BUSI 528 Week 2 Marketing Application Paper Example

The Four P's of a Virtual Physical Therapy Service for Patients Who Live an Hour From the Clinic

Introduction

A 90-bed rural hospital's outpatient rehabilitation department loses about a third of its patients before they finish a course of therapy, and exit surveys point to the drive: many live 45 to 70 minutes away and cannot take time off work twice a week. The department plans a virtual physical therapy service. Berkowitz (2017) describes the marketing mix as the set of decisions an organization controls, product, price, place and promotion, and argues that each should follow from the needs of the target market. This paper makes one decision for each P.

Product

The service will be a hybrid program: one in-person evaluation, then weekly video sessions with the same therapist, a home exercise app with short videos and an in-person visit at the midpoint and at discharge. Evidence supports this design. Bargeri et al. (2024) reviewed 35 systematic reviews of telemedicine for musculoskeletal disorders and found that most meta-analyses showed telemedicine to be beneficial or equal to conventional care on patient-reported outcomes, with physical function mainly favoring telemedicine or showing no difference, and every review that examined costs found them lower. Kaczorowski et al. (2024), however, found that most reviews in their umbrella review were of critically low methodological quality and called for direct noninferiority trials. The in-person visits at the start, middle and end protect patients who need hands-on assessment and give the department a check on whether video care is working.

Price

For insured patients, price is set largely by payers. Medicare and most commercial plans in the hospital's state pay for physical therapy delivered by video at rates close to in-person rates, though rules have changed often, so the department will verify coverage before each patient starts. For uninsured patients, the department will offer a flat self-pay rate of $60 per video session, below the $95 in-person rate, reflecting lower space costs. The patient's real price also includes travel and lost wages, and the virtual service lowers that hidden cost most of all.

Place

Video sessions will use the hospital's patient portal on any phone or computer. For patients without reliable internet, the department will reserve a private room at two county libraries with a tablet and will schedule sessions there. A therapy assistant will call each patient before the first session to test the connection. Scheduling will offer early morning and evening slots, since the patients most likely to drop out are those who cannot leave work during the day. Place also includes the referral path: surgeons' offices will be able to book the in-person evaluation directly through the hospital's scheduling system, so a patient leaves the surgical follow-up visit with a therapy date rather than a phone number to call.

Promotion

Promotion will address two audiences. For referring physicians and surgeons, the message is fewer dropouts and faster progress reports. For patients, the message is "therapy without the drive," with honest wording that the service works well for many but not all conditions. Claims will not go beyond the evidence. Channels will include the referral letters physicians already receive, a short video on the hospital website showing a real session and flyers in the orthopedic and primary care offices that send the most referrals. Paid advertising is unnecessary at launch, because the service's first customers are patients the department already sees and loses.

Biblical Integration

When four friends could not reach Jesus through the crowd with their paralyzed friend, they opened the roof and lowered him down, and Jesus responded to their faith (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Mark 2:3-5). The friends changed the place where care could reach the man. Good marketing in health care sometimes means moving the door, not shouting louder about the building.

Conclusion

The department will track completion rates, patient-reported function and satisfaction for six months and compare them with in-person patients before expanding the service.

References

Bargeri, S., Castellini, G., Vitale, J. A., Guida, S., Banfi, G., Gianola, S., & Pennestri, F. (2024). Effectiveness of telemedicine for musculoskeletal disorders: Umbrella review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 26, e50090. https://doi.org/10.2196/50090

Berkowitz, E. N. (2017). Essentials of health care marketing (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Kaczorowski, S., Donath, L., Owen, P. J., Saueressig, T., Mundell, N. L., Topp, M., Samanna, C. L., Doding, R., & Belavy, D. L. (2024). Telemedicine for patients with musculoskeletal pain lacks high-quality evidence on delivery modes and effectiveness: An umbrella review. Telemedicine and e-Health, 30(5), 1221-1238. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2023.0255