Health Service Operations Management
Lecture 1: Fundamentals of HSOM: process OM
Health Service Operations Management: analysis, design, planning and control of all the
steps necessary to provide services for patients in such a way that their needs are met, that
service standards are met and resources are used efficiently.
Previously, almost everybody was active in agriculture. From the industrial revolution, there
was room for manufacturing and efficiency and a service economy came up.
Operations management: changing input to output. In order to do so, you need some
resources and regulations. Types of operations:
- Alteration
- Transportation
- Inspection
- Storage (manufacturing) → productive waiting time (then a type of operation)
Output of one operation could be used as input for the next one. Hierarchy from an
operations management perspective:
Care pathway: complex intervention for the mutual decision making and organization of
care processes for a well-defined group of patients during a well-defined period of time.
A care pathway is always a process, but not the other way around. Aims of a care pathway
are: improving quality and safety of care, patient outcomes, satisfaction, coordinating care
and optimizing capacity utilization.
1
, Health Service Operations Management
Process: series of operations that need to be performed to produce a particular service.
Optimizing a process may not be optimal for the unit (e.g. waiting times).
Chain: series of operations crossing the boundaries of providers.
Unit: a department in a health organization that performs operations of the same type.
Optimizing the unit is not always good for the network.
Network: combination of units and chains performing operations for services for several
groups of clients.
A service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature that normally,
but not necessarily takes place in interactions between the customer and service employees
and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are
provided as solutions to customer problems.
A service process is an activity or series of activities… interactions between the customer
and service employees and/ or physical resources or goods and/ or systems.
Characteristics of services:
- Customer participation
- Simultaneous creation and use
- Heterogeneity
- Perishable
- Intangible
- Non-transferable ownership
The service package:
2
, Health Service Operations Management
Explicit service: you can see or feel it (e.g. colour your hair at the hairdresser).
Implicit service: you can’t really see it or feel it (e.g. the temperature in a room).
Facilitating goods: not part of the actual service but an extra service, not the main part of
the service but adds to the experience. (e.g. cup of coffee at the hairdresser).
Supporting facility: the room or place where the service is delivered.
Methodology: problem solving cycle:
Classical Value Chain (Porter)
In the 1980’s: Supply Chain
Management of patient care processes and chains, as well as the required resources and
corresponding patient flows, in and between organizations.
3
Lecture 1: Fundamentals of HSOM: process OM
Health Service Operations Management: analysis, design, planning and control of all the
steps necessary to provide services for patients in such a way that their needs are met, that
service standards are met and resources are used efficiently.
Previously, almost everybody was active in agriculture. From the industrial revolution, there
was room for manufacturing and efficiency and a service economy came up.
Operations management: changing input to output. In order to do so, you need some
resources and regulations. Types of operations:
- Alteration
- Transportation
- Inspection
- Storage (manufacturing) → productive waiting time (then a type of operation)
Output of one operation could be used as input for the next one. Hierarchy from an
operations management perspective:
Care pathway: complex intervention for the mutual decision making and organization of
care processes for a well-defined group of patients during a well-defined period of time.
A care pathway is always a process, but not the other way around. Aims of a care pathway
are: improving quality and safety of care, patient outcomes, satisfaction, coordinating care
and optimizing capacity utilization.
1
, Health Service Operations Management
Process: series of operations that need to be performed to produce a particular service.
Optimizing a process may not be optimal for the unit (e.g. waiting times).
Chain: series of operations crossing the boundaries of providers.
Unit: a department in a health organization that performs operations of the same type.
Optimizing the unit is not always good for the network.
Network: combination of units and chains performing operations for services for several
groups of clients.
A service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature that normally,
but not necessarily takes place in interactions between the customer and service employees
and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are
provided as solutions to customer problems.
A service process is an activity or series of activities… interactions between the customer
and service employees and/ or physical resources or goods and/ or systems.
Characteristics of services:
- Customer participation
- Simultaneous creation and use
- Heterogeneity
- Perishable
- Intangible
- Non-transferable ownership
The service package:
2
, Health Service Operations Management
Explicit service: you can see or feel it (e.g. colour your hair at the hairdresser).
Implicit service: you can’t really see it or feel it (e.g. the temperature in a room).
Facilitating goods: not part of the actual service but an extra service, not the main part of
the service but adds to the experience. (e.g. cup of coffee at the hairdresser).
Supporting facility: the room or place where the service is delivered.
Methodology: problem solving cycle:
Classical Value Chain (Porter)
In the 1980’s: Supply Chain
Management of patient care processes and chains, as well as the required resources and
corresponding patient flows, in and between organizations.
3
