Impact of the Sierra Health Foundation's Clinic Capacity Building Program: Final Evaluation Report

Sierra Health Foundation (Sierra Health) launched the Clinic Capacity Building Program in 2013 as part of the Sacramento Region Health Care Partnership. The goal of the Clinic Capacity Building Program was to respond to the anticipated growth in demand (i.e., number of patients) created by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act by strengthening community health centers' administrative and operational capacity. The program aimed to improve clinic leadership, care quality and financial sustainability, thereby increasing the number of high performing Federally Qualified Health Centers in the region.In July 2014, Sierra Health contracted with the Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE) to evaluate the effectiveness of its Clinic Capacity Building Program. The goal of the evaluation was to assess the effectiveness of the Clinic Capacity Building program and contribution of the program to changes in capacity among the five grantees. This is the Executive Summary of the final evaluation report, which was submitted to Sierra Health in December 2015

Components of dental clinic patient loyalty as perceived by the dentist

The dental clinic market has been subject to different changes while have led to the development of a new business model for the sector. These changes have been the great increase in the number of dentists, new business models, the demand of new services, churn patients, among others. With the purpose of stopping patient churn, the main objective of this research is to investigate the perception that the dentist has of the behavior of Loyal Patient (LP) and Non-loyal Patient (NLP) in dental clinics. The study analyzes the data obtained from a survey collected among 220 Spanish dentists who were active during 2012. The main findings obtained from the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) are: (i) the dentist perceives that the behavior of the LP is driven by three components: "Same dental clinic and recommendation", "Patient willingness" and "Low sensitivity to prices"; (ii) the dentist perceives that the behavior of the NLP is driven by three components: "High sensitivity to prices", "High churn and few recommendation" and "Less visits". This study allow to understand patient loyalty in dental clinics by a holistic approach, evaluating the dentist's perception; at the same time, it helps in decreasing negative bias in the dentist in order not to condition their professional behavior when a new patient arrives at the clinic

How the marketing research affects the improvement in the dental doctor-patient relation

The relation between provider and customer in the services area, mainly medical, represents a fundamental desideratum. This type of relation derives from a two-way involvement of both parts at the entire marketing mix level. The base of new marketing strategies that imply effective relation models can only be built by setting out an ample time related investigation process of the mechanisms pertaining to the customer’s perception of the quality and the coordinates of the relationship with the provider. The article aims to investigate the mechanism leading to customer retention in the case of dental offices, both from the perspective of customers and providers.The authors conducted an in-depth interview-type qualitative research, which identified and pointed out the extent to which the marketing activity, as seen from the perspective of specific principles and scientific methodology, is implemented in the dental offices in Bucharest.The research was also focused on the perception of specialists, dental office/clinics managers or owners regarding the concept of customer retention, elements which could lead to keeping customers, and the image of the ideal office from the perspective of services adjusted to consumers.  

A scoping review: exploring the world of medical and wellness tourism

Purpose: Medical and wellness tourism is a growing phenomenon, and tourists all over the world are traveling with the express purpose of accessing medical treatment or promoting health through physically and psychologically beneficial activities. This industry has continued to expand with the Internet’s help, as customers can now make choices that are more appropriate and informed decisions. Design: This research employed mixed content analysis methods. The qualitative approach reproduced tourists’ appraisals and assessed the spatial relationships between terms and concepts in medical and wellness tourism, with generalizable and reproducible results. Theoretical Contribution: This study specifically adds to the literature on post-experiences of medical and wellness tourism and the impact of Web-based information through reviewers’ satisfaction and willingness to recommend facilities to others. Practical Contributions: Medical tourists’ reviews indicate shared commonalities when identifying significant factors in medical services received. These individuals also focus on cost, treatment effectiveness; time spent collecting healthcare information, and recommendations they plan to offer to friends and family. Wellness tourists perceive resort facilities—including room conditions—and thalassotherapy treatments as the primary drivers of good service. Critical attributes of room condition are overall cleanliness and room comfort, especially bed, bathroom, and shower facilities. Tourists’ reviews of their experiences of thermal spa facilities provide a strategic order in which to implement service attributes by degree of influence: thermal facilities and services, hotel reception and room, food quality and price, pool and bath access, location views and accessibility, and staff’s professionalism and friendliness. Originality: The results add to the slowly growing body of literature on medical and wellness tourism and provide significant information to prospective medical tourists, healthcare service professionals, hoteliers, and other operators who become part of tourists’ total experience. This thesis identifies new themes based on semantic analyses that explored tourists’ behavior, intentions, and overall experiences shared online.Objetivo: O Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar é um fenómeno crescente. Turistas de todo o mundo viajam com o intuito de ter acesso a tratamento médico ou de melhorar o seu estado de saúde através de atividades físicas e psicológicas que lhes sejam benéficas. Esta indústria tem vindo a crescer com ajuda da Internet, permitindo aos turistas fazer melhores escolhas e tomar decisões informadas. Desenho da tese: Este estudo tem como base a análise de conteúdos mistos. A abordagem qualitativa reproduz as avaliações dos turistas e avalia as relações entre as narrativas e os conceitos no Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar, obtendo resultados replicáveis e generalizáveis. Contribuição teórica: Este estudo contribui com o conhecimento teórico no setor do turismo de Saúde e Bem-estar e o impacto das opiniões dos turistas nas plataformas online como veículo para expressar satisfação e recomendar serviços a outros turistas. Contribuição prática: No Turismo Médico os comentários online indicam características comuns inerentes ao tratamento médico. Como fatores determinantes no processo de decisão os turistas realçam o preço, a eficácia do tratamento, o tempo despendido na recolha de informações medicas, e partilham recomendações com amigos e familiares. No turismo de Bem-Estar os turistas percecionam as infraestruturas do resort-incluindo as condições do quarto e os tratamentos de talassoterapia como fatores determinantes de um bom serviço. Indicam como fatores críticos -o quarto- a limpeza e o conforto em particular uma cama confortável, a casa de banho e o chuveiro. Os turistas que utilizam as Termas e Spa indicam por ordem decrescente a implementação dos seguintes serviços: acesso as termas e serviços, a receção do hotel e sala, qualidade da comida e preço, piscina e banho térmico, localização, vista e acessos bem como o profissionalismo e simpatia dos colaboradores. Originalidade: Os resultados contribuem para o desenvolvimento da literatura sobre o Turismo Medico e de Bem-Estar e sugere diretrizes para potenciais turistas médicos, profissionais de saúde, setor hoteleiro e outros operadores que integram a experiência destes turistas. Com base na análise semântica esta tese identifica novas temáticas que exploram comportamentos, intenções e experiências que os turistas compartilham online

Lusíadas dental field lab: launching a new brand in dental care - conceiving a short-term expansion plan

Following the proposed scope of the project, goals and deliverables were set under three distinct dimensions, comprising an analysis of both the market and the company, the creation of a winning Value Proposition, and the conceiving of recommendations for an expansion strategy. An Internal Analysis was conducted to assess Lusíadas Dental’s current capabilities and key figures, supporting the evaluation with an examination of the Consumer Decision Journey to better understand the existent efforts within the distinct stages of the process: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase and Loyalty. With the intuit to comprehend the trends shaping the industry, tendencies of supply and demand were studied along with the thorough examination of the national competitors’ key figures and positioning strategies. In addition, both the market’s best practices and failing companies were analyzed to better understand the success path that the brand should follow. The understanding of consumers’ preferences was critical to create the hypothesis surrounding both the Value Proposition and the Expansion Plan. Following this rationale, an in-depth survey was conducted to better acknowledge clients’ motivations and needs regarding Dental Care services. The Value Proposition’s recommendations were organized into three different spheres that together comprise the critical elements for the implementation of the Lusíadas Dental brand in the market. Across the dimensions —Clinical, Operational and Infrastructure —several recommendations were considered, representing the key takeaways of each element for the efficient execution of the brand. Distinct solutions were considered in what regards the expansion plan of the group, contemplating hypotheses such as capacity expansion within units, units’ expansion with the creation of clinics and the promotion of strategic alliances with other existing Dental Care players

The Effect of Service Quality on Customer Loyalty with Brand Trust as an Intervening Variable in NDC Dental Clinic

This study aims to examine the effect of service quality on customer loyalty with brand trust as an intervening variable at the NDC Dental Clinic. The variables studied were Service Quality (X), Brand Trust (Z), and Consumer Loyalty (Y). Service Quality has five indicators, namely Tangible, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy and Assurance. Brand Trust has three indicators, namely Trust in the brand, Security of a brand, and Honesty of a brand. Customer loyalty has four indicators, namely making repeat purchases, recommending products to others, buying between product and service lines, and not being influenced by other products. The analytical tool used is analysis using SEM-PLS. The population in this study is the data of 120 people taken from patients with purposive sampling technique. The results of this study indicate that the service quality variable has a significant effect on brand trust. The brand trust variable has a significant effect on customer loyalty. Service quality variable has a significant effect on customer loyalty. And the service quality variable has a significant effect on customer loyalty through brand trust

Person centric payment interactions in healthcare : how could a future healthcare payment system look like and what can we learn from other industries?

A high level of bureaucracy and a low level of digitization lead to inefficient administrative tasks, especially payment processes for privately insured persons and out-of-pocket expenses, in medical clinics in Germany. Technological innovation can digitize the processes and improve the customer- and user-experience significantly as seen in online retail. This study applies qualitative research, i.e., semi-structured interviews, with patients and medical clinics to explore if there is a need for technological change of payment processes clinics in Germany and what are the requirements for a convenient payment process. Combined with learnings from the literature recommendations for healthcare organizations are derived so that these push digital solution in the market. The findings indicate a general satisfaction of clinics and patients with the payment process as they do not verbalize a need for technological change. However, they express a non-verbalized need for change. Based on how they talk about payment processes, they are subconsciously revealing they do not believe that change is possible in the healthcare industry. Healthcare organizations can drive technological change and implement payment processes which create a convenient customer- and user-experience by probing stakeholders with different options (e.g., from online retail) to overcome inertia and a lack of capacity to stimulate expressing their needs.Um elevado nível de burocracia e um baixo nível de digitalização tornam as tarefas administrativas ineficientes. Tal é especialmente verdade em clínicas médicas na Alemanha no que diz respeito aos processos de pagamento para segurados privados e pagamentos “out-ofpocket”. A tecnológica pode digitalizar os processos e melhorar a experiência do utilizador. Isto acontece já no comércio a retalho online. Este estudo utiliza metodologia qualitativa, através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, com pacientes e clínicas médicas para explorar se há necessidade de mudança tecnológica e dos processos de pagamento nas clínicas alemãs e quais são os requisitos para um processo de pagamento mais conveniente. Dos resultados e da literatura, são extraídas recomendações para as organizações de saúde exigirem soluções digitais adequadas do mercado desoluções digitais. Os resultados indicam uma satisfação geral das clínicas e pacientes com o processo de pagamento, uma vez que não verbalizam uma necessidade de mudança tecnológica. No entanto, expressam uma necessidade de mudança não verbalizada. Com base na forma como falam sobre os processos de pagamento, revelam subconscientemente que não acreditam que a mudança seja possível na indústria dos cuidados de saúde. As organizações de cuidados de saúde podem impulsionar a mudança tecnológica e implementar processos de pagamento que criam uma experiência conveniente para os clientes e utilizadores, sondando as partes interessadas com diferentes opções (por exemplo, do retalho online) para superar a inércia e a falta de capacidade de estimular a expressão das suas necessidades

Factors affecting utilization of dental health services and satisfaction among adolescent females in Riyadh City

AbstractObjectivesThis study was conducted to determine factors affecting utilization of dental health services among intermediate female school students in Riyadh. In addition to assessing their satisfaction with the dental care received during the last dental visit.Subjects and methodsSelf-administered questionnaires were distributed among students attending eight public and four private schools. These schools were selected randomly to represent the four different administrative zones in Riyadh.ResultsOf 600 questionnaires distributed, 531 were complete and suitable for analysis. Nearly three quarters of the students visited the dentist more than once during the last 2years. A bout 75% had their treatment in private dental clinics and 63% made their visits for routine treatment. The quality of dental care was found to be the most encouraging factor for utilization of dental services, whereas, far geographic location of the dental clinics was the most discouraging factor. For those who received treatment in the government clinics, the most discouraging factor was post operative complications (P<0.0001), while the most encouraging factor was the availability of friendly staff (P<0.0001). The high cost of dental care was the most discouraging factor for utilizing the dental services for those who visited private clinics (P<0.0001), while the high quality of dental care was the most encouraging factor (P<0.009). Students who made their visits because of pain highly considered modern clinics and those recommended by friends as highly encouraging factors (P<0.002), while they considered the high cost of dental care as discouraging factor for using dental services (P<0.038). Students who visited the dentist for routine treatment gave the quality of dental care as encouraging for the use of dental clinics (P<0.0001). Satisfaction with dental care was found to be significantly associated with high quality of dental care, convenient appointment, friendly staff, modern dental clinics and clinics recommended by friends.ConclusionQuality of dental care, reasonable fees for dental services and close location of dental clinics to students’ homes are encouraging factors for utilization of dental services