Reform of the Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Essay Example

It is beneficial to explore health care systems involved in veteran’s administration because it is necessary to ensure that the nation’s veterans are receiving the services they need to live a high quality of life. This system is widely known for the long wait time that patients see due to a lack of providers available that specialize in care for members of this group. Furthermore, there is a significant lack of funding from the government on the behalf of these individuals. Thus, to benefit individuals that have bravely fought in the country’s wars, it is important to study the veteran’s administration health care system and determine where improvements can be made so that all veterans receive the care that they deserve. Specifically, I will be examining the VA Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky for this purpose.

Fortunately, it is easy under legal statutes to promote VA health services because the government benefits from advertising care programs to help veterans. Thus, it would be effective for this hospital to purchase advertisement space on local public transportation. This will allow for a high degree of exposure to people who either are a veteran or know of someone that would benefit from these services. Since many veterans that would require specialized care from this type of institution have a debilitating mental or physical illness that prevents them from utilizing private transportation, this is an ideal marketing strategy.

One theory that would be reasonable to emphasize in this marketing campaign is the fact that this health care service should be treated as a product. It is important for the VA Hospital to distinguish themselves from competitors by creating a unique brand that allows consumers to associate the hospital with quality. Since there are very few high quality veterans administration programs in the United States, this mark of quality has the ability to make this health care service a more marketable product. Furthermore, by treating the service as a product, it is easier to obtain results about the quality of services delivered. Doing so will allow the health care institution to refine its practices to provide more effective services in the future.

As mentioned previously in the discussion about the ideal marketing campaign for this type of business, positioning is a concept that is essential to the success of this campaign. One of the primary reasons that veterans do not seek the services that they require is that either they believe it will cost too much to redeem their health care services, it is challenging to find a location that will be able to assist them with their needs, and that the wait time for services will be too long. By placing advertisements that ameliorate these misconceptions in places that veterans will certainly see them, it is helping the organization reach the customer. By considering the needs of clients and the choices that they may have to make in their daily lives due to their disabilities, marketing professionals can more adequately design advertisements that suit the customer and will cause them to take action.

It is also important to consider the marketing mix prior to the initiation of an advertising campaign (Khuri et al., 2002). This is tied into the previous concept of positioning. To ensure that an advertising campaign is effective, it is important to target the specific customer demographic. Price is an important factor in this consideration. In this instance, it is important for the center to emphasize its low price for veteran health care in addition to the organization’s willingness to take a wide variety of health insurance policies. Product and place are two characteristics of the marketing mix that are already decided based on the type of health delivery system being analyzed. However, marketing professionals have the ability to be creative in terms of the type of promotion that they will offer. This will give the organization a unique opportunity to be featured and allow members of the public to inquire about health care services that they may need.

Currently, the VA Hospital advertises itself by producing television advertisements, advertisements in the newspaper, and through its website online. These methods are also used to communicate updates concerning the center and important messages that veterans that rely on their care may wish to hear. Marketing in diverse ways is an important strategy because it ensures that the organization will have a significant reach. However, this must also be done wisely to ensure that money is spent in the most optimal manner (Watkins et al., 2011). Money spent should serve as an investment and bring in a greater amount of funds.

From this analysis of VA Hospital’s system, it seems that its advertisement methods are effective but producing a widespread enough reach. Thus, it would be valuable to implement the plan I propose above because it more directly considers the needs of individuals that would use veteran’s hospitals. To improve the marketability of the organization, it would also be beneficial to improve its internal practices. Patient waitlists are one of the biggest concerns at every veteran’s hospital because it is possible for people to become more ill or die if they are not provided with the services that they need in a timely manner. While it may not be reasonable to hire a larger staff or acquire more resources due to budgeting issues, it is practical for the organization to implement lean practices to determine how they can reduce waste in terms of the time used within the organization. Such an improvement will allow room for the organization to see more patients, which will result in a greater degree of profitability.

The government and citizens are highly concerned with improving the practices of veteran’s health care organizations, so it would be beneficial to take immediate action and put out a plan to both improve practices within the organization and advertise it in a manner that will allow more veterans to be seen overall (Inglehart, 1996). In this manner, it is important to not only think about the value that such a move would bring to the organization, it would also improve the lives of many veterans who are in great need of health care. Attracting new veterans to the hospital will allow them to gain a better understanding of the services that they are entitled to and help them build a knowledge that they can use in order to support their health for the remainder of their lives. Thus, increasing the efficacy of our marketing plan is imperative because it will help many people for the better.

References

Inglehart JK. (1996). Reform of the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. The New England Journal of Medicine, 335: 18.

Khuri SF, Daley J, Henderson WG. (2002). The Comparative Assessment and Improvement of Quality Surgical Care in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Archives of Surgery, 137(1): 20–27.

Watkins KE, Pincus HA. (2011). Veterans Health Administration Mental Health Program Evaluation: Capstone Report, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation.