ABSTRACT
The authors review the relevant literature regarding home health care patient profiles. An empirical analysis is provided from archival data for a home infusion company servicing patients in urban and rural areas. The results are provided as a 2 x 2 matrix for patients in urban and rural areas seeing either a specialist or primary care physicians. A series of moderated regressions indicate that type of treating physician, patient's gender, geographic residence and level of acuity are cogent in predicting the complexity of prescribed infusion therapies. Managerial implications are provided for the home care marketer in segmenting patient markets for infusion services.
Subject(s)
Home Infusion Therapy/statistics & numerical data , Marketing of Health Services , Utilization Review/methods , Female , Humans , Male , Patients/classification , Product Line Management , Regression Analysis , Rural Population , United States , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
The author examines the position of physicians in the health care channel on the basis of Transaction Cost Analysis. Propositions are offered that explain recent vertical integration. Moreover, a conceptual model of the future health care channel is offered for capitated pricing.
Subject(s)
Community Networks/economics , Competitive Medical Plans/economics , Health Care Sector/trends , Physician's Role , Professional Practice/trends , Capitation Fee , Community Networks/organization & administration , Competitive Medical Plans/organization & administration , Contract Services , Costs and Cost Analysis , Hospital-Physician Relations , Humans , Insurance, Health, Reimbursement , Marketing of Health Services/economics , Marketing of Health Services/trends , Models, Economic , Physician-Patient Relations , Professional Practice/economics , United StatesABSTRACT
Home health care agencies are on the brink of experiencing prospective payment systems which will prove to be a major environmental shift. What will be the best strategy to offset the effects of prospective payment systems? Longitudinal studies of hospitals facing similar pressures may offer the best solution. This paper offers an attempt to address whether proactive or low cost strategies will provide home health agencies with higher firm performance after prospective payment systems.
Subject(s)
Home Care Agencies/economics , Organizational Innovation , Prospective Payment System/organization & administration , Health Care Costs , Home Care Agencies/organization & administration , Home Care Services/economics , Humans , Models, Organizational , Planning Techniques , United StatesABSTRACT
This study defines a company's quality orientation as "all process-related activities that can be discerned by customers." This even includes certain processes internal to the company that can be seen and evaluated by customers. One significant contribution this study provides is scale development centered on customer rather than employee perceptions. To generate scale items, input was gathered from experts involved in the study, senior managers employed with the target company, focus groups of employees working on the front line with customers, and users of the services. Because the sale measures customer perceptions of quality in comparison with the firm's closest competitor, it provides managers with information for benchmarking performance relative to others in the marketplace.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Insurance, Health/standards , Perception , Quality of Health Care/organization & administration , Economic Competition , Efficiency, Organizational , Focus Groups , Health Care Surveys , Humans , Insurance, Health/economics , Marketing of Health Services , Organizational Culture , Organizational Innovation , United StatesABSTRACT
Three large hospital-based stockless inventory systems are described. First, the method of stockless inventory is described in some detail and differentiated from the just-in-time (JIT) method of inventory management. Second, three hospital case studies involving successful stockless systems are summarized and evaluated. Finally, some important implications for the implementation of stockless inventory systems are summarized for hospital management.
