Introduction
Healthcare organizations play a significant role in different regions since they are required to provide high-quality, sustainable, and personalized medical services to patients depending on their needs. Owners of such institutions need to consider some of the trends recorded in the external environment and transform their business models accordingly to achieve their primary goals. The Johns Hopkins Hospital is presently one of the leading facilities in the provision of personalized and timely patient care in the United States. In the recent past, it has implemented a new change successfully to transform its marketing strategy and focus on additional organizational objectives.
Background
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is a leading institution that completes a wide range of researches in the field of healthcare to meet the demands of its customers. Some of the people it serves are community members from Baltimore as well as individuals from different parts of the world (Aiello, 2015). The organization has a knowledgeable team of professionals that are capable of providing high-quality support to all clients while focusing on the medical demands of individual patients (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). Having been in existence since 1889, many people identify this medical facility as one of the founding centers of numerous clinical guidelines, health procedures, and modern practices that meet the demands of many citizens in the United States.
Different professionals in this institution engage in continuous biomedical research to explore new concepts and ideas for improving patient care. Scholars and physicians work in different specialties that are intended to transform the quality of medical support. Some of the leading ones include oncology, geriatrics, ear, nose, and throat (ENT), urology, psychiatry, cardiology, nephrology, and pulmonology (Aiello, 2015). This medical organization is associated with skilled leaders who work around the clock to influence the decisions doctors and practitioners make. The ultimate aim is to ensure that all patients receive high-quality and culturally competent services.
Selected Change: Implementation of a New Marketing Strategy
The concept of organizational change guides health institutions to identify areas of weakness and introduce superior measures to ensure that timely results are recorded. The field of marketing remains critical since it dictates how a given medical facility attracts potential customers, solves emerging or existing challenges, and identifies new ways for transforming performance (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). At the Johns Hopkins Hospital, change remains a continuous process aimed at addressing some of the identifiable obstacles to improved performance. Such processes are characterized by the involvement of all key stakeholders, employees, and managers to support the delivery of timely results.
This medical institution has remained one of the most profitable and attractive to many patients in Baltimore and across the country. It has become a favourite destination for medical tourists from different parts of the world. However, most of this progress has become a reality due to the excellence, commitment, and willingness of the key medical professionals to provide desirable services (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). The available leadership model encourages individuals to act effectively and consider new ways of meeting the demands of more patients. A collaborated approach is always applied depending on the unique expectations of most of the targeted individuals.
However, some leaders observed that the institution was only meeting the medical demands of patients from the local region only. This gap encouraged the managers to launch and implement a new marketing strategy change that would increase awareness and encourage more people to seek medical support from the institution (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). Such a move was essential since the world was shifting from some of the traditional methods of advertising to attract clients, including the use of print media, television adverts, and radios. More people were keen to rely on social media platforms and online-based resources to acquire new information and consider additional ways of receiving various products and services.
The marketing executives at the Johns Hopkins Hospital relied on this understanding to employ the use of digital marketing solutions and social media platforms. These measures would support the use of print media and ensure that timely results were recorded within a short period. The organization’s leaders also considered the need to share their missions and objectives with travellers in different airports across the globe (Purcarea, 2019). The concept of search engine adverts was also selected since more people were relying on the Internet to solve most of their medical concerns. These social trends were influencing the decisions and actions different people undertook. The advisers and consultants revealed that such revolutionary marketing tactics had the potential to inform more people about the nature and effectiveness of the available services.
To integrate these goals, the medical institutions considered the importance of launching a single campaign that would attract more potential customers and sensitize them about the nature and effectiveness of the available services. The organization presented the “How Far Would You Go” initiative to educate more possible customers across the globe about its brand position, superior services, and medical tourism healthcare (Fiorio et al., 2018). The team responsible for this new campaign relied on emerging ideas and trends to inform more people about the overall aims and how they would meet their demands. The involvement of all key stakeholders inside and outside this medical institution would eventually deliver desirable results.
Approaches to Change
The success of the introduced and implemented organizational change at the John Hopkins Hospital was as a result of the strategies the marketing executives applied. The professionals seemed to understand that a new marketing approach was essential since the organization was no longer able to attract additional patients despite the fact that it had the capability and resources to address most of their health needs (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). This knowledge compelled them to apply an effective change model or theory that was capable of delivering the intended results within the shortest time possible. The considerations and deliberations the relevant leaders made to manage change are described below.
Unfreezing
The managers at John Hopkins understood that Kurt Lewin’s theory of change was a powerful model capable of supporting medical institutions to introduce new practices and behaviors that resonated with the expectations of the targeted clients. In this hospital, most of the marketing executives were afraid that some of the contemporary advertising and marketing methods were not making a significant difference to the hospital’s performance. The percentage of new patients from the country and across the globe had remained constant over the last decade. This observation compelled such experts to introduce a new marketing campaign that would equip more potential customers about the effectiveness of the available medical services and how they could access them (Aiello, 2015). This kind of knowledge formed the basis for the revolutionary change that would eventually deliver desirable results.
The involved team identified some of the key participants whose contributions throughout the change process would be critical. The idea of unfreezing was essential to inform them about the challenges existing at the hospital and the intended objectives. These marketing executives in charge of the process sensitized most of the workers about the gaps that were making it impossible for many people learn more about the available services (Aiello, 2015). They collaborated to identify new ways for informing such potential beneficiaries about the researches, findings, and innovations that were taking place and how they could support their medical goals. They analyzed the need for a travel guidance and coordination team to ensure that the proposed campaign was available to potential clients in different regions across the globe.
These essential initiatives made it easier for the involved leaders to minimize possible challenges and resistance to change. They identified new ways of being involved and sharing the objectives of the campaign with different colleagues and friends. The team members learned more about the benefits of various online-based resources in the field of marketing (Aiello, 2015). This new understanding encouraged them to become part of the process and present additional insights for ensuring that the facility recorded timely results.
Change Implementation
The intended change revolved around the implementation of a superior campaign that would make it possible for the medical institution to reach its niche. The educated workers and team members had to complete specific tasks depending on their departments. The professionals liaised with different consultants to develop and share desirable messages with some of the identified beneficiaries (“The Johns Hopkins Hospital,” n.d.). The campaign relied on the power of the Internet, travel hubs, and airports to inform more people about the researches and medical practices associated with the hospital.
The professionals went further to rely on the power of search engine marketing (SEM) and other social marketing procedures to support the campaign. The inclusion of ads would encourage more visitors of various Internet sites to learn more about the objectives of the new campaign. Such individuals would acquire new insights for recording positive medical outcomes and overcoming most of their medical problems (Aiello, 2015). The objective was to sensitize and ensure that more people started to view Johns Hopkins as the best medical destination. The identified marketers decided to use digital display and digital pre-roll to maximize the outlined outreach goals.
While focusing on the marketing strategy change, the executives in the hospital guided most of the researchers and physicians to engage in additional studies and innovations. Such an initiative was essential to improve the established medical procedures and practices. This process would make it possible for the medical facility to be prepared for the increasing number of clients. The leaders proposed new budgetary allocations to acquire the required resources, employ more professionals, and build more facilities to meet the demands of the targeted patients (Aiello, 2015). However, the managers indicated that the relevant professionals would monitor the introduced change for several years to ensure that most of the anticipated results were eventually realized.
Refreezing
After the successful introduction of the change, the managers at the Johns Hopkins Hospital promoted a new culture whereby the workers were supposed to remain involved and form new teams to meet the medical demands of the anticipated clients. Most of the professionals were trained and guided to make the new marketing strategy part of the institution’s mission. They were willing to continue providing high-quality and personalized medical services to the targeted patients (Radu et al., 2017). The workers collaborated to solve most of the challenges that could disorient the new marketing campaign. This new practice would support the change and ensure that positive results were recorded within less than five years.
Emerging Lessons
The change described above succeeded because different professionals and marketing executives collaborated throughout the three phases. They relied on emerging trends to make informed decisions and consider the demands of more patients across the globe. The introduction of the campaign was founded on the power of an effective organizational change theory (Purcarea, 2019). Such an approach explains why the participants were less resistance to the process. The presentation of the required support and resources made it possible for the hospital to achieve its aims. These insights should guide all medical facilities to implement new changes more effectively in an effort to achieve their business aims.
Conclusion
The above discussion has identified the Johns Hopkins Hospital as a leading facility that provides high-quality and personalized medical services to patients from Baltimore and across the globe. The managers at this institution applied the principles of organizational change efficiently to support the launched process and eventually ensure that positive results were recorded. The new marketing campaign eventually transformed the established practices, attracted more clients, and eventually made it possible for the facility to achieve its financial and medical objectives.
References
Aiello, M. (2015). Johns Hopkins digital strategy targets patients from afar. Health Leader Media. Web.
Fiorio, C. V., Gorli, M., & Verzillo, S. (2018). Evaluating organizational change in health care: The patient-centered hospital model. BMC Health Services Researches, 18(1), 95-109. Web.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital. (n.d.). 2020, Web.
Purcarea, V. L. (2019). The impact of marketing strategies in healthcare systems. Journal of Medicine and Life, 12(2), 93-96. Web.
Radu, G., Solomon, M., Gheorghe, C. M., Hostiuc, M., Bulescu, I. A., & Purcarea, V. L. (2017). The adaptation of health care marketing to the digital era. Journal of Medicine and Life, 10(1), 44-46. Web.