Strategic Healthcare Service Management

Abstract

Healthcare is a service industry and it consists of health organizations (hospitals, clinics etc.), people (patients, doctors and nurses) and health technologies. Healthcare organizations are complex in nature and need to improve quality while maintaining optimum cost. Patient is final consumer of health services and he is the customer hence healthcare service quality is nothing but perceived satisfaction by patient. Prevalent trends in healthcare industry such as emerging healthcare technology, increasing demand, changing disease patterns and growing government support are contributing to a need to achieve efficiency and set benchmarks by overcoming challenges in healthcare service sector being underserved and under-consumed. There is a scope to improve quality and efficiency using various strategies like adopting advanced technologies and positioning in order to achieve delight in delivery of healthcare services. Major healthcare players are adopting unique strategies irrespective of their diverse geographical presence and range of services from single specialty, super-specialty or multispecialty to deliver healthcare services efficiently.