With family members and friends through the medium of individualized home pages. On behalf of sponsoring hospitals and other in$-$patient healthcare facilities in North America, TLC created personalized homepages for patients that linked them to family and friends during hospitalization and extended care, including maternity. Typically, the homepage, which TLC branded as a CarePage, was accessed through the healthcare organizations own website, but TLC also offered the option of access through the company website. In both instances, all hosting took place on TLCs servers. The CarePage enabled family and friends to stay up to date on the patients condition and to communicate messages of support.

A CarePage was usually created when a patient was first admitted, although maternity patients often requested it be set up before their due dates. In most instances, a friend or family member agreed to act as CarePage manager and was provided with simple procedures for creating a page and updating content. The manager then informed the patients family and friends of the address and the password required for access. Two levels of security were offered, with the higher level requiring additional screening to ensure that only specified visitors could gain access. Visitors, known as members, could leave short messages on the site for all to read.The service was offered free to patients and visitors, being presented as an added benefit of patronizing the sponsoring healthcare organization. The fee paid by the sponsor varied according to the size of the institution, level of use and premium options selected. TLC was exploring an alternative business model in which a third$-$party corporate sponsor paid the fee on behalf of the institution and received cobranding recognition on the CarePages.The basic offering included such features as sending automatic email notification of an update on the patients condition to all registered visitors to a specific CarePage, the ability to order gifts and flowers and a guestbook tracking all visitors to the site, plus the options of posting and creating links to relevant background medical information.

TLC was currently testing a new feature that enabled visitor to make a donation to the healthcare institution serving the patient. For an additional fee, sponsor could also obtain feedback on usage pattern, conduct survey of visitors, post a hospital CEO welcome message, link to the hospital gift shop and feature a customized inbox. Spanish$-$language CarePages were also available for an extra fee. The company had documented different patterns of CarePage use, showing that it varied according to the nature of patients situation. On average, a CarePage remained up for $85$ days and attracted $50$ members, each of whom visited $15$ times. However, the average hospital stay in the United States, across all categories, was only $5\mathrm{.}2$ days.TLCs procedures ensured privacy protection, meeting the provisions of the Health Information Privacy and Accountability Act $($HIPAA$).$ Its website displayed the TRUSTe Privacy Seal, a consumer branded symbol certifying that the site met stringent requirements of notice, choice, access, security and redress.TLCs marketing strategy evolved into a threefold thrust. The first strategic component was to continue offering a stand$-$alone service, positioned as an e$-$business patient satisfaction solution that offered important benefits for hospitals and health systems. Among patients and their families, TLC planned to rely on a viral marketing effect through wordof$-$mouth referrals, thus limiting the need for mass media advertising. Although the number of users was still small, feedback had been exceptionally positive. The second component involved outsourcing direct sales to a national distribution partner that had established relationships with hospitals and health facilities. The third component involved licensing TLC software and its functionality to trusted third$-$party vendors and consultants. These partners could then bundle TLCs service as a feature to enhance their own product offerings, in return for royalties and other payments.

Question:

Evaluate the evolution of TLC and identify the key decisions that kept it afloat and underpinned its subsequent success.  

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The case study tells the story of TLC The Learning Channel a healthcarecentric firm that primarily serves hospitalized patients by creating CarePages ... View the full answer