Competition in Health Care - Essay Example

"Competition in Health Care" is a great example of a paper on the health system.
Competition is essential in checking and balancing any industry.  It provides an incentive for advancements in the industry. Firms compete on various grounds, which specifies the types of competition within an industry. The same applies to the healthcare industry. The most common form of competition in this industry is price competition (Beaman, 2008). The price of healthcare services largely influences the consumer's choice. Each firm aims at satisfying the community it serves by making healthcare services accessible. Most communities are limited to access by the cost. Hence, the firm that offers the best prices wins the majority of the consumers. Healthcare firms also compete for physicians. The quality of services in the healthcare setting largely depends on the qualifications of its physicians.  Besides, the labor market presents a limited number of physicians from which organizations have to fetch the best talent. Also, a healthcare firm can only offer services limited to its physicians (Galvin, 2008). For instance, a firm without surgeons cannot offer surgical services. Therefore, healthcare firms use aggressive approaches to retain and attract the best physicians in the industry in terms of talent and qualifications. A community's trust is an essential element in the healthcare industry. This is harnessed by maintaining high-quality services. This implies that firms compete on quality in a bid to win the community’s trust.

Competition in the healthcare industry plays an important role in ensuring the accessibility of healthcare services (National Public Radio, 2013). This comes about as an impact of expansion as a means of competition among firms. Most communities restrained by lack of facilities benefits from expansions. Also, completion contributes to the affordability of healthcare services. Firms are always competing based on prices to attract a huge customer base. This translates into affordable services to the community. Finally, competition evokes high-quality healthcare services. Since quality is the foundation of the community's trust, firms work tirelessly towards improving the quality of their services, which is beneficial to the community. However, competition limits collaboration among providers. Although healthcare firms compete to avail the service to the community, members of the community have an equal right to the best care. However, competition brings about the disparity between the providers and in the community. Alternatively, policies should be put in place to ensure that competition does not influence disparity in the community. The policies should be directed towards encouraging the equitable distribution of healthcare services in the community. This entails regulating factors like quality, prices, and physicians’ welfare within the industry.

The success of the competition and the use of competitive intelligence is measured on the basis of the impacts it has on the industry and the target community. Regarding this, a successful competition in the healthcare industry is the one that evokes positive impacts on the industry and the target community. One element of successful competition is the price of healthcare services. Successful completion is the one that manages to maintain the prices of healthcare services within an affordable range. This ensures that the community can afford the services; thus, an effective healthcare industry. A successful competition also ensures the convenience of healthcare services to the people who need them. Regardless of an individual's location background, all people have an equal right to healthcare services. This is one of the major assessment points of the competition.  Successful competition is the one that evokes high-quality healthcare services. Although the main focus of firms in the competition is to acquire more customers, this should not be at the expense of quality. Instead, competition should evoke new approaches and implementation of ideas that seek to improve the quality of healthcare services. Finally, successful competition should yield superior services. In the healthcare setting, new innovations imply better healthcare services, which are more effective in addressing the real issues in the community. This may include alternative treatments or better medical technology for both treatment and information handling.  In general, a successful competition should generate optimal benefits to the community while contributing positively to the industry.

Competition in the healthcare industry affects healthcare services in both negative and positive ways. For instance, it constitutes an improvement in the quality of services provided. Healthcare organizations are always devising ways to improve quality as a competitive advantage against competitors (Spath & Abraham, 2014). Also, they strive to ensure that they retain the best medical teams in their facilities, which also influences the quality of service.  These are influenced by competition, and they interplay to ensure high-quality healthcare services. The competition also influences the efficiency of the healthcare organization in the delivery of healthcare services. With a team of specialized partitions, congestion at medical centers is reduced significantly. Besides, competition entails technological advancement, which serves to improve the speed and accuracy at which healthcare services are delivered. On the negative side, competition may lead to increased prices of healthcare services, rendering the essential services inaccessible.  To foster some of the competitive approaches, more resources are required. For instance, attracting and maintaining talented teams draws a lot of resources from the organizations, which is transferred to the patients. Quality, prices, and efficiency of service are factors that patients evaluate while making choices on the healthcare organization to seek services.