Study of Marketing Components Affecting Health Care Services in Hospitals

Hospitals, in extreme competition, have accepted principles of marketing designed for industrial goods and customers. One of the important factors in health services marketing is the type of services. Organizations, including health centers, require meeting the client's needs in order to survive and try to promote the way of providing services effectively. The present study aims to identify effective components in providing clinical services in hospitals.
This was a practical and cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a questionnaire completed through random sampling after confirming the validity and reliability. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 and Lisrel 8.50 using descriptive statistics and factor analysis.
The results of this study indicated that nine components had the highest impact on providing health services. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the quality of providing services in the hospital, offering distinctive services compared with other hospitals, and considering quality of service beyond the patient's expectation had the greatest impact on marketing services in the hospital.
Providing quality and distinctive services beyond the patient's expectation enables hospitals to improve their marketing activities and, beside higher level of patient satisfaction, develop their clinical services market share.