Hello Everyone:
Are we suppose to add our name's to the team member's profile?
Rosaura Anabel
Are we suppose to add our name's to the team member's profile?
Rosaura Anabel
posted by Lasik Eye at 9:53 AM
Thursday, November 02, 2006
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3 Comments:
Hi Anabel,
I guess we can do that, it won't hurt.
I see you posted great info for advertising laser surgery. Great!!
maria
Hello everyone:
I hope you this message gets posted. Here is what I wrote up so far:
FINAL PROJECT
Industry/Competitive Analysis
Forces driving the industry and competitive analysis for Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute: Competing in the LASIK Eye Surgery Market include:
- Competitors from Canada
- Surgery being offered at lower prices by competitors
- Various degrees of treatments
- Locations of eye surgery centers
- Types of competitors – General ophthalmologists, surgery centers, and specialized LASIK clinics
- Before and after surgery procedures
1). Threat of new entrants
PCLI (Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute), a firm who operated a total of eleven clinics throughout the northwestern Unites States, faced threats of new entrants into the laser eye surgery field from Canada and firms within the United States. The largest of these firms was TLC Laser Eye Centers, Inc., based in Mississauga, Ontario, who also had 56 clinics in the U.S. and 7 in Canada. New entrants also specialized solely in LASIK surgeries, and the largest of these firms was a Canadian competitor called Lasik Vision Corporation (LVC), based in Vancouver, British Colombia. LVC operated 15 clinics in Canada and 14 in the United States and was growing rapidly.
2). Bargaining Power of Suppliers
PCLI ‘s clinic provided medical and surgical eye treatments, including laser vision correction, and based the organization’s success on surgical excellence and compassioned concern for its patients and the doctors who referred them. Clinics in Canada, offering the same services as PCLI, were advertising laser eye surgery at a lower price and soon PCLI found themselves in competition. Since most medical insurance programs covered only a small portion of the cost of this procedure people were swayed by the low prices and would travel to Canada to have the procedure performed. Procedures for setting up the surgery date also differed from PCLI and in some cases a simple call to a toll-free number was needed to schedule a time to have the surgery performed. The patient was in and out of the clinic within three days, whereas, PCLI’s clinic would partner with the prospective patient’s doctor of Ophthalmology, who would provide information about LASIK and PCLI to the patient, the OD would perform a pre-exam to make sure the patient was a suitable candidate for the surgery, forward the exam to the doctor at PCLI, PCLI would then discuss payment options, have the risks of the surgery explained, meet with the surgeon and then the operation was performed.
While the recuperation and follow-up to surgery (24 hrs., one-week, one-month, three months, six-months and one-year for PCLI vs. 24 hrs., one-week, and three months in Canada) procedures were somewhat identical the process in Canada was designed to accommodate the patient and differed significantly from PCLI’s services. PCLI did all the follow-up appointments for the patients and Canada was letting their patients see the OD for the follow-up visits.
3). Bargaining Powers of Buyers
The bargaining power of the buyers was that they could go to clinics in Canada, or their affiliates, in the United States and have the LASIK eye surgery done for half the price as PCLI or at a significantly lower price. They were provided with information regarding these clinics through advertisements and even provided a toll-free number to call for information.
4). Threat of Substitute Products
Clinics in Canada, their affiliates in the United States, and other low-cost eye surgery clinics provided a threat to PCLI in terms of offering services at a lower price. This was accomplished by not having to pay a royalty to the manufacturers of the equipment, paying lower fees to the surgeons in Canada, the weak Canadian dollar vs. the U.S. dollar, and speculation among U.S. clinics that some low-priced Canadian clinics were making a variety of care-compromising quality tradeoffs, such as not performing equipment calibration and maintenance as often as recommended by the manufacturer, and reusing the blades used to make the initial incisions.
5). Rivalry Between Competing Firms
PCLI built its reputation by establishing eight core values that were based on the principles of practicing the art of healing through love, kindness and compassion and providing the best possible “co-managed” services to the profession of optometry.
Soon PCLI and other U.S. clinics found themselves in competition with firms who were compromising quality service and patient care for lower prices. To remain in competition and prevent the loss of customers subsidiaries to parent companies were created and offered lower prices for laser eye surgery. This was accomplished by employing their own surgeons or the parent companies providing only the facilities and equipment, and contracting out with independent surgeons to perform the procedures.
Oops! Forgot to put my name. It was me, Zoe, who left the writeup on Industry/Competitive Analysis - Final Project information.
-Zoe-
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