Business Information system

Business Information system

Task one

A health care system is amongst the most important sectors of business in a nation. Healthcare involves the organization of institutions, resources, and people that offer health care services to satisfy the health wants of the intended population. Running a medical clinic was the best business selected by the group in the health sector. The reason for choosing the health sector and a private medical clinic business is that the health cases in the community and country are always there, meaning that the firm has market since sickness is not a seasonal situation. The medical clinic goes by the name Quality Health clinic.

Products and services

The clinic is meant to provide health care products and services. The health care products offered at the clinic include a wide range of different types of medicine, which the customers buy at a reasonable price, free mosquito nets for expectant mothers, blood pressure meter, as well as self-testing instruments for HIV/AIDS, which also are purchased by the patients who are interested in regularly self-checking their blood pressures and their HIV status. The services provided at the clinic are the majority as compared to the products. The first service that the clinic offers is primary medical care to the patients. This means that the clinic provides a variety of healthcare settings that include inpatient, whereby patients are admitted to the clinic for treatment and observation depending on their medical needs and great care to patients that require a long period of admission that could be a couple of months. The second service offered at the clinic is preventive care to the patients. The clinic provides cancer, blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes screening services to the customers to help them beware of any signs of the illnesses mentioned to receive treatment early. The screening process is at a cost that favors the clinic, yet it is not so high so that the patients are capable of affording. Screening helps prevent the worsening of a condition in one’s body, for example, in the case of cancer since the affected body tissue can be chopped off if the disease is discovered early enough. Immunizations, as well as pediatric screening, also are preventive services offered at the clinic. Pediatric testing involves screening for autism, vision, and hearing.

The third medical service provided at the clinic is chronic disease management. Chronic diseases are long-lasting, some for months and others last even years, for example, in the case of a stroke, which is a condition that the patient has to live with for the rest of his or her life if it has changed the left side of the brain and body. There are many cases of chronic ailments in today’s world; thus, chronic disease management is essential to help the affected manage the condition and accept it as well as know-how to live with it. Another service offered at the clinic is advanced medical care, which involves activities like performing surgeries, which includes  Referred specialty care is also a service provided at the clinic. The clinic has specialists that are concerned with nutrition, mental health, and orthopedics; thus, the clinic receives referrals from hospitals with patients having cases such as psychiatric problems, fractures, and nutritional deficiencies. The clinic also offers women’s health, which includes mammograms and family planning education to women. Finally, the clinic provides the services of diagnostic labs and imaging. These include different types of lab tests, as well as computed tomography (CT) scans.

Processes

Running the clinic highly depends on ensuring that there is the availability of funds required as well as efficient utilization of the funds together with offering quality services. The processes involved in running the business include the offering of online scheduling for the patients, holding staff meetings regularly, tracking and observation of patient flow as well as how the services are being provided and using of the latest technology concerning health care. Regular staff meetings help in collecting information from the staff concerning what they observe during work, the challenges they face, as well as any information they receive from the patients relating to the services offered by the clinic. The meetings help in the management of the business, ensuring that the problems encountered are solved and that the company runs smoothly. Online schedules help patients book appointments online, especially those that may be coming from far and are interested in the services offered by the clinic. Online scheduling of the patients also earns the extra clinic funds as well as more customers. Tracking and observation of patient flow is a process that helps the management team decide on matters like prices to be charged for services, and identification of the profit rate for the business. For instance, if the flow of patients into the clinic is high, the management may decide to slightly lower some basic services’ cost have the customers come repeatedly. If there is a sudden change in the flow of customers, then the management will be able to look into it and identify the cause. Finally, the use of the latest technology helps the business run smoothly since recent technology means an increase in the speed on how the services are offered as well as improvement in the quality of the services provided. Fast and quality services are what all customers look forward to in any business.

Business growth

For the business to grow, it needs strategies and plans that will help in its growth. First, the business will need to have a competitive advantage over its competitors. Being a business in the healthcare sector, the clinic faces competition from other health care facilities because clinics and hospitals are everywhere. However, the services and products offered by the clinic should help it acquire a competitive advantage in the market. This can be made possible by providing unique services that most local clinics and health centers do not offer, such as surgeries, additional referred specialist care services such as gynecology, and dermatology. Also, the business requires regular and advanced advertisements to create awareness to the people out there about the services it offers and where it is located. The ad can include the use of online websites and the media. The ads will help increase the number of customers that the business will have, thus increasing the sales rate of both goods and services. An increase in sales rates is an increase in profit for the organization. Strategies that help the business grow also make it useful, and an effective business model is a source of competitive advantage for the business (Winterhalter et al., 2017).

Task two

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Strategic plan (mission and vision)

It is concurred that the performance of a business can be successfully magnified if a company can put in line performance management as well as business strategies (Yuliansyah, Gurd, and Mohamed, 2017). The management of the clinic should follow the business strategies set for the business according to its strategic plan for consistency and efficiency in performance. As the clinic’s name suggests, the Quality health clinic’s mission statement is ‘improving the health and welfare of our community.’ The mission statement motivates and guides the clinic in everyday activities concerning the provision of healthcare services to offer the best and quality health care services possible. The mission statement is simple to read and memorize, making it easy for the staff always to remember what their mission is and also helps the customers served at the clinic hold us responsible for the promises kept. Providing quality services to the community comes first in the clinic, even though it is a business. This is because the quality of the services promotes the health and wellbeing of the community. The vision of the business, on the other hand, provides the clinic with a goal. Quality Health medical clinic’s vision statement is ‘being the healthiest community in the state.’ The vision reminds every member of the clinic about the aim and direction of the business and motivates every one to work towards achieving that goal. For the clinic to achieve the purpose of having the healthiest community, a lot has to be done. For instance, the business intends to be the best clinic offering unique services that can only be found in big hospitals, that sometimes are far in distance and expensive. The uniqueness and quality of the services provided by the clinic will help in achievement, improving the health of the community significantly.

Strategic position

In the market, the Quality Health clinic business strives always to be a step ahead of the competitor organizations, thus distinguishing itself from the competitors but in a valuable way. The costs charged at the clinic appear to be slightly lower than those charged by other health care centers, which helps in the attraction of customers. The main reason that running the business is successful with lower costs is that the clinic has donors and sponsors whose aim is to help in the improvement of global health care. The donations that the clinic receives helps the business to make a profit out of the charges charged. Product and service differentiation helps the clinic maintain its strategic position in the market. The business distinguishes the service of women’s health from other women’s health services offered in other health facilities by providing free family planning magazines to the women who come to learn and get help concerning family planning. The free offer is different from many competitors since the booklets are also sold at a separate cost. These family planning booklets have all the information that the women need to know. Even if the customers pay for health learning, they are guaranteed a free brochure, which is very helpful in reminding them all about family planning. The clinic also offers mobile clinic services twice a week to the community, which is rarely done by other health care clinics. This makes Quality Health distinguish itself from its competitors in a way that is valuable to both the business and the customers.

VALUE

The value of the business involves various components that help in its measurement. Shareholder value, customer value, channel partner value, and employee knowledge are the components that analyze the worth of the Quality Health medical clinic. Being a private organization, the shareholder value of this business, which means the firm value after debt, is approximated using any of the methods of valuation, for example, discounted cash flows. After payment of all the purchases made for the business, the discount cash flows read that the firm’s value is two million shares, which is to be multiplied by the current price of shares in the market. The current price is $100. Increasing the cost to the number of shares, the firm’s shareholder value is $200,000,000. Following the three levels of strategy, which are corporate strategy, business, and functional strategy (Ismail, Khater and Zaki, 2017), the shareholder value mentioned above falls under the practical strategy level, and it helps the business to improve the services offered by the clinic by ensuring that the employees are well paid. There is a purchase of modern technological medical instruments.

Customer value in the business is the value that the clinic receives by the end-customer of a service or product. Customer value includes customer satisfaction and quality. The customer flow in the clinic has been of a recommendable rate, meaning that the customers are satisfied with the quality of the services provided at the clinic. The clinic has qualified employees that enhance the provision of quality services for the business.

Channel partner value is the value that the business gains from its partnership relationship. The quality Health clinic has partners that donate money to help in running the clinic. The partners assist in the financial stability of the business, and without the partner value, the business will collapse.

Task Three

BALANCED SCORECARD

The methodology of using a balanced scorecard is one of the most common methods for managing and measuring business value. Below is a sample of a balanced scorecard for the Quality Health medical clinic.

Quality Health Medical Clinic balanced scorecard

Task four

THEORY

The theory that was applied in setting up of the medical clinic business was the social learning theory. This theory considers strategy implementation as well as individual behavior in business. The reason for applying this theory is because it involves health education concerning the social environment. In today’s world, many health conditions result from people’s style of living. For example, many respiratory diseases result from smoking cigarettes and tobacco. The young people are at risk of transmitting diseases due to peer pressure and engaging themselves in irresponsible behavior such as excessive consumption of alcohol. Social learning theory, therefore, can be used to explain as to why the above the community are at health risk due to their lifestyle. The main idea of the social learning theory is that people do what they see. This theory is relevant, especially in the case of helping the youth change their attitudes and behavior that may have them getting hurt. During the business research process, this theory was used to determine what healthcare business was most suitable to establish. Research shows that many health cases that concern the youth are due to their behaviors as well as how they conduct themselves in their daily routines. For instance, many young ladies do not value the importance to exercise and take a lot of junk foods. This is a leading cause of obesity. Drinking alcohol and the intake of other drugs also causes infections of different types of diseases and disorders. Generally, social learning theory explains how behavior is related to health and suggest measures that can be taken to attain behavior change for the development of the wellbeing of the community.

References

Ismail, M., Khater, M., and Zaki, M. (2017). Digital Business Transformation and Strategy: What Do We Know So Far?. [online] Cambridgeservicealliance.eng.cam.ac.uk. Available at: https://cambridgeservicealliance.eng.cam.ac.uk/resources/Downloads/Monthly%20Papers/2017NovPaper_Mariam.pdf [Accessed 7 Mar. 2020].

Winterhalter, S., Zeschky, M., Neumann, L., and Gassmann, O. (2017). Business Models for Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets: The Case of the Medical Device and Laboratory Equipment Industry. Technovation, [online] 66-67, pp.3-13. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2017.07.002 [Accessed 7 Mar. 2020].

Yuliansyah, Y., Gurd, B., and Mohamed, N. (2017). The significant business strategy in improving organizational performance. Humanomics, [online] 33(1), pp.56-74. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/H-06-2016-0049 [Accessed 7 Mar. 2020].