Marketing Performance and Business Risk in Acutecare Health Trusts - A New Comparative Approach

The introduction of an internal market to the NHS in April 1991 has created a vastly different structure for the delivery of healthcare throughout the UK. This paper investigates the relationship between the changing income structure of acute care Trusts and their use of marketing as a tool to manage an increasingly complex operating environment. Primary data from a postal questionnaire to Trust Chief Executives (or their representatives) has been used to classify the 51 responding Trusts according to their performance within an acute care market that accounts for some £3.57 billion of the annual NHS spend.This is the first time that this type of marketing risk analysis as been attempted within the UK Health Service.

An innovativepositional matrix has been developed, categorising all the acute healthcare Trusts into four categories according to theirMarketing Index (MI) and Perceived Future Income Instability (INS) scores. The study suggests that about 24 per cent of all the Trusts are excessively exposed to future business risk as evident by their rather high income instability scores and low useof marketing tools and therefore more attention to marketing has to be given by these Trusts. Closer analysis of the results ofthe data indicates that those Trusts with a high marketing index (i.e. those more likely to be able to handle income instability),place market analysis, marketing strategy, demand forecasting and personal contact with purchasers, as top priorities. ThoseTrusts with low marketing indexes give priority to pricing analysis and personal contact with purchasers only.