Quality of Healthcare Services - Essay Example

MBA Dissertation Proposal – 2020

Background of the study

Quality of healthcare services has become a major consideration in modern society in recent years. People are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of quality and have become more inclined to seek services from healthcare organizations that guarantee it. The desire for quality healthcare services has made such organizations focus on their service delivery and production strategies. However, the process of ensuring the delivery of quality healthcare services is a complex and challenging one that is influenced by different factors. These factors determine the extent to which healthcare organizations meet the needs of society concerning quality services. Inuvik Beaufort Delta region is an area where pharmaceutical services are provided by different organizations that collectively deliver these services, such as Inuvik regional hospital and Tl’oondih Healing Society. They are faced with several challenges as far as efficiency and productivity are concerned.

Research problem and questions

The main issue that impacts the process of delivering quality healthcare services is the fact that many organizations are involved. The lack of cooperation between the organizations, inefficient communication and failure to adopt technology significantly hampers the process of guaranteeing quality healthcare to the Inuvik residents. There is a need for research to identify the various ways through which the issues, as mentioned earlier, affect the process of healthcare delivery and to provide recommendations that, if implemented, would improve the process.

The existence of different healthcare organizations in the healthcare industry presents coordination and cooperation challenges because of the diversity of management and HealthCare service delivery strategies they adopt.

• How the involvement of different healthcare organizations affects the delivery of quality healthcare services?
• How do the caregivers affect service delivery?
• How will the use of technology positively aid in improving pharmaceutical service delivery?
• What are the negative impacts of technology in the delivery of quality services by healthcare organizations?
• What are the challenges encountered n the process of delivering quality healthcare services, and how are they countered?
• Patients using more than one pharmacy, how are their records retrieved?
• What is the role of the lean method of operation?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research aims to investigate the process of healthcare delivery in the Inuvik Beaufort Delta Region using performance measures such as quality of healthcare services, speed of delivering healthcare services, and the dependability of the healthcare services. Also, the research paper aims to identify the impacts (positive and negative) of the differences in the operational strategies of the pharmaceutical companies included in the study on the process of delivering healthcare services, and recommends ways in which they can help improve access to healthcare services that meet the required standards of quality, speed and dependability. The study will also evaluate the difference in the quality of services and the efficiency of delivering them created by the level of application of technology.

Literature Review

The 4 V s of operational management can be used to distinguish healthcare organizations. The model is most effective for this study because it uses the operational dimensions of volume, variety, variation and visibility to classify organizations (McLaughlin & Hays, 2008). The Volume dimension considers the quantity of products/services that an organization can be able to deliver without jeopardizing quality. The variety dimension will be used to assess the operational differences based on the companies' operational differences products/services they provide to the residents of Inuvik. Variation refers to the fluctuations of demand for the products/services due to external forces over time. The visibility dimension refers to the consumer access to the pharmacies' products/services and the associated experience in a given sample population. The model will be used to investigate how the organizational structure and product/service delivery of the pharmaceutical organizations used in the study influence quality.

Healthcare organizations have different cultures and values that determine caregivers' approach and attitude in delivering services to the public. Previous studies have shown that caregivers play a crucial role in the delivery of quality healthcare services. The quality of the services provided by the two community pharmaceutical companies operating in Inuvik will be assessed using the ten generic attributes identified by Parasuraman, Zeitharnl and Berry (1985). The role of the consumer in the process of delivering quality healthcare services will be factored into the study per the structure-process-outcome framework designed by Donabedian (1980). These frameworks have been used severally in previous research studies to show the relationship between organizational structure, operational and product/service delivery process, and the expected/resulting outcome. The framework can also be used to investigate the application of technology by the pharmaceutical companies to streamline their structure, enhance the efficiency of their service delivery system, and to improve the outcome of the healthcare service delivery.

There are numerous ways through which healthcare organizations can use technology to enhance their ability to deliver quality healthcare services while at the same time maximizing their profits. Pharmaceutical companies focus on maximizing profit while effectively serving the patients to their utmost satisfaction and minimizing the course's resources (Hans et al., 2012). The use of technology while offering these services reduces the number of employees required by the pharmaceutical. There are both positive and negative ways in which technology impacts healthcare services delivery in the Inuvik region.

According to Ginter et al. (2018), Healthcare organizations usually face several challenges in delivering quality healthcare services. Some of the challenges are employee-related. These challenges can be countered in many different ways. According to Yamin & Alharthi (2019), the presence of technology and electronic keeping of records brings down the number of staff, faster service delivery and availability of resources, which would have been directed to salaries for the extra employees. Normally patients or their caregivers carry the records, which is an inefficient way of handling because the chances of forgetting or misplacing them are high.

Research Strategy and Methods

The research paper will use various theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have been developed by various academic scholars and professionals in the global healthcare industry to explain how people evaluate the quality of care. The conceptual framework on which this study will be built is based on the ten attributes that determine healthcare service quality outlined by Parasuraman, Zeitharnl and Berry (1 985). The research will also use the structure-process framework developed by Donabedian (1 980) to explain the interaction between organizations with different structures, the process of delivering healthcare services, and the outcome of such interactions concerning the quality of care delivered to the public. The research will also use various theoretical models of satisfaction, such as the expectations fulfillment model and the zone of tolerance model, to interpret the results obtained through interviews.

The study will follow a qualitative approach that will involve questionnaires as the primary method of data collection. The inclusion criteria for the study participants will be:

• If they are healthcare professionals, they should have been involved in the healthcare delivery process in Inuvik Beaufort Delta Region for not less than five years, and be current or former employees of the pharmaceutical industries considered in the study.
• Public participants must have received the services of the pharmaceutical industries considered in the study more than twice.

To ensure that the data obtained represents the Inuvik region's entire population, the participants will be recruited from different levels of employment/participation in the pharmaceutical industry. The participants of the study will be recruited and contacted through online methods such as emails and LinkedIn. Initial contact and follow up will be done through email correspondence. Linked in will be effective in identifying the participants and evaluating their qualifications for the study. The questionnaires will be sent to the participants via email, the same way they will be expected to submit their responses. For comparison purposes, the research will use data from another community pharmacy in Alberta province.

The primary data will be analyzed about various theoretical models, such as the 4 V s of operations management, to evaluate the two community pharmacies' services delivery processes in Inuvik. This, alongside those mentioned earlier theoretical and conceptual frameworks of quality of healthcare services and satisfaction, will provide preliminary results compared with data of another community pharmacy in Alberta. The comparison will help identify the disparities in the quality of healthcare services available to the public in Inuvik Beaufort Delta Region, the challenges that cause the disparities, and provide a basis for the recommendations made after the study's conclusion.

Reference List

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.

Hans, E. W., Van Houdenhoven, M., & Hulshof, P. J. (2012). A framework for healthcare planning and control. In Handbook of healthcare system scheduling (pp. 303-320). Springer, Boston, MA.

Imison, C., Castle-Clarke, S., Watson, R. and Edwards, N., 2016. Delivering the benefits of digital health care (pp. 5-6). London: Nuffield Trust. https://www.atmedics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/nuffield-trust-delivering-the-benefits-of-digital-care-17-02-2016.pdf

James, B. C. (1989). Quality management for health care delivery. Chicago: Hospital Research and Educational Trust.

McLaughlin, D. B., & Hays, J. M. (2008). Healthcare operations management (Vol. 4). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.

Stobbs, R., 2014. Inuvik Regional Hospital. https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/5d49daf9-0f9f-4563-9129-458bc98b02a5

Wang, Y., Kung, L. and Byrd, T.A., 2018. Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126, pp.3-13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516000500

Yamin, M., & Alharthi, S. (2019). Measuring the impact of healthcare information systems in administration and operational management. International Journal of Information Technology, 1-8.

Yates, C.N., Balch, G.C., Wootton, B.C. and Jørgensen, S.E., 2014. Practical aspects, logistical challenges, and regulatory considerations for modeling and managing treatment wetlands in the Canadian arctic. In Developments in Environmental Modelling (Vol. 26, pp. 567-583). Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780444632494000245