Achieving Excellence in a Consumer-Driven Market Place

Stephen Wilkins and Fredrick Navarro in 2001 said “According to just about every expert in the health field, the health care industry is witnessing the dawn of a new erathe age of the empowered healthcare consumers. Armed with unprecedented access to health related information via the Internet, today’s healthcare consumer is demanding more involvement in his or her own care as well as access to more choices as to how healthcare is organized, delivered and paid for. “When consumers have a choice excellence matters. And when making decisions consumers will have access to the Internet and more than10000 health related web sites that educate them on diseases and treatment protocols and rate the quality of care at hospitals and system across the country. In the market share battle based on excellence the competition will be regional statewide national and international. The opportunity is to convince consumers that hometown health care is equal or better than care at distant medical centers where patients are isolated from family and friends. Health care providers have just recently recognized the important value of pleasing patients. High performances organizations understand that patient satisfaction is not just important for accreditation but it is also a key indicator of consumer image, repeat business and the likelihood of word mouth marketing.