The Case of Marketing Administrator 

You are pleased to start your new job as the administrator of a skilled nursing facility. The facility that you are running, Lazy Oaks, is in the middle of a rather large city. On one side of the facility is a large hospital and is in fact the only Trauma Level 1 in the area. On the other side is a medium sized health complex which houses numerous private practice physicians. Your for-profit facility is 180 beds in size and historically operated at or above budget... that is until recently.

The hospital located in your neighborhood has received the necessary Certificate of Need and has embarked on converting a building within 1/2 mile of your location into a skilled nursing facility to which they intend referring their discharged patients in need of skilled nursing care.

When your regional vice president hired you, she made it quite clear that you are to immediately determine how you will beef up marketing efforts to keep your patient census at the required level to make a profit.

Define the problem.  What steps would you take to research the problem? 

1. Who will you market to?
2. How will you market to them?
3. What will you do in terms of product offering?
4. What challenges will you face?
5. How will you evaluate your success?