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Case Study Of Porter 's Five Forces Model

Decent Essays

I am a registered nurse employed in a hospital in the healthcare industry. Porter’s five forces model begins with the first force being the intensity of rivalry among incumbent firms (Parnell, 2014). Competition in healthcare, particularly hospitals, is limited. Due to the accredidation process, government regulations such as a certificate of need (Certificate of need, n.d.) and licensing of facilities and providers, competition is limited. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking at ways to increase competition in healthcare such as opening up opportunities for nurse practitioners, increasing the availability of such technologies as telehealth and establish more competitive healthcare pricing. In cities, there is more of a concentration of competitors. The hospital that I work at is the largest between Memphis and Nashville and has the busiest ER in the state of Tennessee. Therefore, the concentration of competition is low for that particular hospital. There are high fixed costs with a hospital such as buildings, overhead, equipment, and salaried personnel. Yet, a hospital does not cut their prices to increase patient census. However, it could be questionable in a low census period as to whether there are additional tests run or hospital admissions that would ordinarily not happen if the census were higher. There is strong growth in the healthcare industry with the industry growing at twice the rate of the national economy (Health Care Industry, 2012).

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