Marketing Health Services, Fourth Edition

As the healthcare field evolves, so, too, does healthcare marketing. Flexing with the changing environment, marketing continues to demonstrate its vital importance to healthcare in these dynamic times. The fourth edition of this essential guide to healthcare marketing, released five years after the previous edition, features new and updated content reflecting changes in the field, such as the emergence of population health management and value-based care, a focus on preventive care versus sick care, and an overall shift in thinking to caring for groups of consumers versus individual patients. The author, who has real-world, on the-the-ground experience as a healthcare marketer, provides numerous examples and case studies to demonstrate healthcare marketing’s role in a shifting landscape. Changes to the fourth edition include: a new chapter on the changing healthcare environment, providing rich context for future healthcare marketing activities; a new chapter addressing health communication’s pivotal role in healthcare marketing and the processes involved with developing effective communication plans; major updates on developments in the healthcare marketing field since 2010; a new section on international healthcare consumers; a revised chapter on contemporary marketing techniques, with a new section on affinity marketing, and more.

Richard K. Thomas, PhD, is vice president of Health and Performance Resources in Memphis, Tennessee. He has been involved in healthcare market research and consultation with hospitals, clinics, health plans, and other healthcare organizations in the public and private sectors for more than 40 years.