Clinical Concierge Services

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Clinical Concierge Services-SWOT analysis
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The art of communication is effective when conducted clearly within the organization’s encode and decode channels. Organizations function best when this system is perfected. Therefore, successful organizations manage information continuously. The practice of information management involves the science of processing information to facilitate informed decision making among managers (Sloman, 2005).

In order for an organization to understand its strengths and weakness, it must comprehend the operation of information management. SWOT analysis enables an organization to manage the threats and opportunities it faces (Myers, Frieden, Bherwani, and Henning, 2008). SWOT analysis provides a framework for an organization to create a reliable strategy for surviving competition (Al-Hakim, 2007).

Thus, this reflective exposition attempts to explicitly present a SWOT analysis centering on the Clinical Concierge Services (CCS) at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC (CHP).

Clinical Concierge Services-SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis for the CCS will encompass the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.

Strengths

Hospitality Services

CCS staff members have been active in offering client oriented services to the family members of the international patients to locate affordable housing services and reliable transportation whenever called upon.

Medical Services

The CCS staff members are a link between physicians and the family of patients. Staff members offer updated information on patient’s treatment progress periodically. Generally, everyone in CCS shows moral concern for the patients and their families in terms of care and other requirements. Even without supervision, the employees remain active in offering unconditional care and the much needed friendship in the sensitive care environment.

Administrative and Financial Services

The CCS staff members are instrumental in information exchange between their patients and the international insurance providers. They have made the registration, hospital admission, and bill payments very easy for international patients.

Translation Services

In order to minimize communication barrier, the experienced CCS staff have been helpful in offering free translation and interpretation services to the international families and their patients. These services are customized to meet the demands of international clients who use different communication ethos.

Cultural Services

The services at CCS have been customized to accommodate international patients with different religious and cultural dietary needs. The CCS’s liaisons cultural training programs have been successful in equipping the CHP staff with the necessary religious and ethical education that accommodates international community cultures. They have been very successful in facilitating activities that are designed to eliminate parental stress and anxiety.

Weaknesses

The major notable weaknesses in CCS are communication breakdown and understaffing in the CCS organization.

Communications Breakdown

International patients face challenges of understanding the health system’s operations and internal flow patterns of CCS. The communication breakdown has been responsible for the poor collaboration between CCS and other departments in CHP (Sitkin and Bowen, 2010). For instance, when a coordinator handling a specific case is out of office, then it becomes a challenge for the other team members to address the concerns that international family members may raise concerning such a case.

Besides, the staffs of other divisions do not communicate with CCS staff on time to give an update about the international cases. Often, the international patients’ families get nervous and upset since most of the CCS staff rarely provides satisfactory updates despite being in the vicinity of their loved ones who are admitted. This goes against the international families’ culture that is characterized by timely and comprehensive response (Ammenwerth, Graber, Herrman, Burkle & Konig, 2003).

Understaffing

Despite the fact that the CCS staff members are fully engaged in the running of several services in the CHP health center, their number is less against the capacity of clients who visit the organization on a daily basis. As a result, they are overwhelmed by the daily requirements of the health center. This extension of duties creates anxiety and extreme pressure that ultimately leads to a loss in quality of care.

Opportunities

Numerous opportunities exist within CCS. Among the notable opportunities include business growth and new technology implementation in the organization.

Growth of Business

The organization has the potential of growth especially if the CCS staff members are offered opportunities for development and training at conferences in other States or other countries. CCS staff members can publicize the international program and promote the CHP medical programs during such conferences.

New Technologies Implementation

Technological implementation may be instrumental in planning for telemedicine in hospitals (AWS 2012, par. 11). Telemedicine provides a link for physicians from CHP and physicians from other medical centers across the globe to exchange information on treatment of their patients through technology (American Telemedicine Association, 2013). This global outreach extends the market share that CCS can grasp.

Threats

The notable threats in CCS include the global economic meltdown, competition, and legislation and federal requirements.

Global Economic Condition

Due to the recent global economic meltdown, the organization has been facing the challenge of remaining profitable in the international patient category (Mangurian, Miller, Jackson, Essock &Sederer, 2010). For instance, the CCS had a record of 5-10 patients per year in the past and sometimes more. However, the number has reduced to 1-3 international patients per year (Clinical Concierge Services, 2013). Besides, CCS neither has a multilingual website nor an active advertisement campaign targeting different countries.

Other Competitors

Other hospitals offer the same services that are offered in CCS division. At present, hospitals such as Boston Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pose serious competition to CCS division due to the strategic location of these hospitals and the good reputation of their services. Additionally, CCS competitors advertise their programs in local and international media channels.

As a result, they tend to attract more patients than CCS that does very little advertisement. For instance, the Boston Children’s Hospital has series of advertisements running in the MBC channels and Middle Eastern Newspaper. Thus, the competitors get more clients than CCS division.

Legislation and Federal Requirements

As a result of the strict Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules and regulations, CCS international business underperformed since some of treatments programs it can offer are not consented by the FDA body. However, these treatments such as stem cell transplants are offered in Europe. Additionally, regulating authority controls the number of international transplants irrespective of the demand. Thus, some patients opt for treatment in Europe with minimal regulation.

Conclusion

SWOT Analysis is critical in evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats aspects of an organization from which informed decisions are made. This analytical paper summarized the weaknesses, strengths, threats, and opportunities in CCS. Based on this SWOT analysis, CCS needs to increase its services and manage its threat and opportunities.

References

Al-Hakim, L. (2007). Web mobile-based applications for healthcare management. Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

American Telemedicine Association. 2013.

Ammenwerth, E., Graber, S., Herrman, G., Burkle, T., & Konig, J. (2003). Evaluation of health information systems – problems and challenges. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 71 (2), 125-135.

AWS. (2012). Creating healthcare data applications to promote HIPAA and HITECH Compliance. Web.

Clinical Concierge Services. 2013. Web.

Mangurian, C., Miller, G. A, Jackson, H., Essock, S. M., & Sederer, L. (2010). State mental health policy: Physical health screening in state mental health Clinics: The New York health indicators initiative. Psychiatric Services, 61 (4), 1.

Myers, J., Frieden, T. R., Bherwani, K. M., Henning, K. J. (2008). Ethics in public health research. American Journal of Public Health, 98 (5), 793–801.

Runciman, W. B. (2002). Qualitative versus quantitative research: Balancing cost, yield and feasibility. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 11, 146-147.

Sitkin, A., & Bowen, N. (2010). International Business – Challenges & Choices. London: Oxford University Press.

Sloman, J. (2005). Economic Environment of Business. London: Pearson Education.

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