Case Study Description of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care
Reading Rehab Hospital has experimented with a popular new concept in health care--patient-focused care--intended to increase quality and reduce costs by organizing care delivery around particular diagnoses or "service lines," rather than around the functions or disciplines of the care providers. It is equivalent to product rather than process focus. Rehabilitation involves multiple disciplines which must share information about their evaluations of the patient, about planned treatments, and about patient progress. The decisions and actions of one care provider depend on those of another. This case illustrates the effects of a problem fundamental to service operations--variable demand and the limitations of organizing production by service lines under conditions of uncertain demand, due to the loss of pooling. Finally, its methods, for achieving the coordination benefits of service lines under conditions where the level or stability of demand is insufficient to justify the use of service lines.
Swot Analysis of "Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care" written by Jody Hoffer Gittell, Mason Brown includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Care Patient facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care casestudy better are - – technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Care Patient, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Care Patient operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Care Patient
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Care Patient
Strengths Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Care Patient in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Care Patient in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Care Patient has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Care Patient has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Care Patient digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Care Patient has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Innovation driven organization
– Care Patient is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Care Patient to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Care Patient to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Care Patient has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Care Patient to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Care Patient is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Jody Hoffer Gittell, Mason Brown can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Strong track record of project management
– Care Patient is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Care Patient is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Care Patient is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Care Patient has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Care Patient has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Care Patient is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Care Patient in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Care Patient 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Care Patient is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Care Patient, firm in the HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Care Patient has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Mason Brown suggests that, Care Patient is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Care Patient is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care HBR case study mentions - Care Patient takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Care Patient has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care, is just above the industry average. Care Patient needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Care Patient has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care, in the dynamic environment Care Patient has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Care Patient has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Care Patient to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Care Patient to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Care Patient can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Care Patient to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Care Patient has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Care Patient to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care case study. Care Patient can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Care Patient can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Care Patient in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Care Patient can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Care Patient can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Care Patient to increase its market reach. Care Patient will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Care Patient is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Care Patient has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Care Patient to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Care Patient can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Care Patient operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Threats Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care are -
Regulatory challenges
– Care Patient needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Care Patient is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care, Care Patient may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Care Patient can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Care Patient in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Care Patient needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Care Patient demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Care Patient business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Care Patient needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Care Patient can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Care Patient can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Care Patient in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Care Patient needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.