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Showing posts tagged with: Brand Surveys

How healthcare people can help underserved populations

jerry9789
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Brand Surveys and Testing, Brandview World, Burning Questions

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There’s no shortage of knowledge about the healthcare needs of underserved communities in the US such as the Hispanic, Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander subpopulations.  What may be lacking are workable and effective efforts to address these needs.

There are two main parts of this problem:

  • Communication issues
  • Lack of practical programs.

Communication issues

The recently-released National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report points out that certain racial and ethnic groups that coincide with the underserved subpopulations are the most severely uninsured.  See Figure 1.  (Please note that the term American Indian/Alaska Native is shortened to AI/AN, and the term Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander is shortened to NHPI.)These disparities should not exist by definition, largely because of the availability of Medicare, Medicaid, and low-cost or no-cost insurance from state insurance exchanges.  As the report points out, they exist largely due to communication and access issues.  Many members of the underserved communities either have coverage but avoid seeking care or don’t know they’re eligible for coverage in the first place.

Avoiding treatment

Having coverage and avoiding care is a solvable problem, if healthcare organizations and the society in general have the will to do so.  People in the underserved communities often miss planned appointments for certain medical purposes such as wellness exams, follow-up appointments, and scheduled appointments for priority services such as prenatal care and maternal wellness, causing them in the latter case to pay a high price in terms of maternal morbidity and neonatal health.  (See “Lack of Practical Programs” below.)  Some of this is due to language barriers, transportation issues, or unease in the interaction with healthcare personnel; but a great deal is due to a misunderstanding of the extent of their coverage, especially what remains due from the patient in the form of copayments, deductibles, etc.

Healthcare organizations can ease these problems by providing more and better-trained navigators as well as interpreters and translation services.  They can build more outreach programs to the underserved to make them aware that in many cases they have little or nothing to pay for wellness services and planned care for medical purposes such as behavioral conditions, substance use treatment, chronic conditions, routine wellness care, and priority areas such as the above-mentioned prenatal care.

Not knowing about eligibility 

The same potential remedy applies to lack of awareness of eligibility.  Members of the underserved communities often don’t know that they’re eligible for coverage in the first place, and this leads to avoidance of treatment as well.  More and better-trained health navigators supported by outreach programs can also go a long way toward alleviating this part of the problem.

Lack of practical programs

If communication with the underserved can be improved, it stands to reason that well-structured programs must be established to accommodate them.  In other words, they have to have a place to go.   Not enough imaginative or careful thought has been put into the development of these programs for underserved communities.  Programs, personnel, and training are lacking in the areas of behavioral health, substance use treatment, dental care, prenatal/postpartum care, and more.

While the AHRQ report clearly identifies significant disparities in each of these areas for underserved communities, nowhere is the disparity more painful than in the area of prenatal care.  See Figure 2.

The AHRQ data show that the level of care is well below acceptable levels for each of the four main underserved communities.  This has unfortunately led to higher rates of maternal morbidity among these members of the underserved communities due to such conditions as eclampsia/preeclampsia,  severe postpartum hemorrhage, venous thromboembolism, and other complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

While this is just one significant area of disparity in quality of care for the underserved, it appropriately points out the need for practical programs.  Health care organizations can respond with energy and creativity by developing doula/monitrice services, transportation services, language/interpretive services, and structured prenatal and postpartum care services in tandem with the improved communication and health-navigator programs mentioned above.  There’s also evidence that the provision of team-based, interprofessional, central location care centers can often lead to improved medical outcomes for underserved populations.

Information-gathering is an important first step

Clearly, different approaches will be required based on geographic, cultural, linguistic, and sociodemographic issues that pertain to your organization, but the journey always begins by gathering information.  Cascade Strategies has a great deal of expertise and experience in helping healthcare companies assemble this knowledge, and we stand ready to assist you.  Please tell us about your information needs at contact Cascade Strategies, and we’ll be pleased to serve your needs.

 

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Importance of Brand Surveys

jerry9789
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Brandview World

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If your company or firm provides services or products, either to the public or other businesses, you need an in-depth understanding of how the market works. Market research provides you with relevant data to give your establishment a competitive edge over others. One reliable research method to gain insight into the market, brand perception, and customer behavior is a brand survey.

A brand tracking survey measures the performance, health, and success of your brand. A survey is a document that contains a series of purposefully constructed questions to extract data from a particular group of people. This group of people could be your customers, employees, and other people outside your target audience. Firms have multiple ways to conduct brand surveys and tests in the US. Individuals can take surveys online, and have them mailed to them, or they can use traditional methods, such as paper documents.

In this blog, we will look at some of the importance or benefits of brand surveys.


Importance of brand surveys.

1. Measure campaign effectiveness.

Brand surveys can show you how effective your marketing campaigns are- Without data from surveys and other means, it would be nearly impossible to determine if your campaigns are successful or whether your company is wasting resources. The survey will indicate if your advertisements are reaching the right audience and

2. Customer insight.

Brands that stay relevant value their customers. You need to listen to your customers, know what they want, and understand and anticipate their behavior. With Brand surveys and testing in Washington, companies, businesses, and other organizations stay connected with their customers and never go out of touch.

3. Brand perception.

How the customers, and the public at large view your brand is critical to its success. Your brand stirs up emotions in your customers and people outside your target audience when they see, hear, or think about it- and it had better be good emotions. Top companies all over the world ceaselessly work hard to ensure that they maintain their brand image. Surveys give you valuable insight into how people perceive your brand. These results from the brand survey tests and analysis tell you if your brand is portrayed in a good light and shows you areas to improve upon.

4. Competitive analysis.

Understanding and beating your competitors will give you an edge in the market. If your competitor outranks you in brand awareness, recall, and association, your marketing or branding department or company as a whole knows areas that need improvement.

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Welcome
to Cascade Strategies

A highly innovative, award-winning market research and consulting firm with over 31 years’ experience in the field. Cascade provides consistent excellence in not only the traditional methodologies such as mobile surveys and focus groups, but also in cutting-edge disciplines like Predictive Analytics, Deep Learning, Neuroscience, Biometrics, Eye Tracking, Virtual Reality, and Gamification.
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