HEALTH PROMOTION IN THE MARKETPLACE - PATIENT SATISFACTION AS THE BASIS OF A MARKETING STRATEGY

This article looks at prevention in the context of recent policy initi atives in the UK which have created new roles and new opportunities fo r general practitioners (GPs) and primary care. One such opportunity i s the potential to actively market preventive services in order to ret ain and attract patients in a competitive market. We first describe th is context and then provide an example of how a patient satisfaction s urvey can be an effective market-research tool. The results from a dis trict-wide survey are evaluated in terms of socio-demographic differen ces which stratify the patient market into segments which are aware of , users of and are satisfied with preventive services and those who ar e not. This article illustrates how GPs can use data of this kind when developing investment and marketing strategies.