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 320, no. 1, pp. 53-6.
Dean, J.W. & Bowen, D.E. 1994, `Management theory and total quality: Improving research and practice through theory development', Academy of Management Review, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 392-418.
Donabedian, A. 1988, `Quality assessment and assurance: Unity of purpose, diversity of means', Inquiry, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 173-92.
Mang, A. 1995, `Implementation strategies of patient-focused care', Hospital & Health Services Administration, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 426-35.
Morris, K., Stuart, N., Monaghan, B. & Alton, L. 1994, `An evaluation of program management: The West Park Hospital experience', Healthcare Management FORUM, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 29-37.
Pawar, B. & Eastman, K. 1997, `The nature and implications of contextual influences on transformational leadership: A conceptual examination', Academy of Management Review, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 80-109.
Pettigrew, A. 1990, `Longitudinal field research on change: Theory and practice', Organization Science, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 267-92.
Rajagopalan, N. & Spreitzer, G. 1997, `Towards a theory of strategic change: A multi-lens perspective and integrative framework', Academy of Management Review, vol. 22, pp. 48-79.
World Medical Association, 1997, World Medical Association Declaration with Guidelines for Continuous Quality Improvement of Health Care, Proceedings of the 49th World Medical Assembly, Hamburg, Germany.
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