POSITIONING OF HEALTH CARE SERVICE: EXAMINATION OF THE ADVERTISEMENTS AND STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS

获得优质医疗服务是当今美国面临的最紧迫的问题之一，而在这场辩论中错综复杂地交织在一起的是医生和医院提供的专业服务的广告。对医疗保健服务广告的担忧是基于这样一个概念，即医疗保健与其他商品或服务根本不同，因此传统的、基于市场的有限资源分配可能会有问题。还提出了与卫生保健服务提供者和公众之间的信息不对称有关的问题。另一方面，以市场为基础的医疗经济的倡导者认为，广告通过降低价格和增加选择来帮助医疗服务消费者。然而，几乎没有经验证据来支持或谴责任何一方声称的说法。目前也不清楚医疗保健专业人士对这些广告存在多大程度的担忧或矛盾情绪，也不清楚医疗保健服务营销者对这种紧张关系的了解程度。关于消费者的医疗保健服务广告素养的研究很少，尽管他们往往是广告的直接目标，因为他们的服务技术含量高，而且往往非常昂贵。这项研究将通过产生具体的知识和证据来加强保健营销的教育和实践。此外，目前的研究将通过衡量公众对广告信息的理解，为医疗保健服务消费者教育奠定基础。最终，本研究将阐明如何在不浪费医疗资源和损害医患关系的情况下，利用医疗服务广告来促进良性竞争，从而促进个人和社区的福祉。在考察医疗服务广告的内容和利益相关者的认知和态度时，本研究运用定位理论，这是一个分析组织战略传播的框架，以更好地理解利益相关者所采取的立场、通过广告传达的信息以及关于医疗职业与社会关系的叙事之间的关系。这项拟议的研究有三个目标：1)系统分析医疗服务广告的内容，以全面和准确地了解当前医疗服务广告实践；2)绘制和评估医生、消费者和医疗服务营销者关于广告特有的实践、目标、责任和伦理问题的立场；3)提出定位理论，作为组织战略沟通的分析框架。为了达到目标，将进行医疗服务广告的内容分析，对医生和医疗保健营销者的调查，以及消费者焦点小组。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Access to quality health care is one of the most pressing issues the nation is facing today and intricately interwoven in the debate is the advertising for the professional services provided by physicians and hospitals. The concerns about health care service advertising are founded on the notion that health care is fundamentally different from other commodities or services and thus the conventional, market-based distribution of the limited resources can be problematic. Also raised are the issues related to information asymmetry between health care service providers and the public. Advocates of a market-based health economy, on the other hand, argue that advertising helps health service consumers by bringing down prices and increasing choices. However, little empirical evidence exists to support or rebuke the claims purported by either side. It is also unclear what degrees of concern or ambivalence exists among health care professionals about the advertisements and how much, if any, health care service marketers are aware of the tension. Research on consumers' health care service advertising literacy is scarce, although they are often directly targeted by the advertisements for highly technical and often very costly services. This research will enhance health care marketing education and practice by generating concrete knowledge and evidence. In addition, the current study will lay a groundwork for health care service consumer education by gauging public understanding of the advertising messages. Ultimately, this research will illuminate how health care service advertisements can be deployed to spur healthy competition without wasting health care resources and compromising the doctor-patient relationship, and thus contribute to the enhanced wellbeing of individuals and communities.In examining the content of health care service advertisements and perceptions and attitudes of the stakeholders, this research employs positioning theory, a framework for analyzing strategic communication of organizations, to better understand the relationships among the positions taken by the stakeholders, the messages conveyed through the advertisements, and the narratives about the relationship between the medical profession and society. The proposed study has three objectives: 1) To systematically analyze the content of health care service advertisements to capture a comprehensive and accurate picture of current health care service advertising practices; 2) To map and assess the positions of physicians, consumers, and health care marketers regarding the practices, aims, responsibilities, and ethical issues unique to the advertisements; 3) To advance positioning theory as an analytical framework for the strategic communication of organizations. To meet the objectives, content analysis of health care service advertisements, surveys of physicians and health care marketers, and a consumer focus group will be conducted.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.