In the health care system, competition is considered as a very essential element as far as service delivery is concerned. The health plans adopted by providers in this sector are affected by market forces that tend to drive the institutions to attract a wider base of consumers. Even though many of these institutions have lowered the cost of getting quality health care services, they still lag behind as far as market competition is concerned. At the end of the day, there is one fundamental challenge that still affects them, how they will deliver efficient health services alongside improved quality through controlled costs. There are those who believe that greater competition is the key to achieve this state because it drives health care providers to offer the best services at affordable rates. There are a number of economic theories that control the framework of the system by determining how competition affects service delivery. It is imperative to note that competition should not be used as the driving force in offering professional health care because it may also drive these facilities out of operations.
Consolidations
The contemporary healthcare market has become consolidated and as such, this has caused the many institutions to increase. The trend has been evident over the last decade and this can be attributed to regulations and health care reforms that have been affected by the federal government. There is a need to find the right balance with regulation because increased controls will impede the ability of healthcare institutions to offer quality services. Consolidation has affected the system in the form of acquisitions and mergers as well as large companies gaining a majority of the market share from smaller corporations ( Porter & Teisberg, 2006 ). This phenomenon normally varies by the market and as such, it can be established that there is less consolidation in insurer markets. Research has shown that mergers increase the costs without affecting the quality of service provided. For small medical practices and hospitals, it very challenging to operate because there is pressure on the rates. Accountable Care Organizations have therefore emerged as the new contracting models.
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IT Infrastructure
Information technology and eHealth are considered as critical aspects as far as the health care system is concerned. As the world continues to transition into a digitalized area, providers have been forced to embrace this change and affect IT infrastructure in their facilities to support a new model that allows for greater efficiency and customer satisfaction ( Goddard, 2015 ). Primary care teams have been laced on the forefront of this system because they are in the best position to coordinate patient care. There is a need for data exchange to be facilitated in EHR’s within these institutions so that the objectives of providing quality care can be achieved. IT is considered as a major platform for success, both in the corporate world and the health sector. Organizations that wish to advance in delivery often make an integral use of technology to foster the development and provision of evidence-based care ( Gaynor, 2006 ). Providers have also built data warehouses that have been integrated with analytical systems to manage patient health, predict medical care outcomes and address challenges as they arise.
Customer Satisfaction and Survival Rates
Higher quality healthcare facilities have a larger market share as compared to those who offer substandard service. The process of care measures patient satisfaction and outcome-based strategies are very influential factors in the competitive market. Patients control the success of health providers in the market because their demand-side pressure determines their choice of hospital. This is the main reason as to why Medicare patients tend to travel long distances to better-performing facilities for quality care. A research conducted by Goddard (2015) shows that heart attack patients are willing to travel for more than 2 miles so that they can receive treatment at their preferred hospital. Hospital performance is also considered as a factor of consideration for patients because of the survival rates. The technology used for treatment as well as the professionalism and Medicare in health care facilities determine the variability of productivity in these institutions. Data from other sources shows that in some hospitals, the survival rate is three times that of another, roving for a fact that there is a disparity as far as the aforementioned factors are concerned.
From the information provided above, it is evident that competition acts as a critical factor of success as far as the healthcare sector is concerned. The risk-adjusted survival is used to measure the performance of a hospital with reference to its adherence to the Medicare guidelines. This attracts a wider market share and acts as the main reason as to why many people switch facilities. Even though there have been a number of reforms regarding health care, issues still continue to arise regarding this contentious topic. Consolidations, insurance reforms, and IT integration have been considered as core factors for service delivery and as such, many institutions strive to ensure that they incorporate all these into their system. Competition has pushed health care providers to adopt modernized treatment systems and operations procedures, which have improved the efficiency of service delivery. The integration of IT has greatly influenced the performance of these facilities and it is from these innovations that they system will transition to become a digitalized world of Medicare.
References
Gaynor, M (2006). What do we Know about competition and quality in health care markets.[Electronic resourse]. URL: http://www. bristol. ac. uk/media-library/sites/cmpo/migrated/documents/wp151. pdf/(date of access: 23.12. 2016) .
Goddard, M. (2015). Competition in healthcare: Good, bad or ugly? International journal of health policy and management , 4 (9), 567.
Porter, M. E., & Teisberg, E. O. (2006). Redefining health care: Creating value-based competition on results .
