Process efficiency of diagnostic practices in pathology

Abstract

The competitive landscape of the health care sector is changing. Private for-profit, private not-for-profit, and public medical care entities along the value chain are increasingly expanding the scope of their business endeavors. This thesis will discuss the evolution of medical services and the metrics used to measure the quality of those services, with particular attention to specialist diagnostic service players in dermatopathology. Hospitals are increasingly competing with private laboratories on the services side, while competing with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on the research and development (R&D) side. It is important to understand the factors that contribute to this increasingly complex market for medically related services. This paper includes a review of the empirical literature on metrics to assess quality of care both on a hospital and specialty practice level, a case discussion of a specific dermatopathology practice, and a discussion of the findings from interviews and field research. While it is important to assess the process efficiency of a firm's operations in order to explore the levers for improvement, it is equally important to make sure that the levers used align well with the underlying strategy of the firm.