Marketing to attract women.

Patient care and marketing programs sensitive to women can help Catholic facilities increase maternity care patient volumes. Four factors influence hospitals' ability to attract women. Women today are better educated and more sophisticated than ever before about health care needs, and they have more providers from which to choose. With limited resources, providers must be discriminating in the type of services they deliver and how. Finally, women make most of the health care decisions for the families. To attract women, providers should offer them personalized care, participation in decisions, information about treatment, attractive facilities, convenience, and affordable costs. Many providers believe Catholic facilities fail to attract maternity patients because they do not perform tubal ligations; however, parents generally see childbirth as a separate event from sterilization. Providers also believe that non-Catholic patients will not use their facilities, but today's patients choose a hospital because of what it offers, not sponsorship. Some patients may not choose Catholic facilities because they see them as less progressive, but this image can be corrected through marketing Catholic facilities' common strengths include their focus on care rather than profit, their compassionate, individualized care, the image of women caring for women, and their stability. Catholic facilities have built on their strengths to attract women patients by reinforcing positive perceptions with innovative programs, marketing directly to women, educating physicians in how to respond to women's needs, increasing linkages with all women in the community, ensuring that the mission of care is reflected in the physical plant, using a marketing program to help employees carry out compassionate care, and surveying patients for feedback on how their needs are met.