Brian Lagrange (HCM-325 Journal 2-2)
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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HCM325
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Health Science
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Jan 9, 2024
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Journal 2-2 Consumer Behavior and Drivers on Demand: Who’s in the Driver’s Seat Brian Lagrange Southern New Hampshire University HCM-325 Healthcare Marketing Professor: Elizabeth Baker October 25, 2023
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According to Textbook which is published by Thomas (2020), a discretionary purchase is made when the purchase of a good/item or services that is elective rather than required. (Thomas pg. 564). When it comes to discussing the topic of healthcare, an example of discretionary purchase that we could consider would be an example of Plastic Surgery. This surgery is not necessarily required; but a lot of patients seek to have it done on a regular basis. When thinking about an experience with a healthcare service that was discretionary, I referred to when I had a raised part of a mole on my shoulder that appeared to be coming apart. I had scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist because the pain was unbearable, and I thought I should have someone examine it before it becomes worst. After the visit with the dermatologist, she recommended that I fill a prescription for a steroid cream that I would apply to the mold to see if it would help with the inflammation, but the cream did not ease the pain I was feeling. While I was at the dermatologist’s office, they took a biopsy of the mole for further testing and after a week had gone by, I received a call saying that the test results had come back. The results showed that the mold was highly infected and that I should have it removed as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of it become more serious and to avoid it from becoming cancerous. The next step that I took after getting the results was to make a follow up appointment to have the mold removed completely as soon as possible.
Although the removal of the mole at the current moment was not exactly necessary, that was a high chance that it could become cancerous, so I decided no to put off the wait any longer. I believe that having the mole removed was a discretionary event because at the given time that I decided to have it removed, it was not in a cancerous status, and it was not affecting my life
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and it could have been pushed back until a future date. If the biopsy that was originally taken would have come back to the dermatologist and would have shown signs of cancerous cells that
it would be considered a nondiscretionary purchase because the removal would have been necessary at the time. As the patient, I was the Primary consumer. “The patient is typically thought of as the primary consumer of health services. (Thomas, 2020). Although the Dermatologist had a deciding factor in my choice to do the procedure, I was the one who made the final decision and made the necessary appointments. Healthcare Consumers differ from other Consumers in many ways. The first way that they show a difference is that when it comes to overall healthcare purchases, they are usually nondiscretionary purchases. In a lot of cases most patients are seeking healthcare because of an illness so the choice to make a healthcare purchase would not be of the elective side, because it would be considered medical necessary. The Second way that Healthcare consumers differ from other consumers is that providers are the ones who purchase the products or services for that consumer. “This aspect of healthcare is unique: Goods or services are prescribed for the consumer, and then the consumer is expected to comply with the prescribed treatment”. (Thomas, 2020). The Third way that healthcare consumers are different is that they are unaware
of the cost of the purchase. Because of the way the financing agreements that are made within the healthcare system and the way they are structured, the patients don’t have the necessary access to the cost, so the purchase decisions are not necessarily affected by the overall cost.
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I believe after reading the material in the textbook for this week assignment and looking back
at on past experiences with healthcare purchases, I have a more unique understanding of the overall process in which a healthcare consumer goes through and how different it is than being a consumer of a good or product from a different industry.
The dermatologist had prescribed steroid cream and biopsy to further exam my situation and I
never witnessed the cost of the biopsy, or the cost of the medication required to do the test. When you Imagined yourself as a consumer it’s remind you to refer to as thinking about buying
a TV or even a computer. You can either shop online or through the local retailers, but when it comes to healthcare purchases you are unaware of the prices of the goods and services that you are being charged for and you don’t have the option to make decisions that a provider would make about the type and cost of that medication.
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References:
Richard K. Thomas. (2020). Marketing Health Services, Fourth Edition. Vol. Fourth Edition AUPHA/HAP Book.
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/lib/snhu-ebooks/
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