ABSTRACT
All medical practices are not the same. Even within the same specialty, there are variances between practices as to what services are provided, where they are provided, and the degree of ancillary services provided. In marketing, there is a concept of “product lines” and “service lines.” Many hospitals have adapted this concept to their operations. In essence, a service line or product line is a means of gathering the different services into groupings that have some distinctive relationship and are of sufficient volume to be worth analyzing separately from other services. In particular, note any services that are “special” for our specialty—that is, other practices in our specialty usually don’t provide the service. This analysis helps us to identify where the “core” of our practice lies in terms of services, volume of patients, and revenue.
