MARKETING

Marketing



Marketing

Executive Summary

The Wesley Woods Center is the not-for-profit, geriatric care component of Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. Wesley Woods Center is located on 64 acres and is a uniquely designed system with a 100-bed acute care hospital, an outpatient geriatric clinic, inpatient psychiatry, a long term acute care hospital, rehabilitation, a medical unit, and wound therapy clinic. Wesley Woods Center concentrates on a target market composed of older adults and their families searching for geriatric long term care, primary care, skilled nursing services, and rehabilitative care. The marketing strategy focuses on audiences in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, geriatric care managers, family members, social workers, home health agencies, senior service agencies, local businesses, civic groups, and churches.

The marketing strategies address vital strengths in an all-inclusive range of healthcare services provided at Wesley Woods Center and challenges in sustaining charitable donations to offset the rising cost of healthcare. The specific marketing objectives are nested under the overall strategic plan of Emory Healthcare to maintain financial strength and support the charitable aspects of the Wesley Woods Center's charitable mission. Goals for five objectives were developed as benchmarks, and measurement tools were included to ascertain the effectiveness in meeting each of the marking objectives.

The growth in the Atlanta aging population provides incentives to market to new clientele while gaining competitive advantage over a multitude of long term care services. Wesley Woods Center must focus its marketing strategy on promoting its cutting edge technology, highlighting its wide array of medical service lines, and seeking older adult customers in the suburban areas.

Situation Analysis

Market Overview

Organization

The Wesley Woods Center (WWC) is the cornerstone geriatric center for Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia and was founded by the United Methodist Church. Wesley Woods Center serves more than 30,000 elderly and chronically ill patients each year. It includes Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital, a 100-bed geriatric specialty facility. In 2008, there were a total of 2,234 admissions and 12,232 outpatient visits at Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital. In addition to the hospital and a 25-bed inpatient hospice service, Wesley Woods has an outpatient primary care clinic, a 250-bed skilled nursing care facility (Budd Terrace), and a 201-unit residential retirement facility (Wesley Woods Towers), with one floor of 18 units dedicated to personal care. WWC employs 654 medical professionals and ancillary staff and is well known for its programs in depression, sleep disorders, rehabilitation, and Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease. Their mission is to help people age in ethical and affordable ways (Emory Healthcare, 2009).

Population

The Atlanta Regional Commission on Aging compiles geriatric survey data for a 10-county region (Figure 1). Survey data reveal that by 2030 one in five residents in the Atlanta area will be over the age of 60. The total population over age 65 in the city of Atlanta is 41, 200 or 9.89% (Atlanta Regional Commission, 2007). The United States Census Bureau reports that 9.9% of Georgia residents are over the age of 65, as compared to ...