'Freedom of choice': A case study of internal communication strategies and practices on marketing in the health care sector

Abstract

The planned healthcare and social services reform (SOTE) has resulted in a legislation that increases the patient’s freedom of choice when deciding their health care service provider. This has opened new possibilities for public operators in Finland and the Pirkanmaa Health District (PHD) was among the first to react to this change in their operational environment. The Freedom of Choice (FoC)-project was launched in 2013 and the goal was to raise awareness of the organization’s services and increase brand recognition. As a result, the number of patients outside PHD’s catchment area was increased.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore PHD’s internal communication strategies related to external marketing measures and how these strategies have been implemented in the past few years. The aim of the thesis was to survey the strategic internal communication processes PHD uses to communicate internally with their personnel and how these processes have developed in the context of external marketing measures. The focus of the thesis is in the marketing practices related to the FoC-project. Data was collected by conducting seven in-depth, qualitative interviews and document analysis. Data was analysed by using Thematic Content Analysis.

The results showed that the marketing measures have had an impact on PHD’s internal communication strategies. PHD invested heavily on internal training during the FoC-project and this focus in communication practices has had an effect. The employees’ attitudes towards marketing have become more tolerant. As expected, the internal communication strategies have evolved through the years as they are based on the organizational strategy which has been revised on regular intervals. Internal communication is one target for continuous improvement in PHD and the communication culture, the size of the organization and the communication channels were revealed as the main challenges in PHD’s staff communication.

The results led to the conclusions that the FoC-project was an example of a strategy where communication and marketing were effectively applied when introducing services for new target audiences. The study helps to identify the main challenges and biggest targets for development in internal communication of PHD as well as aids to clarify the internal strategy process of a large public health care operator.