Three health care market research projects

The three projects share a scenario and nothing else, so resist a single template. The first is an epidemiological estimate: how many men aged 35 to 60 in the catchment have some form of sexual dysfunction. That is answered by applying published prevalence rates to census data for the area, not by surveying — men do not volunteer this, and a survey would under-count in a way you could not correct. The second is a service quality audit of billing and admitting, which is answered by direct observation, mystery shopping, call recording review and short post-encounter surveys, because the object is observable behaviour and the informants are available. The third is a stakeholder attitude study: what concerns physicians have about joining a managed care panel is answered by qualitative interviews or focus groups, since you do not yet know what the concerns are and a questionnaire would only test your guesses.

Then answer the two things the report actually asks. Communication to each market segment means naming who the segment is and how you would reach them: for the first, the community and referring primary care physicians, through discreet channels since the topic is stigmatised; for the second, patients and the staff whose behaviour is under review, where internal communication decides whether the audit is received as improvement or surveillance; for the third, physicians who are being courted rather than instructed. And the public relationship question: each project improves the hospital's standing differently — the first by demonstrating that a service was designed around a documented need, the second by acting on how people are treated at the desk rather than only in the clinic, and the third by showing that physicians' concerns changed something. Support each position with scholarly references, as the assignment requires, across three to four pages.