Hospital marketing: characterization of marketing actions in private hospitals in the city of São Paulo - Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: Characterize the marketing actions in private hospitals in the city of São Paulo, the organizational structure of the marketing area, the target public of marketing actions and the media used. METHODS: Exploratory cross-sectional study, carried out by a survey made with hospital administrators. RESULTS: The hospitals studied were clearly divided in two groups whose differentials are statistically significant: 1. good infrastructure and equipment, with a well-defined investment policy in marketing; 2. worse infrastructure and less equipment, with lower proportional investment in marketing. CONCLUSIONS: 1. The actions most used are the evaluation of patients/caregivers satisfaction, web site and dissemination of the hospital services. 2. The hospital administrators attribute a level of significant importance to the application of hospital marketing concepts. 3. There is a marketing structure in most of the hospitals studied. 4. The hospitals consider as extremely or very important publics: patients and relatives, doctors, collaborators, health plans and community. 5. The media most used are the most simple and of lower cost. 6. There is a statistically significant correlation between the higher investment in marketing and the best infrastructure. 7. The studied hospitals apply the concept of marketing in a restricted way.