Is Hospital Advertising really beneficial to your health?

SOURCE:  dailymotion.com

                                                    

The economic principle I’m exploring is= People generally respond to incentives in a predictable way 

My research question to help me study the economic principle is= At what length should healthcare companies compete with other companies and advertise to consumers.

 The article published in Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania titled “Hospital Advertising: Good Business or Time to Pull the plug? demonstrates this economic principle because it argues that hospital advertising directly to consumers is unethical and unprofessional, misleads patients, draws attention away from quality, and lacks the information consumers need to make a decision. 

First, A Wharton health care management professor Ezekiel J.Emanuel, serving as a physician at Dana-Farber-Cancer Institute of Boston states that hospital advertising “‘...is really just about rearranging market share. I understand it is a business practice. But it’s not a professional practice...it’s not really about ensuring the health of the community…”’. Physicians and doctors are frustrated that businesses are jeopardizing consumer’s health is a false way to earn a profit. They argue it is unprofessional to falsify information to consumers.

 Second, hospital ads include patients that were cured by the procedure, but don’t inform consumers on the side effect of the procedure, and the overall success. “A University of Pennsylvania physician Yael Schenker and her co-authors noticed a number of concerns, including the fact that ads featuring patients who were cured by the hospitals they are praising do not include information about the risks presented by the procedures they underwent, or the overall success rates for such procedures”. Companies advertise already cured patients in their ads, yet this causes the risk that that procedure done by the hospital to fix all your problems. Advertising deflects attention away from questions of quality.

 Third, A penn state student Moti Gorrin, completed a two-year-post doctoral fellowship at the Perelman School of Medicine department of medical ethics and health policy wrote a response published by the American Journal of Bioethics explains his concern on hospital advertising. One being the lack of quality and information portrayed in these ads or billboard ads. He states “‘Another concern is the lack of information. Advertisements on billboards or in 30-second spots on television and radio can’t provide prospective patients with the kind of information they need to make informed choices.”’ These advertisement lack the information the patients/consumers need to make decisions.

 In my next blog post I will research: About Pharmaceutical companies, specially
How do pharmaceutical companies affect consumers? Should they have a limit at what drug should be advertised and what drug shouldn’t be advertised?