Innovation and Quality Management of Healthcare Services
C A S E 1 C H A L L E N G E S I N I N N O V ATI O N
The case:
There is an urgent need for reform in health care. Reforms appear to be needed with
regard to the rising costs, the quality and the accessibility of health care. Debates
about innovation are taking place at almost any level of the health system. In these
discussions, there is one basic hope. The hope is that the problem areas mentioned
above are not to be regarded as a set of contradictory demands. That means that
improvements in the efficiency of the systems do not per definition reduce the quality of
care, and that quality improvements are imaginable without spending extra money. The
hope is that the improvement of quality of care is the key to controlling the costs of care.
In this way, effective treatment results in higher satisfaction of patients, nurses and
doctors, faster recovery and better final outcomes, and as a result: in lower costs.
Reducing health care costs and improving quality of care are among the most
important and difficult challenges for policy makers. The role of innovation in
reaching these goals is controversial. Many people see innovation in healthcare as a
major source of cost growth and many others view innovation as necessary for
improving the quality of care and health outcomes. The RAND Corporation
recently argued that policymakers should attempt to identify innovative
activities that are worth their social costs and those that are not, and use policy
to encourage the former. They also stated that effective policy making regarding
innovation in health care is hampered by a limited understanding of different types of
health care innovation and the influences that policies have on them. It may therefore be
important to distinguish among several types of innovations and the policy
challenges associated with them.
With regard to innovation, the health care industry may be inspired by the approach of
commercial industries. Successful companies combine technology change and
business model change to create profitable innovation. They balance both the
business and technology elements of innovation.
Problem statement
What are challenges for different types of healthcare innovations and how does policy
influence this?
Learning goals
1. What is innovation? Find different definitions, reflect on it.
2. What are the different types of innovation?
3. What are the challenges of innovation?
4. What are the opportunities innovation can create in healthcare?
5. What are social costs?
Vragen
-Moeten we uit Devila de Seven Innovation Rules leren (p11)? JA
1. Exert strong leadership on the innovation strategy and portfolio decisions.
2. Integrate innovation intro the company’s basic business mentality.
3. Align the amount and type of innovation to the company’s business.
4. Manage the natural tension between creativity and value capture (profit-making).
5. Neutralize organizational antibodies.
6. Recognize that the basic unit (or fundamental building block) of innovation is a
network that includes people and knowledge both inside and outside the organization.
7. Create the right metrics and rewards for innovation.
-Moeten we uit Devila de Six levers of innovation leren (p31)? JA
-Moeten we uit Omachonu de seven critical success factors for the
dissemination of healthcare innovation kennen (p15)?
Diffusion of Health Care Innovation
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, Innovation and Quality Management of Healthcare Services
There are seven critical success factors for the dissemination of health care innovation,
Berwick (2003).
1 Formal mechanisms to find sound innovations that should be disseminated
2 Find and support innovators
3 Invest in early adopters
4 Make early adopter activity observable
5 Trust and enable reinvention
6 Create slack (including resources) for change
7 Lead by example
The best of innovations may not be successful if the market or environment is not ready
for adoption [Varkey, et al., 2008]. Berwick notes that in health care, invention is hard,
but dissemination is even harder.
*Introduction, conclusion, frameworks op letten!
*Artikel over social cost de boodschap leren (zie conclusie)!
WHAT IS INNOVATION?
FIND DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS, REFLECT ON IT.
Davila, Epstein & Shelton (2006): Making innovation work
-Innovation is the power to redefine the industry.
-Innovation is the effort to create purposeful focused change in an enterprise’s economic
or social potential, so it is the agent for change and a crucial tool for every CEO. This
does not capture the fundamental importance of innovation to competitive survival.
- Innovation encompasses two established activities. The first is traditionally thought of
as technological: research and development (R&D), or new product
development. The second is strategic: defining the business model. Focusing on
only one of these will not produce successful, sustained innovation. Success depends
on the integration of business model and technology change into a seamless
process.
* it is about growth in a competitive environment. It is necessary for survival. It is not
like a gamble, you have to plan it well.
Omachonu: Innovation in Healthcare Delivery Systems: a Conceptual Framework
-1990; Innovation can be defined as “the intentional introduction and application within a
role, group, or organization, of ideas, processes, products or procedures, new to the
relevant unit of adoption, designed to significantly benefit the individual, the group or
wider society”. This captures the three most important characteristics of
innovation: (a) novelty, (b) an application component and (c) an intended
benefit. Innovations in healthcare organizations are typically new services, new ways of
working and/or new technologies.
- 2007; Innovation is “the design, invention, development and/or implementation of new
or altered products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business
models for the purpose of creating new value for customers and financial returns for the
firm”.
-2008; Innovation is “the successful implementation of a novel idea in a way that creates
compelling value for some or all of the stakeholders”.
- What is important in defining innovation is the recognition that something
new and hopefully better will emerge.
-2005; UNESCO: Innovation is “the implementation of a new or significantly improved
product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, a new organizational
method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations.
-Healthcare innovation can be defined as the introduction of a new concept,
idea, service or product aimed at improving treatment, diagnosis, education,
outreach, prevention and resources, and with the long term goals of improving
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