Innovation in Clinical Care Organizations: Telemedicine as a Solution

Identifying Opportunities for Innovation in Clinical Care Organizations

Identifies a specific opportunity for innovation in a clinical care organization that both improves patient outcomes and reduces cost.�

Details the mechanics of a new product or process that delivers the expected innovation.

Specifies how successful delivery of the innovation is consistent with the organization�s strategy.

Outlines an experimental plan that tests the new product or process and provides measurable criteria for success.

Offers guidance on how to effectively deploy and implement the new product or process across the organization assuming it passes experimental tests.

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Course Summary The U.S. health care system is broken. Delivery of care is the most expensive in the world, but health system performance matches the lowest tier of economically advanced countries. Inaccessibility to affordable health insurance, fragmented provider networks, localized monopolies, and slow adoption of new technology and management concepts create a system that is grossly inefficient. This leads to $1.2 trillion in waste and 250,000 accidental deaths each year. In spite of a dysfunctional environment, providers can adopt business concepts of strategy to navigate their organizations through challenge to build morale, instill a sense of purpose, and achieve financial sustainability. A good strategy enables disciplined pursuit of innovation that generates care improvements which reduce cost and improve quality. This course teaches students to drive organizations toward these outcomes and fix U.S. health care. More specifically, the outcomes for this course are:

Understand the difference between clinical care as a social enterprise and clinical care as a for-profit enterprise. (This maps to Evening MBA Learning Goal 4 �Ethical Decision Making� and Student Learning Objective.

�Evaluate the impacts of management decisions on internal and external stakeholders�

Apply foundational concepts of business strategy to prioritize patient care focus and goals within a clinical organization. (This maps to Evening MBA Learning Goal.)

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1. �Strategic and Entrepreneurial Effectiveness� and Student Learning Objective 3

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2. Understand methods to generate and execute a competitive strategy.

Identify the traits of an organizational mindset which fuels innovation that positively transforms the health care industry. (This maps to Evening MBA Learning Goal 3 �Strategic and Entrepreneurial Effectiveness� and Student Learning Objective 3.1 �Envision and recognize new products, processes, and services that create value�.) Comprehend requirements for pursuit and implementation of innovation in health care that reduces cost and improves patient care quality. (This maps to Evening MBA Learning Goal �Strategic and Entrepreneurial Effectiveness� and Student Learning Objective �Demonstrate response to market uncertainty, industry innovation, and technological change.�).

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The course moves through five modules. The first module asks students to balance objectives that make health care both a business and a social mission. Discussion explores questions of growth for Quali Health, a profitable startup in South Africa that serves the working poor in Diepsloot township outside of Johannesburg. Students learn foundational concepts of strategy in the second module and apply analytical frameworks and tools to tleveland Clinic and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Module three frames innovation as an entrepreneurial.

One specific opportunity for innovation in a clinical care organization that could both improve patient outcomes and reduce costs is the implementation of telemedicine services.

Telemedicine involves the use of technology to remotely deliver healthcare services, including medical consultations, diagnoses, and treatment plans. By using telemedicine, patients can receive care without having to travel to a physical healthcare facility, which can be particularly beneficial for individuals who live in rural or underserved areas.

Implementing telemedicine services can help clinical care organizations reduce costs associated with maintaining a physical facility and staffing it with healthcare professionals. Additionally, telemedicine can increase patient access to care, which can help prevent costly medical complications that may arise if patients are unable to access timely care.