Traveling in Chicago recently, I saw these ads on the side of a major hospital. I was struck by the idea that advertising for a mall was getting equal billing to advertising for orthopaedic services. Orthopaedics has always been a high profit item for hospitals. I guess dining and shopping has now reached that same level.
4 comments:
From Facebook:
Market share, share of voice. With the increased responsibility of healthcare consumers (AKA patients....) in paying for more of their care - hopefully they spend more time researching quality and outcomes than they do on other purchases at malls. Kicker is that depending on their insurance, networks - both provider and hospital - are being trimmed.
From Facebook:
But don't order the liver & onions, or the kidney pie. (I have my eye on silk scrubs and a cashmere robe, in case you decide to stop in for some shopping, too.) Which actually gives me an idea: Flash mob. Health care activists, en masse, show up to you know, have a little fun. How about in honor of Abbie & Jerry & the other Yippies? It is Chicago, after all.
I do kinda like the idea of "hospimall."
Updated from what I said on FB:
Considering that most hospitals ARE malls - a building where independent unrelated businesses are housed (doctors, who pay rent but do business as they see fit) - I see this a bit differently. (And, I take your point.)
I don't think I'll ever get over how un-served, un-cared-for I felt when I discovered that was the truth about most hospitals, including mine. "You mean you can't make doctors stick to a hospital policy??? What??" Sick.
I mean, it's really, really, all about the doctors, and not the least bit about what serves the person in need. Sick.
In the Philippines, more and more clinics are being put inside a shopping mall, and those are not just dermatology or eye clinics, but are multi-specialty clinics with emergency rooms and minor surgery rooms.
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