In today’s ever competitive healthcare industry, medical centers have resorted to adopting innovative measures which will see them capitalize on the ever-growing market in the healthcare industry. This has seen healthcare centers realize steady profits and gain a wide market share across the country. Illinois on its part has not been left behind as it has embraced strategies that will see it make the most out of this lucrative industry (Relman, 1991) . Illinois is a hotbed of many healthcare facilities and Advocate Health Care happens to be one of the leading in the industry. Being one of the leading healthcare chains, it has competitors which come with its advantages by letting Advocate get an elaborate information about the industry structure and performance so as to be a notch higher than its competitors (Brill, 2014) . Most competitors in Illinois healthcare industry build their brand (Luxton, 2015) by understanding the industry’s strengths and opportunities which have their fair share of positive and negative impact on the revenue, growth and the advancement of the market (van Wijngaarden, 2012) . Every industry has competitors, and Advocate Health Center is no exception as there are competitors such as Rush System for Health and Covenant Ministries of Benevolence system who keep the industry’s competition vibrant as they all aim at having a large market share.
Although Illinois is known for its blossoming Manufacturing and transportation industry, its entrepreneurial spirit has seen it tremendously evolve in the healthcare industry thereby having a significant factor in the economy of the state (Dranove, 2000) . There are many healthcare centers which are headquartered in Illinois, which include leading academic health care centers, medical equipment manufacturers and hospitals among others. The healthcare industry is projected to be injecting an estimated 12 % of Illinois’s total economy. Illinois is home to tens of thousands of healthcare-related facilities which have created employment to the majority of its residents accumulating to more than a million employees with Advocate healthcare having the highest number of employees, with about 35,000 associates across the state. The health industry is a growing sector which doesn’t seem to cool down anytime soon but has a potential to keep growing. The healthcare industry has seen a lot of companies make profits thereby proving that the healthcare industry has a bright future not only to the state of Illinois but the country at large.
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For any industry to thrive, there has to exist a healthy competition between parties that take part. Competition is an important activity in the healthcare industry (Porter, 2004) . This is the case with Illinois healthcare industry where Advocate Health Care, which is one of the leading healthcare systems in Illinois, faces a stiff competition from other healthcare centers (Berkowitz E. N., 2010) . Advocate’s healthcare major competitors include Mercy Health and Covenant Ministries of Benevolence system just to name a few. The competitiveness in the healthcare industry of Illinois has made Advocate adopt innovative ideas such as the use of technology by using Skype for business and SharePoint to reach their clients and with its high number of employees and affiliated physicians has seen Advocate flourish in service delivery thereby scooping most of the awards and recognition such as in 2016 when Truven Health Analytics recognized two of Advocate Health Care centers in the country’s top 100 top hospitals (Kuo, 2011) . Besides, Advocate has been recognized as the best place to work in Illinois (Liberati, 2009) . Such competition that involves the best health care centers in the country turns out to be gainful to customers since a fair competition will mean the charges are lower while the quality of service is higher (Herzlinger, 1997) . Despite the competition being stiff, Advocate Health Care has still maintained its dominance as the leading healthcare system in Illinois by edging out most of its competitor by offering the best preventive measures (Williams, 2015) , through the diagnosis of ailments, treatment of specific ailments and feeding the market with correct information and also client satisfaction (Kotler, 2011) .
The industry structure of Illinois is a huge one which has seen Advocate Health Care to adopt certain measures so as to maintain its high performance (Subramanian, 2009) . This is because, despite the high demographic of Illinois, the structure of healthcare industry is composed of several facilities which offer the same services, therefore forcing service providers such as Advocate to develop structures that will see it get the best performances compared to others (Schlesinger, 1986) . With the Advocate, healthcare has a wide market. With the affiliate Advocate hospitals in Illinois, the number of associates and affiliated physicians, and with the newly created Advocate Northshore Health partners, it is enough to show that the Advocate’s market size is a big one which has made it become the 11th largest non-profit health care system in the country. This has also been a contributing factor to the services offered making it a grade above other competitors in Illinois. The revenue share of Advocate has been steady for a couple of years until recently when the expenditure became higher than the revenue collected thereby making drop in the net income. This could also be attributed to the Obamacare which has seen residents being insured thereby cutting down the revenue collected before the insurance policy being passed by Congress. Although in the third quarter of 2017 financial year, Advocate Health Care recorded a profit of $ 7 million, attributed to the inpatient care and instant payment, an up from the same period in the 2016 financial year which translates to a 6% profit margin thereby proving that its market is still steady (Vargo, 2004) . Such reports show that Advocate Health Care has a potential to grow and with the number of centers opening, advancements in the healthcare industry, such as incorporating IT in its operations, will go great miles not just for the industry but also for the betterment of the health of Illinois residents.
The external and internal environments of health care centers are dynamic, therefore necessitating drastic measures to be put in place to contain and at the same time improve the situation through maintain a constant revenue collection. Advocate Health Care system is well positioned to build on the strengths at hand to deal with the threats and to respond to the market opportunities (Weaver, 2016) . Advocate Health Care strengths include high computing capacity, electronic health, cancer diagnosis and biomedical resources among others (Kavanagh, 2004) . While the opportunities include clinical transparency, being granted incentives, and being recognized countrywide (Vedder, 2014) . The healthcare industry could experience a positive effect by advertising their products and services using platforms such as social media, billboards, and promotional discounts so as to improve the revenue collected (Evans, 2008) . At the same time, it would be appropriate if they used advertisements which focus on different age groups such as the youth and the elderly by telling them to use their services (Andrews, 2017) . On the other side the Advocate’s health care could realize negative revenue in the industry if it offers poor services and charges more than the maximum market charge, this will see most of its clients go to rival companies thereby having a negative impact on its revenue (Kumar, 2002) .
There are several healthcare providers in Illinois which performance provide the same services as Advocate Health Care thereby posing competition on the market size (Boles, 2000) . The leader of the healthcare industry in Illinois is still Advocate Health Care, although some competitors such as Rush System for Health have an advantage in that most of them are profit health system which focuses on making profits, unlike Advocate Health Care which is a non-profit health care system. Advocate's financial strength is not stable like its competitors; this is exhibited in its revenue fluctuations every financial year. Adopting the best marketing strategies will see Advocate Health Care close in on its weaknesses and outdo most of its competitors (Mukherjee, 2015) .
Conclusion
Illinois boasts of a vibrant healthcare system that is one of the best in the country with world-class researchers and medical team, and the best market economy thereby establishing the state as a hub for healthcare and innovation. With great market size come great threats, which has seen Advocate Health Care adopt the best communication marketing campaigns to make it realize full potential in revenue collection ( Baker 2014) . Advocate Health Care has also incorporated ways such as advertising to capitalize on the ever-growing market size. With the right communication campaign, (Keller, 2008) Advocate Health Care is poised to get the best out of its services and improve its revenue to realize high profits.
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