Value Proposition in Patient Care

Value Proposition in Patient Care

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HSA 501

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Value Proposition in Patient Care

In today’s highly competitive world, the maintenance, survival, and success of health care institutions largely depend on the ability to provide value-added services (VAS) to their customer at the lowest possible cost (Grigoroudis, Orfanoudaki, Zopounidis, 2012). Health Care providers must be able to identify their customers’ needs and meet the aspiration of those customers is very vital. The primary purpose of this paper is for Paradise Hospital, to develop a strategy for satisfying the needs and expectations of its patients and define a system for identifying the functional areas in which adding new services to help in improving the hospital’s service values.

Value added service could be an available option that can be used to accompaniment core services offered to patients by health care providers at no additional charge or a fixed fee. Value-added service can vary from one institution to another and use to create a stronger relationship with consumers or as additional revenue.

In health care, value-added service primary objective is to improve the overall condition of the facility while still providing quality care. Precisely, the main goal of value-added service, in this case, is to enhance service delivery to patients (Hunink et al., 2014). If patients receive quality services and their needs and desires are meet the patient will come back in the future for other medical care needs. There are many value-added services that health care providers can offer to their patients. For example, free advice and consultation services on weight loss – a doctor and his nurse can advise a patient how to develop an eating plan to lose weight in a healthier way. Another would be a nutritionist can encourage and assist the patient in eating healthier to losing weight. These are good examples of value-added services that a health care facility can freely provide to patients to make them feel appreciated. Per Bowling (2014) value-added services provide physicians and patients with an array of choices such as adherence and disease management program, patient education and support, patient lifestyle management and reimbursement assistance.

There are several reasons why it matters to add value to patient services, and it is debatable by many professionals. Many health care providers believe that added value can increase the value. If patient’s services are improved, then it possible that the same patients will come to seek for services in the future. Because of the reputation of a hospital, more individuals will come to health care facility to seek medical attention. Grigoroudis, Orfanoudaki & Zopounidis states adding value to patient’s services reduces delay and enhances the recovery period of a patient. Having an electronic health record system to record patient information and diagnose can speed up the process of attending to patients and eliminating delays in the treatment.

To improve Paradise Hospital’s service values, one must determine the most significant areas in the institution with the sole aim of improving patient services. The key functional areas at Paradise Hospital are human resources management, customer services, and financial services.

One of the most critical functional areas is the human resource management, and it ensures that operation, coordination, and cooperation of the organization runs smoothly, and most importantly it ensures that there is satisfaction in the working condition of the hospital. Other responsibilities of the human resource management are recruitment and, training of new employees.

Customer Service is another significant function area in the hospital. Some services provided are answering patient’s inquiries about health issues, scheduling appointments to see a physician. This functional area creates the platform through which the organization can communicate with external stakeholders.

Financial Services plays a significant role in the functionality of the hospital. Employees of the financial services analyze various financial aspects of the hospital. Financial Services primary objective is to ensure that the hospital achieves its financial goals currently and in the future and to keep the stakeholder informed of the overall performance of the whole hospital.

Having the above functional areas would contribute to great success for Paradise Hospital. As for, the Human Resource it can ensure that only experienced and qualified medical professionals are employed. Apparently, without an effective and efficient customer care service it is in no doubt that the institution would be in a total mess. Achieving the patients’ needs and expectation is good Customer Service and gives great value to the hospital. One area the is important to both the employees and stakeholders is the financial service area. The financial services will ensure that all employees are compensated and rewarded for their services and provide to the stakeholders the performance of the hospital.

To gain knowledge about the functional areas at Paradise Hospital, visit the hospital’s website for information on the structure and services provided by the hospital as well as the hospital financial status. Schedule a tour of the hospital to see the setup of the organization, meet the management and staff to get a clear description of what the hospitals do in the functional areas and all other required information regarding the hospital to identify opportunities for improvement.

 As the facility’s new hospital administrator, I have been given a task to improve the service value of the hospital. Although hospital’s focus is on the care of patients and their health the situation, it can affect their family and loved ones. By adding specific areas can increase the value to Paradise Hospital that would offer many resources and support services to help the patient and their loved ones get through the challenging time.  Paradise Hospital could better serve patients and families as well as create a positive outcome for the facility by adding Cancer Prevention Center, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Social Work Department, and Health Education Center Cancer. An added value that will be good for Paradise Hospital would be to implement a Cancer Prevention Center. The departments could offer a range of services to help patients and their families learn how to reduce their cancer risk or how to cope with cancer for those who already have some form of cancer. Can explain and perform any procedures when the cancer is treatable. Offer cancer screening exams based on age, gender and disease risk. Paradise Hospital could also provide risk assessment, risk reduction, and diagnostic evaluation services. This proposition would improve the value of services rendered at Paradise Hospital because; there are very few hospitals that provide such services as well providing the education and screening.

Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CCU) dedicated exclusively to adult heart patients who need intensive care and hemodynamic (blood flow) monitoring. Per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading cause of death for both men and women of most racial and ethnic groups is heart disease. About 610,000 American dies from heart disease which costs the United States about $207 billion each year which includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity (Mozzafarian D, 2016).  Therefore, provision of a cardiac intensive care unit with 24-hour monitoring services many people will come to the hospital for check-ups and diagnoses.

Another added service would be a social work department. This department would aid and help patients and their families who have financial, psychological and social problems. With this being an added service Paradise Hospital can recognize the patients and their circumstances and to be able to facilitate any issues that may delay the recovery of the patient.

Lastly adding Health Education Center, this would allow patients and families to become educated more about physical, environmental, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual health. It would also help patients and their families in developing interventions to meet their goals and objectives.  It also, provide many printings of booklets and leaflets related to various medical health issues.

In conclusion, although there are many different functional departments in the hospital some even crossover between one another, each is staffed with a variety of healthcare professionals, that carry out different service to provide customer service and quality care to its patients and to improve the health care facility. In order, for a hospital to be successful it must address all the patients’ needs and expectation through a provision of quality services. Therefore, Paradise Hospital can improve its value proposition in patient care by incorporating a patient friendly environment and quality services for patients and their families such as Cancer Prevention Center, Cardiology Unit, Social Work Department and Health Education Center that are not currently available in all hospitals.

References

Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. 4th edition, McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Grigoroudis, E., Orfanoudaki, E., & Zopounidis, C. (2012). Strategic performance measurement in a healthcare organization: A multiple criteria approach based on a balanced scorecard. Omega, 40(1), 104-119.

Hunink, M. M., Weinstein, M. C., Wittenberg, E., Drummond, M. F., Pliskin, J. S., Wong, J. B., & Glasziou, P. P. (2014). Decision making in health and medicine: integrating evidence and values. Cambridge University Press.

Mozzafarian D, Benjamin EJ, Go AS, et al. on behalf of the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2016 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2016;133: e38-e360.