Hospital affiliations, co-branding, and consumer impact.

Alliances, affiliations, and partnerships continue to grow as one way for health care organizations to better serve their customers and compete with other organizations and networks. These organizational relationships are often promoted through co-branding joint programs and services. A study of consumers was conducted and shows that these organizational relationships positively affect consumer future behavior and benefit the organizations involved. Most importantly, the benefits of these organizational relationships grow as familiarity and understanding of the "new" partner in the market increases.