Hospital competition

Local hospitals must spend a lot of money on advertising, both in print and on TV. The one that catches my attention most is from Southern Ohio Medical Center at Portsmouth, Ohio. SOMC's most recent ads focus on its heart unit.

By coincidence (?), King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland has announced it will open its new Medical Specialties office in Portsmouth on May 7. Why does KDMC need to be in Portsmouth if SOMC is so great? Why has KDMC had a clinic near South Point, Ohio, for several years when that clinic sits closer to Cabell Huntington Hospital than to Ashland? And why a few years ago did one St. Mary's Medical Center executive say he would fight any attempt by KDMC to open a clinic in Ceredo or Kenova?

It's all about market share -- keeping yours or grabbing part of your competitors'. I have no problem with hospitals competing for business. It's capitalism, after all, even in the nonprofit sector. If I were SOMC, I would be concerned that KDMC is about to open its second office in my home county. I would probably spend a lot of money on ads to remind my existing patient base that it can obtain cardiac care at home rather than going up to Ashland.

You have to wonder, though, when the arms race will end ... assuming it will.