uni'wissen 02(4)-2011_ENG

Economists Have Discovered Better Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Hospitals by Katharina Wetzel Hospitals compete for patients – whether they are run as private, public, or nonprofit insti- tutions. Even though health care providers are subject to certain restrictions in how they adver- tise, every hospital wants to market its products and services in the best way possible. Dieter Tscheulin, holder of the Chair in Business Admin- istration at the University of Freiburg, and his team have found out that nonprofit hospitals in particular could profit from an improved advertis- ing strategy. The experts for marketing and the health care market studied the role of nonprofit status for the choice of a hospital in a year-long project. The project was led by habilitation can- didate and research assistant Dr. Florian Drevs. Research assistant Ann-Kathrin Seemann was responsible for collecting the data and analyzing the results. The research team conducted an experiment: They recruited 200 test subjects and asked them to assume the role of a patient looking for a hos- pital to have their appendix removed. In order to determine what preferences the subjects had, What Patients Want 36