An investigation of the market orientation of private hospitals in Turkey

The objective of this research is to identify the degree to which private hospitals in Turkey are marketing oriented. The research is based on the data generated from the fifteen private hospitals out of the 130 hospitals based in the Istanbul city region with the highest number of out patient according to the 2004 Annual Statistics of Ministry of Health. The research was conducted between April 2006 and May 2006. The study consists of a translated version of the questionnaire used by Naidu and Narayana (1991, Journal of Health Care Marketing) and an inquiry via email from a prospective customer. The questionnaire consist of 19 questions designed to identify activities correlated to market orientation. Results from the questionnaire, show three of the hospitals do not have a marketing department and none of the hospitals with a marketing department have more than six employees dedicated to marketing. Responses to the email inquiry identify how efficient the hospitals were in responding to a marketing opportunity. Results from the email responses show that three of the hospitals do not have a web page with an email address for questions. Of the remaining twelve hospitals, six did not reply to the email. Three of the hospitals gave satisfactory feedback with required information and three hospitals gave unsatisfactory feedback including cursory responses without substative information. Based on the feedback from the questionnaire and customer inquiry, it is concluded that the private hospitals in Turkey are not fully applying the market orientation. In addition to not prompting marketing as part of business through a dedicated department, hospitals are also missing specific opportunities to market to perspective customers.