Analyzing hospital market share along product lines

This article illustrates a method of analyzing market share based on product lines or specific hospital services, using 1990 data from a health service catchment area in South Carolina. Hospital discharges from two specific services: vascular and cardiac surgery; and obstetrics, were used to compute market rates of retention, discharge, escape, commitment, opening, and capture. The results confirm that as hospitals become more specialized, market share analysis based on total discharges is often misleading. Rather, discharges should be disaggregated and separate service areas with different boundaries constructed for different product lines. This method of market analysis can be performed easily and periodically by hospitals to monitor the market situation of their product lines.