Marketing Ethics In Healthcare — What You Should Know!
Marketing ethics in healthcare have been a topic of hot debate for years. Should healthcare organizations, hospitals and practices spend large amounts of advertising dollars to attract patients? Shouldn’t they rely on patients naturally drifting towards quality health care organizations?
Today’s rapidly changing world of healthcare has made marketing a requirement and not a choice. It’s not a debate if you wish to succeed in building your practice. Patients no longer simply choose the closest hospital or practice as a matter of course. Gone are the days when a physician referral guaranteed appointments.
Today is the age of marketing ethics in healthcare.
Still, we struggle — should we be trying to convince patients to come to us? Isn’t it unethical to use marketing methods to lure them in? Let’s take a look at marketing ethics in healthcare, and how marketing can actually benefit patients.
Advertising & Marketing Ethics In Healthcare
Firstly, where does this idea that marketing healthcare is unethical come from?
For that, we have to go all the way back to 1847. The American Medical Association unveiled its first code of marketing ethics. It included the following:
