There is an urgent need for adding value to services because of the high competitiveness in the market. The chain of adding value includes two major components: delivery strategies, which are mainly clinical operations, and support strategies that incorporate organizational structure and culture as well as strategic resources (Healey & Marchese, 2013). The development of value-adding strategies starts with singling out the requirements and the analysis of the quality of services. Next, these requirements and analysis are compared with the aim of identifying which of the strategies should be kept and which ones should be altered (Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, 2013). Adding value can be implemented at all stages of service delivery: pre-, point-of-, and post-service (Ginter et al., 2013).
Pre-Service Value-Adding Strategies
Activities performed before the actual service delivery give healthcare companies an opportunity to verify their clients and the services which will be suggested to them. These strategies include performing marketing research, determining the target market, choosing the services to be offered, deciding the prices, planning the logistics, and designing the promotional activities (Ginter et al., 2013). Market research and target marketing are essential elements of pre-service value-adding as they help to plan the organization’s services and customers (Lambin & Schuiling, 2012). Verifying customers allows the healthcare company to select the groups on which it should concentrate. The most common groups pertaining to the healthcare market are patients, doctors, and third-party payers (Ginter et al., 2013).
Promotion strategies include advertising and public relations technologies (Ginter et al., 2013). With the help of these methods, healthcare companies can make their potential customers aware of their services and benefits over other organizations.
Point-of-Service Value Adding Techniques
These are the activities that create value the direct time of service delivery. They include clinical operations and marketing (Ginter et al., 2013). Marketing technology is applied to obtain a better notion of the current market situation. With the help of this strategy, healthcare organizations are able to perceive the staff’s and patients’ satisfaction and predict further steps (Ginter et al., 2013).
Clinical operations are the endeavors that transform the human and nonhuman reserves into healthcare services. They presuppose the actual supply of health services to specific patients. Clinical operations comprise two significant elements: quality and clinical process innovation (CPI). Quality is concerned with the endeavors arranged to enhance the quantity and quality of health services such as patient-focused and family-concentrated care (Ginter et al., 2013). CPI includes the activities aimed at suggesting new products, looking for new clients, and providing a higher quality of service delivery (Ginter et al., 2013).
After-Service Value-Adding Strategies
Here belong three types of activities: follow-up, billing, and follow-on. Follow-up procedures are divided into clinical and marketing (Ginter et al., 2013). The first one is employed to ensure patients’ positive impression by suggesting a sense of caring. The second one is aimed at checking the customers’ satisfaction (Ginter et al., 2013). Billing activities are concerned with the financial side of the treatment process (Zuidweg, 2015). The problems concerned with billing may leave an unpleasant impression and discourage customers from using the organization’s services in the future. Follow-on services help customers to pass the transition into a different value chain, for instance, from hospital to home (Ginter et al., 2013).
Conclusion
Value-adding strategies have the utmost importance for the successful operation of any healthcare organization. Adding value may take place at any of the healthcare delivery stages. The purpose of this process is to provide the best services for the customers and sustain the company’s image so that new clients would wish to use its services.
References
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2013).Strategic management of health care organizations (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Healey, B. J., & Marchese, M. C. (2013). Foundations of health care management: Principles and Methods. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lambin, J. J., & Schuiling, I. (2012). Market-driven management: Strategic and operational marketing (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zuidweg, J. (2015). Creating value-added services and applications for converged communications networks. Norwood, MA: Artech House.