Abstract
English Abstract
From small hospitals to large medical centers, the Taiwan healthcare organizations today are unable to significantly increase investments or generate more revenue due to the strict regulations of current National Health Insurance and Global Budget policies. This predicament is further complicated by the healthcare system¡¦s inability to change from its traditional mass production architecture and mentality. Mass customization (MC) and focused factories (FF) are being applied across many industries with great success ¡V achieving quality at low cost. These are new concepts that can bring significant customer value, allowing organizations¡¦ quality and profitability to improve from increasingly commoditized businesses. This consumer-centric transformation can be one way for Taiwan¡¦s healthcare organizations to get closer to patients¡¦ needs and step out of the traditional confines of the NHI and healthcare delivery. These novel ideas are so akin to the healthcare ideal, yet the traditional healthcare design and Taiwan¡¦s anti-market healthcare policies effectively impedes changes and progress in this direction.
This paper intends to assert that MC and FF can be one effective solution to the problems in Taiwan¡¦s healthcare organizations ¡V specifically for the specialty community hospitals. In this way, these small hospitals can capture the value premiums of this new consumerism trend and transform itself into a competitive business, creating higher values for life and health for its customers.
This paper will begin with an in-depth background and SWOT analysis of the Taiwan healthcare system and its participants. After an understanding of this industry, a pertinent literature review of the MC and FF concepts and mechanics will be done. A case comparison study of three specialty healthcare organizations will be done to evaluate their differences in competitive strategy, marketing orientation, operational effectiveness, human resources advantage, and organizational performance. The three organizations include a traditional specialty hospital (Gee-Tien Ear Nose & Throat Hospital), a single procedure-based focus factory (Shouldice Hospital), and a disease management focus factory (MedCath Corporation). Finally, a full discussion will ensue to assess the applicability of FF and MC concepts for specialty community hospitals in the Taiwan healthcare market.
Keywords: Specialty Hospitals, Mass Customization, Focused Factory, Taiwan Healthcare
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0721104-142049 |
| Date | 21 July 2004 |
| Creators | J. Tseng, Charles |
| Contributors | Jen-Her Wu, Jason H. Huang, Chang-yung Liu |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0721104-142049 |
| Rights | withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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