Gap Analysis: Identifying Opportunities for Growth in Healthcare Market Research

Gap analysis is one of the key tools in healthcare market research that primarily, you guessed it right, identifies gaps in services or processes. However, it can also identify and deliver opportunities for growth, improvements, and expansions. If you’re missing out on this powerful approach, you are leaving freely hanging profit, better care for your patients, and effortless regulatory compliance. In today’s blog, we will uncover how healthcare market research companies are using gap assessment to enhance the business growth of hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities. We will also reveal how this particular market research method can help organizations stay aligned with the rapidly evolving regulatory requirements, improve performance, reduce operational efficiencies, and revamp profit rates. Let’s get started!

What is Gap Analysis?

Gap analysis is a qualitative market research tool that identifies discrepancies between current service offerings and the ideal or desired state. In healthcare, ‘gaps’ refer to the areas of the facility that should be upgraded according to the industry's best practices and advanced technology. Some examples of gaps in healthcare are listed below:

• Patients from isolated or underserved areas face difficulties accessing essential healthcare services.
• The demand for mental health services has surged rapidly in recent times. However, healthcare facilities often don’t have sufficient availability.
• Inadequate availability of mental health services amid rising demand.
• Poor coordination among healthcare providers leads to incomplete treatment plans, duplicative tests, and medication errors.
• The need for preventive care services is often different from the actual delivery of these services.
• Workforce shortages cause longer patient wait times and overworking staff, which could lead to decreased quality of care.

Healthcare market research companies perform a gap analysis to assess such differences in their client’s management and the changes needed to fix them. It reveals a clear picture of going from ‘reality’ to an ‘ideal’ state of operations.

Relevance of Gap Analysis in Healthcare Market Research

The popularity of gap analysis has significantly surged in recent years, with more healthcare market research companies embracing this technique due to its extensive benefits. Here are some compelling reasons why you shouldn’t overlook this classic methodology:

• Helps Comply with Regulations: Gap analysis plays a crucial role in ensuring that your organization meets all regulatory requirements, which is especially critical in the healthcare industry where compliance is non-negotiable. By systematically identifying areas where your practices fall short of current standards, you can proactively address potential issues, thereby eliminating the risk of non-compliance and avoiding costly penalties or legal troubles.
• Identifies Patient Care Inefficiencies: One of the major benefits of gap analysis is its ability to highlight inefficiencies in patient care. Closely examining current practices, healthcare facilities can pinpoint specific areas where treatments or services may be lacking and can provide a clear pathway for improvements. This, in turn, can help healthcare organizations streamline processes, reduce waste, and ultimately enhance the quality of care delivered to patients.
• Improves Patient Outcomes: Healthcare providers can leverage gap analysis to refine treatment protocols, introduce innovative solutions, and enhance patient satisfaction. This methodology not only helps improve the effectiveness of care but also supports the implementation of strategies that lead to better patient outcomes. In a field where patient well-being is paramount, the ability to continuously improve through targeted adjustments is invaluable.
• Enhances Competitive Positioning: If you operate in a highly competitive market, understanding where your organization stands relative to others is key to sustained success. Gap analysis enables you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, identify gaps in their offerings, and strategically adjust your own services to capitalize on these findings. This proactive approach can help you differentiate your organization, enhance your market positioning, and gain a competitive edge that attracts more patients and partnerships.

Embracing gap analysis allows healthcare organizations to not only meet regulatory demands and improve patient care, but also to strategically position themselves for success in a competitive landscape. Continually refining practices and addressing gaps can help organizations drive better outcomes for their patients and sustain growth in the dynamic healthcare market.

Steps to Conduct Gap Analysis in Healthcare Market Research

You can perform gap analysis regardless of the size of your organization. It involves 5 basic steps. Let’s have a look at the entire process that a reliable healthcare industry research company uses:

Step 1: Identify Gaps

To identify the gaps, you must first assess your current state and become aware of the reality. Once you have identified gaps, you should study how serious the problems are. A RAG (Red, Amber, Green) analysis can explain that with red being an area of concern, amber (yellow) being the area of caution, and green being an area of satisfaction.

Step 2: Decide the Desired or Ideal State

Next, you have to decide the ideal state that your organization desires. It will be based on implementing the best practices of the industry and adapting to the latest innovations. Comparing your current and desired states will help you develop ideas to overcome gaps.

Step 3: Develop an Action Plan

Next comes the planning phase, where you have to develop an action plan that will help you bridge the gaps. You can ask questions to your patients, staff, and other stakeholders about what changes should be implemented, what new services should be added, and what upgrades are required. Conducting surveys, interviews, and focus group observations to determine what makes patients unsatisfied and work on improving patient satisfaction rates is another wise move.

Step 4: Start Bridging the Gaps

When you have developed the action plan, execute it carefully to close the identified gaps. Keep track of your resources to ensure you have sufficient for the course of action. Meanwhile, work on contingency plans to overcome any unforeseen barriers or obstacles.

Step-5: Monitor the Progress

After executing your action plan to bridge the gaps, you have to continue monitoring the progress and making necessary optimizations. You should also look for any newly arising gaps due to the recently implemented changes or the ones that were missed initially. Taking care of them will make your offerings perfect for patients.

Winner Techniques for Gap Analysis in Healthcare

After years of healthcare market research, we have identified the best-performing techniques for gap analysis in this highly sensitive industry. We call them our ‘winner techniques’. Here they are:

• Customer Journey Mapping: This technique places a spotlight on the patient’s entire journey through your healthcare services, from the initial contact to the post-care experience. By mapping out each touchpoint, it helps you uncover critical areas of improvement and pinpoint pain points that may be affecting patient satisfaction and outcomes. It’s one of the most effective methods to understand unmet needs, allowing you to tailor your services to better meet patient expectations and enhance overall care quality.
• Benchmarking: Benchmarking involves comparing your organization’s performance against that of competitors or industry leaders to identify where you may be falling short. This technique helps you gather valuable data regarding how your services stack up in the market, highlighting areas where improvements are needed to stay competitive. Having a clear understanding of what top performers are doing differently, can help you set actionable goals to close performance gaps and elevate your organization's standards.
• SWOT Analysis: A tried-and-true technique, SWOT analysis focuses on identifying your organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This method provides a comprehensive view of internal and external factors that could be impacting your performance. By understanding these elements in depth, you can not only identify existing gaps, but also brainstorm strategic solutions to address them. It’s a powerful tool that can guide decision-making and help you develop targeted initiatives to bridge gaps and leverage your strengths.

These ‘winner techniques’ offer a robust framework for conducting gap analysis in the healthcare industry, allowing organizations to gain a deeper understanding of their performance, uncover areas for improvement, and implement solutions that enhance patient care and competitive positioning. Consistently applying these methods will ensure that organizations drive continuous improvement and stay at the forefront of the healthcare market.

Identifying Opportunities for Growth Through Gap Analysis

Alongside paving the way to enhance patient care, gap analysis also unlocks significant growth opportunities for healthcare organizations. Here’s how every industry research company leverages this powerful framework to boost their clients’ profits:

• Improves Operational Efficiency: Gap analysis derived from paid market research throws light on inefficiencies within current operations. It helps you identify areas where enhancements—such as automating repetitive tasks, upgrading processes, or adding more staff—can significantly improve overall efficiency.
• Development & Upgrade of Offerings: This particular qualitative market research method uncovers the need for advancements or upgrades in existing treatments and technologies. By revealing gaps in current offerings, healthcare facilities can stay ahead of the curve by adopting cutting-edge solutions like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Blockchain technologies. These innovations not only help eliminate gaps but also elevate the quality of care, leading to better patient outcomes and positioning your organization as a leader in healthcare innovation.
• Expansion to New Markets: Gap assessment is invaluable in identifying underserved populations and emerging healthcare needs. Focusing on these areas allows healthcare providers to expand their offerings to new markets, meeting the demands of a broader audience. This strategic approach not only helps fill critical gaps in care but also opens up new revenue streams and growth opportunities, making your services more accessible and widely recognized.
• Access to Beneficial Partnerships: Industry research services also use gap analysis to identify strategic partnership opportunities that can help fill service gaps and enhance patient care. Collaboration with other organizations allows healthcare providers to offer a more comprehensive suite of services, address a wider range of patient needs, and gain access to new technologies or expertise that may otherwise be out of reach. These partnerships not only improve patient outcomes but also drive business growth by expanding your capabilities and market reach.

Integrating gap analysis into their strategic planning enables healthcare organizations to not only enhance patient care but also identify and capitalize on key growth opportunities. It provides a clear roadmap to boosting profitability and staying competitive in today’s ever-evolving healthcare industry.

Final Take

Gap analysis is a highly advantageous tool in healthcare market research that allows healthcare organizations to uncover growth opportunities while improving patient care. If you can identify gaps and bridge them systematically, you are more likely to meet patient needs promptly, improve operations, and grow your profits exponentially. Gap analysis is one of the most recommended techniques by every industry research company due to its extensive range of benefits, which we discussed in today’s blog. If your organization is struggling with operational inefficiencies, it’s the perfect time to consult with a qualitative research agency. When looking for a dependable market research firm for comprehensive assistance throughout your research and data collection processes, look no further than Unimrkt Research. With ISO20252 and ISO 27001 certifications under our belt, we are an award-winning market research agency with the resources and competency to conduct global market research across 90 countries in over 22 languages. To learn more about our business research services, call us at +91-124-424-5210/+919870377557 or email at sales@unimrkt.com. You may also fill out ourcontact form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.