This assessment of marketing practices revealed that the HHAs were not marketing their telehealth programs aggressively. Of the materials reviewed, the fact sheets were the most explicit about the telehealth program and were the most commonly used method. General marketing materials such as the brochure and the web site conveyed little information to the public about telehealth services.
Last, the stated strategic objectives for adopting telehealth to the actual marketing practices were compared. Figure 1 illustrates that the technological preeminence objective is associated with the most aggressive marketing methods overall (x=5.0). Organizations that adopt telehealth to reduce costs have the lowest marketing scores (x=2.5), followed by those pursuing clinical excellence (x=2.9). The two organizations with unclear objectives had a mean marketing score of 4.0.
In summary, organizational efforts to promote telehealth varied widely among the HHAs. The interviews provided insights into strategic goals as well as management perceptions of telehealth and may partially explain organizational differences. For example, those managers who see telehealth as a financial solution to reimbursement challenges may take a slightly different approach in their marketing efforts than those who are more entrepreneurial and see telehealth as a proactive growth strategy. (We note, however, that the managers may have been hesitant to emphasize the cost-cutting features of telehealth, possibly biasing their responses.)