Marketing

A marketing approach, the process of controlling exchanges in order to accomplish objectives, should be a basic skill among those used by an occupational therapy manager. Departmental management can be greatly facilitated by using marketing techniques to identify, analyze, and improve relationships, developing them into successful exchanges. By avoiding a marketing attitude an occupational therapy manager may well be unresponsive to health care realities and changes. Accounts of two actual situations experienced by occupational therapy administrators are described. Each therapist is emoloyed in a different setting. Each achieved a successful solution to an aministrative problem using a well-planned marketing strategy. Each situation and resultt is unique, yet a similar thread can be traced from needs identification through enabling transactions to problem resolutions.