In today's globally dynamic and diverse environments, a growing number
             of firms are competing physically as well as electronically. A firm, like
             a hospital, where I work, is creating an e-marketing strategy under an
             overall marketing program. It is now a commonly known that e-commerce
             presents several opportunities as well as challenges for the hospitals
             (Conti and Warner,. 1994). E-commerce is allowing companies to bring
             products into new markets, shift existing distribution channels more
             efficiently and effectively (Cummings and Huse, 1989). Hospitals and other
             health-care facilities are using a niche market offering through e-commerce
             The use of e-commerce in hospitals allow segmentations through
             outsourcing many of the routines tasks internationallyâ€"for example reading
             of X-rays in many hospitals is done from radiologist employed in other
             countries. The use software and database solution allows hospital decision
             makers to identify where variations in treatment or costs, and monitor
             resource utilization with severity-adjusted analysis. E-commerce tools
             provide advantages of the latest data mining methodologies that capture a
             detailed profile of the patients and allow a hospital to customize its
             treatments to the demands of the patients (Majchrzak and Wang, 1996).
             Presently, information technology (IT) often substitutes and sometimes
             replaces the physical interactions between the patients and doctors.
             Besides, a number of services, which are high on information-contents, can
             be developed in digital format and downloaded by the patients in their
             Hospital decision-makers can capitalize on these findings to improve
             quality of care, reduce costs related to complications and length of stay,
             and effectively compare efficiencies of care delivery by benchmarking
             against the best performing hospitals in the nation or to local peers.
             ...