Virginia Commonwealth University health system
The Virginia Commonwealth University’s health system is an academic medical center located within central Virginia. The institution offers very advanced treatments and various technologies present in today’s world (Crillo, 2011). The health system is a service organization. This paper will discuss some characteristics and criteria pertaining to the organization.
Characteristics
The health system is intangible. Virginia Commonwealth University’s health system is a service organization and therefore its role is to give intangible services to its clients. People get treatment, medical advice, check ups and other services that cannot be quantified, touched or seen. They provide services that one cannot hold or even examine before hand. As a service organization, customers cannot examine or assess the services they will receive before they present themselves for treatment (Olsen, Dara and McGinnis 34).
Non-standardized: The health care system has various sections depending on the type of services or treatment they offer. It has more than 150 specialty areas through which it offers all types of medical services. This requires that the different employees in all these sections act in a different way from each other since their jobs require them to act differently at different times. Standardization would mean that all the employees follow a particular pattern of action in their duties. However this does not happen given the nature of the health care system (Cirillo, 2011).
It has simultaneous production and consumption because the production of the medical services and their consumption occurs at the same time. The customers pay for treatment first before they receive the service. Customers can also interact when they come for treatment and in the process affect each other’s experience of the services they get. The type of services produced is determined by the interaction between the physicians and patients (Olsen et al, 34).
Perishable services are those that cannot be stored. Treatment at the health institution is a service that one cannot store. As the physicians produce and provide it, the patients or customers consume it there and then. It cannot be produced before it is needed and kept or stored for use in the future. A doctor cannot store the time lost on other things for use later on the patients at the health system (Bonis, Koste and Lyons, 79).
Services at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s health system cannot be separated with the service providers. The doctors are the service providers and their services cannot be separated from them (Cirillo, 2011). When the doctor attends to the patients, they interact for the patient to get the service. This means the doctor must always be there for the patient to get treatment. A patient cannot receive the services needed without the physician being involved.
Criteria
The first criterion is reliability. Given that the Virginia Commonwealth University’s health system has very well trained and internationally recognized doctors it is a very reliable place to get medical services. The health system provides very quality services to its customers and it can be dependent upon since its performance is very consistent. Furthermore, through the years, ratings have shown that it is a head of others in technology and it appears in the top 100 hospitals in the central Virginia region (Cirillo, 2011).
Secondly, there is responsiveness. Employees conduct themselves in a professional manner and are always ready to attend to those seeking their services. They have been instructed to guard the reputation of the health system and maintain its good image. This demands ethical behavior and sensitivity to those they are serving. All employees are equal to their task and have continually served their customers readily and willingly (Cirillo, 2011).
The third criterion is competence. The health system has a capable medical staff for provision of various medical services. Many of them are physicians with international recognition. The institution’s rating has shown for many successive years that it is a leader in technology and that it is among the top one hundred hospitals in central Virginia. One of the organizations responsible for these rating is the National Research Corporation’s Consumer Choice (Olsen et al 112).
Next is accessibility. Students can easily approach the employees at the health system without any hindrance. The academic mission of the health system has a direct linkage with Virginia Commonwealth University. This allows the students from the university freedom to access the facilities and services of the health system. Furthermore it has a mission of excelling in education and research among other things (Cirillo, 2011).
Finally there is credibility. The health system is credible since it is the state’s referral center for Central Virginia. Every year it makes 30,000 admissions and has over 500,000 outpatient cases. The emergency department gets more than 80,000 patients every year. The hospital has international recognition for gynecological care, genetic research, neonatal intensive care, wound and burn healing, research in spinal cord and head trauma, organ transplant, and research in cancer, rehabilitation and treatment among other services (Bonis et al 94).
In conclusion, the health system has various characteristics and criteria which make it a leading service provider. The characteristics include intangibility, non-standardization, simultaneous production and consumption, perishable and inseparable services. Criteria include reliability, responsiveness, competence, accessibility and credibility. All these make the health care system a very important one in the Central Virginia region.
Works Cited
Bonis,Ray, J. Koste and C. Lyons. Virginia Commonwealth University. South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. Print.
Cirillo, Joe. “Virginia Commonwealth University Health System.” VCU Medical Center, N.p. 2011.Web.
Olsen, LeighAnne, D. Aisner and M. McGinnis. The Learning Health Care System: Workshop Summary. Washington D. C: National Academies Press, 2007. Print.