Competitive conditions and hospital strategies: a Memphis case study

The authors explore the strategies Memphis hospitals employ to compete in a market dominated by a few large competitors. Several key strategies are identified, including horizontal integration, product diversification, product specialization, resource-based quality improvement, institutional differentiation, and public relations and physician-centered marketing. Several forces that have caused health care delivery to become more competitive are identified and discussed. The argument is made that these forces were responsible for an altering of the assumptions on which strategies were based in the Memphis market. Evidence is presented to show that the strategies were both widened in scope and refocused to encompass a larger number of market segments. The authors conclude with an analysis of the implications of these changes.