A Post-1990s Assessment of Strategic Hospital Alliances and Their Marketplace Orientations: Time to Refocus

Abstract

In past years, many SHAs formed in local urban markets to better compete for managed care contracts. In response to 1990s forces, these SHAs appear to have adapted product, production, and selling orientations to their markets, aimed at large institutional purchasers of health care. However, health care markets have evolved differently than anticipated. SHAs and their hospitals should now adopt the marketing orientation and focus more on patients and enrollees.

The Impact of Nonprofit Brand Orientation on Organisational Performance

“…Satisfaction of stakeholder expectations results from an organisation's ability to generate market intelligence, disseminate information to relevant organisational members and then The Impact of Nonprofit Brand Orientation 677 implement strategies that provide a swift and flexible response to the current and future demands of the nonprofit market (Ignacio et al 2002). This enables organisations to create a sustained source of competitive advantage (Olden, Roggenkamp and Luke 2002) and be better placed to achieve their long-and short-term organisational objectives (Balabanis, Stables and Phillips 1997). Extensive interaction between a nonprofit organisation and its stakeholders, then, is likely to lead to the provision of better service, which will ultimately enhance an organisation's performance.…”

Effect of hospital referral networks on patient readmissions

“…Vertical collaboration comprises cooperation among actors along the care value chain and has been argued to reduce hospitals' opportunistic behavior and enhance continuity of care; horizontal collaboration involves cooperative agreements among competitors (Zuckerman et al, 1995;Buchner et al, 2015). In the healthcare domain, hospital cooperation reportedly spurs efficiency gains and cost reduction because of the advantages associated with shared resources, medical infrastructure, and care provision (Dranove and Shanley, 1995;Olden et al, 2002;Buchner et al, 2015). In some industries, horizontal collaboration has also been associated with detrimental price fixing and anti-competitive behaviors (e.g., Teece, 1994).…”

Cooperation for a competitive position

“…Regarding horizontal cooperation, cooperation arrangements are considered important strategic instruments that can create potential benefits that are rooted in economies of scale and scope (e.g., Dranove & Shanley, 1995;Olden, Roggenkamp, & Luke, 2002;Pearce & Hatfield, 2002;Vera, 2006). Thus, hospitals can generate synergy effects through the joint use of resources and service provisions (Pearce & Hatfield, 2002) and lower the costs of health service provision (Olden et al, 2002).…”

“…Thus, hospitals can generate synergy effects through the joint use of resources and service provisions (Pearce & Hatfield, 2002) and lower the costs of health service provision (Olden et al, 2002). With regard to the medical infrastructure, the joint use of medical equipment or range of services reduces redundancies (Dranove & Shanley, 1995), and fixed assets achieve a higher degree of utilization (Vera, 2006).…”