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Marketingcommunicatie van ziekenhuizen - Een onderzoek naar de invloed van type inhoud, type aandoening en evidentietype op de houding en keuze-intentie van patiënten

Lenderink, K.M.H. (2012) Marketingcommunicatie van ziekenhuizen - Een onderzoek naar de invloed van type inhoud, type aandoening en evidentietype op de houding en keuze-intentie van patiënten.

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Abstract:Background - The hospital sector has changed rapidly in recent years. Developments such as the introduction of regulated competition in health care, the emerging information culture and the increasing mobility of patients ensure that patients are free to choose their hospital and that patients are also capable to make that decision. These developments ensure that hospitals become dependent of patient’s choice when it comes to their existence. This makes it important for hospitals to actively attract new patients and maintain existing ones. This can be done through the use of persuasive marketing communications. The only question is what would be the best way for hospitals to fill in these persuasive marketing communications. Several matters affect the effectiveness of persuasive communication. These are for example, the content of the communication, the type of evidence that is used in the communication and the disease of the patient. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to create more insight in the influence of type of content, type of disease and type of evidence on the impact of marketing communications of a hospital. In the research are two types of content (medical quality and patient centeredness), two types of diseases (elective and chronic diseases) and two types of evidence (statistical and anecdotal evidence) distinguished. The research will consider the influence of these three independent variables on the attitude towards the text, the attitude towards the hospital and the patient’s choice intention in respect to the hospital. Method - This study is a quantitative study based on a between-subjects design. The three independent variables are processed in eight different marketing communication texts. The research makes use of a fictional hospital. The study consisted of an electronic questionnaire that was distributed online. A total of 287 respondents participated in the study. Before respondents were completing the questionnaire they received a diagnosis case saying they had chronic renal failure or had to undergo knee surgery. After that, the participants were shown a website which contained one of the eight marketing communication texts. After reading this text, the respondents had to answer several questions. Results - Texts with anecdotal evidence had a significant more positive impact on the attitude towards the text, the attitude towards the hospital and the respondent’s choice intention in respect to the hospital than texts with statistical evidence. However, it should be mentioned that the perceived vividness and comprehensibility of the texts was significantly more positive in the case of the anecdotal texts than the statistical texts. These deviating vividness and comprehensibility scores can have an effect on the significant differences between the types of evidence. There are no significant differences in type of content and type of disease. The results of the study also showed that the majority of respondents (87%) would like to choose their own hospital and that in making this choice especially the internet and the general practitioner are consulted. In addition, it was found that the reimbursement of health insurance is the most important factor in choosing a hospital. This was followed by the importance of waiting time, accessibility and the presence and condition of facilities. Conclusion - It would be wise for hospitals to promote their services. This study has shown that the respondents have a positive attitude towards marketing communications of hospitals and that patients are willing to choose their own hospital. According to the results of this study this would be most effective when texts with anecdotal evidence are used.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Team Nijhuis
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61783
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