Introduction
The healthcare industry undergoes several value chain dynamics to exploit technology advancements and close service quality gaps in client care. Such is the case of Transitional Infant Care Speciality Hospital (TIC), which provides extra neonatal intensive care using high-technology and child-friendly care settings that are not available in other agencies in Pittsburgh. This case study highlights TIC’s value-addition and position in the healthcare industry value chain, presenting an argument that charismatic leadership and innovative technology made the facility a top-tier healthcare facility in Pittsburgh.
Discussion
The idea behind value addition at TIC is that the facility provides top-tier critical infant care while incorporating parent teaching on child care. The organization masterminded its improvement from a convalescent to an intermediate care setting, making itself indisputably the best institution in Pittsburgh and possibly beyond. Oliver et al. (2020) noted that system-level value creation in healthcare could be through co-creation, where service users provide opinions on changes or a contextualized complex service improvement based on patients’ healthcare challenges. TIC’s value addition motives followed the second option, where leadership was most integral in facilitating changes in the value creation model and infant care services.
TIC’s customers are parents and surrogates who can either be foster parents or grandparents. Although the facility offers intensive neonatal care to infants, parents decide on how to admit TIC’s clients. The facility’s statement on the care process and admission procedures place heavier responsibilities on parents than any stakeholder other than service providers. TIC has parental education on knowledge and competence for handling infants. The laser focus on parental roles in child recovery shows that TIC values parents as its primary customers, those responsible for making referral decisions and extending infant care once discharged.
TIC fits the role of a healthcare provider in the industry value chain. Al-Jaroodi et al. (2020) noted that healthcare providers carve promising visions for industry improvement by exploiting innovative research technologies to create cost-effective, excellent-quality services. A healthcare provider, supported by a suitable supplier chain and producers, easily constructs the value-added care provision models for clients out of resource abundance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, TIC improved value by transitioning from convalescent to intermediate care with improved neonatal care strategies. TIC is already several steps ahead of most neonatal care providers, given its innovative value-based healthcare models, which significantly contribute towards reducing infant mortality rates. The facility’s commitment to teaching parents about infant care promotes child access to necessary transitional services even after discharge.
References
Al-Jaroodi, J., Mohamed, N., & Abukhousa, E. (2020). Health 4.0: On the way to realizing the healthcare of the future.IEEE Access, 8, 211189-211210. Web.
Oliver, B. J., Batalden, P. B., DiMilia, P. R., Forcino, R. C., Foster, T. C., Nelson, E. C., & Gäre, B. A. (2020). COproduction VALUE creation in healthcare service (CO-VALUE): An international multicentre protocol to describe the application of a model of value creation for use in systems of coproduced healthcare services and to evaluate the initial feasibility, utility and acceptability of associated system-level value creation assessment approaches.BMJ, 10(10), e037578. Web.