The Role of the Consumer in Health Care - Essay Example

?The Role of the Consumer in Health Care Introduction There is an emerging agreement in the healthcare community and the UK government that informed and engaged consumers play a vital role in improving the quality of care that the UK health system delivers to patients (Academy Health 1). The main reason for this consensus is that when consumers are equipped with the right information, they will ultimately demand high-quality services from their providers, become active participants, choose treatment options wisely and self manage their own health and health care (Herzlinger 8; Wolf, Sangl & McMullen 15). The objective of this paper is to explore the role of the consumer in health care delivery. The discussion will be in light of features of consumer behavior in service industry, and how they apply to health care. It will also discuss how providers may need to change in order to be able to accommodate the “voice of the consumer.” Features of Consumer behaviors, how they apply to health care providers and how providers may need to change, to accommodate the “voice of the consumer” Active participation of consumers in heath care has been singled out as one vital element that needs to be incorporated into the health care system. This is due to the fact that the society has begun stressing more prominently the concept of personal responsibility for health (Arnold 6). Consumers are expected to take individual responsibility for their own behaviors and lifestyle such as drinking, smoking, eating among others (Herzlinger 22). This is due to the fact that these can have considerable health consequences independent of any medical care. Secondly, many consumer movements have entered into the healthcare field, with quite a number of consumers demanding to be active participants in decision making regarding their own health care treatments. Indeed providers can no longer decide on their own what the best treatment for a patient is (Slocum 102; Buchbinder 98). Thirdly, many proponents among them economists have identified informed consumer choice as a vital element of a better functioning health care marketplace. This is based on the premise that consumers could be aggravated to make comparison of different healthcare plans based on cost, quality of care and benefits received and select the best health care plan that best satisfies their requirements (Arnold 5). This process of informed choice among consumers is seen as a way of encouraging different health care providers to be more responsive to consumer needs by improving the quality of services they offer (World Health Organization 25). It is a mater of fact that no individual consumer would be willing to associate with a health care plan that is expensive. This is a case supported by the principle of demand and supply especially where there is other options to choose from in a free market. In such a case, a consumer would prefer to get his or her services from the supplier or industry that charges the lowest cost. The same applies to health care system plans and services. Many consumers would prefer to associate with health care plans that charge the lowest cost for the plans and services they offer (Herzlinger 50). This, in most cases, forces many health care providers to lower their prices in order to remain competitive in the market. Those that persist on charging high prices more than often loose customers and as such face close down. It is, therefore, important that health care providers respond to these impacts by carrying out a cost study in the market to ensure that the prices charged for the services are affordable to all consumers. The prices should also conform to those charged by other competitors in the same industry. In this case, the prices charged should not be too high or too low. Instead, it should only be able to cover the costs incurred and meet other obligations of the heath care facility as this help attract many consumer to the health care system or providers. Indeed, consumer behavior with regard to their behaviors to costs of services offered in heath care facilities has seen many health facilities lower their prices in order to remain competitive in the market. This has made health care become more affordable to a large number of people in the society (Arnold 6). Many consumers also do look at the value and quality of services they receive from an industry (Larrabee 15). A part from the cost, consumers always want to get quality products and services. In this regard, consumers would in most cases avoid those industries and organizations that provide poor quality of goods and services (Knickman & Gaus 103). The same is seen in health care systems. Many consumers would often flock heath care facility and plans that provide high quality products and services and avoid those that offer poor quality products and services. This informed choice process is very important to heath care as it encourages health care plans to be more responsive to consumer’s needs and to compete effectively for enrollees. This makes these organizations improve the quality of their services knowing very well that failure to do this will result in loss of customers. To respond to quality demanded by consumers, health care providers must ensure that quality is given priority. First the environment under which the service is provided must be conducive and must ensure that all the facilities needed to meet consumer’s demands are available. This is due to the fact that many consumers would not want to be told that a particular drug is missing or a physician to carry out an operation is not available as noted by Sangl and Wolf (par 3). These issues tend to annoy consumers making them to look for other competitors who are more efficient with regard to service delivery. Quality would also entail handling consumers in a proper manner, as most consumers tend to look at professional etiquette among health care providers. Test and preference is another feature of consumer behavior. Different people have different preferences with regard to the products and services they receive from different industries or organizations. These in most cases determine the choice of product or service they need. In health care setting, certain consumers may only prefer taking drugs as opposed to injection. On the other hand, some prefers to be injected as opposed to drugs. Therefore, they would only attend those heath care facilities that understands and listens to their requirements. It is for this reason that health care systems nowadays are required to respond to consumer need with regard to their preferences and choice of medication (Larrabee 14). Therefore, in order to meet this requirement, physicians and nurses should at all time gather enough information from consumers to determine the mode of treatment they would prefer (Arnold 4). This is due to the fact that different consumers hail from different religions and cultural backgrounds and have different preference to the form of treatments. However, it is worth noting that the method of treatment preferred by the consumer should not override the ethical standards of medical profession as this would also compromise the quality of services. Information is something that consumers take with a lot of seriousness as it assists them in decision making. Consumer-based information especially those that contain consumer need orientation are very important in health care with regard to decision making. This is because it enables active involvement of consumers in their own health care. Arnold (6) notes that the sphere of healthcare information is wide since it entails a variety of heath care decisions that consumers usually face. The decisions include heath promotion, wellness, and preventive health behaviors that need to be prevented; treatments or services that needs to be used for specific chronic and acute illnesses, impairments, and disease conditions. Other decisions include health insurance options as noted by Duffy (58). However, in some cases consumers may not be at a position to make all the decisions on their own and have to rely on family members and health care providers. Therefore, to provide a concrete response to informational needs of consumers, the heath care system must ensure that proper data base is maintained where consumer information is kept. It is also imperative that health care providers must listen and provide consumers with relevant information regarding their health and assist them in decision making. Shackly and Ryan (par 3) reveals that this has seen tremendous growth in health care information to assist consumers in decision making. This has consequently helped many consumers make informed decisions. Time is another factor that determines consumer behavior in any industry. Most consumers prefer faster and efficient services (Larrabee 10). In fact, no single consumer would want to be kept waiting for too long in order to be attended to, irrespective of how efficient the service may be. In most cases, they equate time to money and the same applies to a heath care system (Schmele 126). Many consumers would prefer to be given faster services a soon as they seek for medical attention (Sherwood & Barnsteiner 156). This is very important as it helps in saving lives of many people. For instance, a consumer with a dental problem would not expect a dentist to keep him or her waiting for too long before he or she is attended to. Therefore, many consumers would only attend those health care facilities that provide quick and efficient services to their customers and avoid those that take long to respond (Herzlinger 100; Melnyk & Overholt 213)This is also applicable to health care plans. It is for this reason that many health case facilities and systems nowadays take time as an important factor in service delivery. This has indeed helped save lives of many people as the waiting time has been tremendously been reduced. Health care providers basically do this in order to be able to remain completive in the market. Conclusion Consumers indeed play a vital role in determining quality heath care. This is because their behaviors and decisions impact on the industry as a whole. For instance, consumer behavior has seen a tremendous increase in the quality of services, lower cost of service, increased efficiency and reduced time of service delivery. This is because health providers know very well that the only way to remain competitive in the market is to be responsive to consumer needs. This is something that needs to be implemented as was proposed by the government of UK as it will see an improvement is service delivery within health care. Works Cited Academy Health. Improving Quality Health Care: The Role of Consumer Engagement. 2007. Academy Health. Print. Arnold, Sharon. 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