Microcomputer mapping has become an indispensable planning and marketing tool for many health care marketers who are faced with decisions based on geographic data. With all the necessary data geographically presented by state, county, zip code or customized boundaries, marketers can quickly and easily illustrate everything from population shifts to sources of patient referrals. Moreover, mapping enables marketers to analyze market share, study service area needs, develop marketing strategies and select facility locations.


A host of health care institutions have reaped the benefits of mapping, such as hospitals, state and national public health agencies, marketing and management consulting firms, major medical groups, prepaid health care plans and insurance carriers.

Magliaro & McHaney Health Care Consultants, La Jolla, Cal., uses microcomputer mapping for its hospital clients because it provides demographic analyses such as the population of a particular area and average household income, says Patricia Farrell, program analyst at M&M. The particular software package the firm uses is ATLAS Graphics from Strategic Locations Planning, San Jose, Cal. The information is used by M&M sales personnel who work with hospitals that are looking to bring in more patients. Mapping shows the hospitals the make-up of their heaviest patient population so that they can target market services that best meet these patient needs.

Targeting physicians

Holy Family Health Care Systems, Inc., Des Plaines, Ill., uses ATLAS mapping as well to help promote the use of its specialized services by targeting physicians who may refer patients for specialized care, says Dennis Tucker, corporate vice president of marketing at Holy Family. The 285 bed acute care hospital and 362-bed nursing home may also assist physicians with patient referrals by examining the demographics of ZIP code areas which are highly mobile and which could benefit from its specialists. Holy Family may then invest in a direct mail piece on patient referrals for those areas, or place advertisements about disease and disease symptoms that persons in those areas are prone to and should be aware of.

Mapping also shows how a hospital's market share compares with its competitors. Additionally, mapping assists hospitals in evaluating new services by pinpointing the increase, decrease or change in patient origin data. In response to changing community needs, recommendations can then be made to market particular services or establish certain types of medical practices.

Cumbersome work

Until recently, the only way to create thematic maps was by mainframe computer or by hand, either of which proved expensive, time? consuming and limiting in use. With the advent of microcomputer mapping, marketers have been able to modify and analyze data and create geographic charts very simply, quickly, and at greatly reduced costs.

Creating thematic maps requires five basic components: A computer with graphics capabilities, an output device - such as a monitor, printer, or plotter - a data file, a boundary file, and mapping software. In the article, "Micro Mapping: Data Imaging for Information Managers ' Stephen L. Poizner of Strategic Locations Planning discusses these components at length.

Computer: Although microcomputer mapping programs are available for most popular microcomputers, mapping software is most readily available for the IBM PC, IBM-PC compatibles and certain Apple computers. Microcomputer mapping programs are graphics oriented, therefore, the computer must possess graphics capabilities. These capabilities are a graphics card and display monitor. Color capabilities are available and enhance presentation.

Output device: To obtain "hard copy" maps, a pen plotter, laser printer or other similar output device is necessary.

Colorful, high resolution maps of professional quality can be achieved by a pen plotter. A laser printer provides high resolution capability but uses patterns instead of colors for differing areas. Less detailed, black and white maps with lower resolution than pen plotters can be achieved by using dot matrix printers.

Boundary files: Mapping software uses a boundary file to draw geographical components such as city limits and state and county borders that compose a map. The boundaries of these features are stored in a boundary file as a series of x-y or latitude-longitude points. Mapping software draws the map boundaries by connecting these points together.

Microcomputer mapping software vendors supply hundreds of different kinds of boundary files. Examples are those by zip code, streets, county, state, Designated Marketing Areas (DMAs), and Area Microcomputer Mapping of Dominant Influence (ADIs).

Boundary files can also be created with a digitizing tablet, an electronic pad with movable hand cursor. Digitizing tablets are compatible with most microcomputers and allow the creation of boundary files for practically any area.

Data files: Data files and boundary files work hand-in-hand. While boundary files contain boundaries for a group of features, the data files contain statistical data for these features. A data file consists of any data with a geographic element such as population, income and retail sales. A state population density data file, for instance, might contain information that shows the number of residents per square mile for each state. Another data file may show the average income per household per county in a particular state, or the number of single heads of households per county in that state.

Data files can be purchased from government agencies and data companies in the private sector provide many specialized data files.

Creating and loading your own data files by using business software programs is also feasible. That capability illustrates one of the advantages of the mapping software available on the market.

Data files generated by spreadsheets and database management packages are compatible with many of the microcomputer mapping programs available. This means that data specific to a certain business, for example, from a customer profile, can be plugged directly into the mapping program. This is information in addition to that which is available from the federal government or data companies.

Mapping software: The last basic ingredient needed to create maps is mapping software. This is used to merge the corresponding boundary and data files. Mapping software uses the boundary file to draw the boundaries of the map, then uses the data file to display data on the map.

Data can be displayed on a map in many ways. The most common method is by color shading the map based on its corresponding data value. Another way is using dots in a dot density map.

Mapping software's merging capability is one reason why this tool is so popular. This capability allows the user to get a clear picture of business trends. A marketer, for example, can pinpoint target markets using one or several demographic variables, add on a display of current market penetration, and then interrelate the current level of penetration with the market's potential. This illustration of data permits a quantifiable assessment of performance vs. potential. Additionally, marketers have the capability to evaluate the allocation of limited resources by overlaying many conditions within a single geographic area.