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MBA622 Comprehensive Healthcare Strategies Assignment Report

Assessment Description

This assessment provides students with an opportunity to research and analyse a particular healthcare segment to gain an initial insight into the opportunities and challenges that currently exist for organisations that deliver healthcare services in Australia in that segment. Students will present that research and analysis in the form of a formal report which requires students to adhere to a report structure including an Executive Summary.

Instructions

Students are to investigate an industry segment of the Australian healthcare sector and examine and evaluate its model of operations and growth over the last ten years. Recommended industry segments include:

- General public hospitals
- General practices
- Private hospitals
- Specialist medical services
- Pathology or diagnostic imaging services
- Dentistry or other related services
- Oncology services
- Mental health services
- Allied healthcare services
- Pharmaceutical industry
- Aged care

Information

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969

This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of Kaplan Business School pursuant to Part VB of the Copyright Act 1968 (‘Act’). The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Kaplan Business School is a part of Kaplan Inc., a leading global provider of educational services. Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd ABN 86 098 181 947 is a registered higher education provider CRICOS Provider Code 02426B.

Document Classification: Public

This consultation should take place to help guide students to think ahead. Choosing an industry segment where information cannot be easily found will make the task of analysis much more difficult not only for this assessment but may require students to change their chosen industry for the subsequent Assessments 2 and

3.

The industry analysis must be in report form and should present appropriate criteria or business analysis tools as a framework in which to identify and analyse the challenges and opportunities confronting the segment. It should draw from a range of government and academic sources, as well as industry reports. It should cover:

- A definition of the industry, outlining its main activities

- An overview of the competitive landscape, identifying and describing major competitors or organisations within the segment and their business models

- Industry trends, presenting an overview of operating conditions and factors influencing operating conditions

- Ethical issues faced within the industry

Your analysis should focus on the broader environmental factors influencing operations within the sector. The report may also include charts or diagrams, which are not included in the word count. The findings presented in this report must be based on scholarly and peer-reviewed sources of information that were published no longer than 5 years ago and relevant to the field of strategic healthcare. These sources must be presented in the report in the form of in-text citations and a reference list adhering with Kaplan Harvard Referencing Style. Wikipedia and other ‘popular’ sites are not to be used.

Solution

Introduction

The report is mainly focused on Australia's health care industry, specifically the aged health care sector. The fundamental objective of this report is to demonstrate the overview of the chosen healthcare industry in Australia, including it's the trends, challenges and weaknesses that impact the operations of the chosen healthcare industry. For assignment help The study is very important to briefly represent the current scenario of the aged healthcare sector in Australia and identify the major concerns present in the industry.

Health Industry Segment Overview

The health industry process of Australia is complex as it includes different kinds of services about the physical and mental well-being of the residents of Australia. There are various sectors where experienced and dedicated medical personnel offer the best medical care (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021). The cost of expensive medical care is borne by Australia's state and tertiary governments. There are three kinds of healthcare available to the people funded by the government: residential aged care, home care, and home support. Medicare claims are also available to the aged people to get benefits. Some of the major competitors in this segment are Allity Aged care, Arcare Aged care, BlueCross and others (Healthcare Channel 2021). The main business model used by BlueCross is the value proposition to its patient to promote dignity, respect and choice of its people. On the other hand, Allity care and Arcare aged care use respect and value proposition-oriented business model to provide adequate services to people.

Application of Analytical Tools

PESTLE Analysis

Table 1: PESTLE analysis
Source: (Developed by the author)

Porter's Five Forces Analysis


Table 2: Porter's five forces analysis
Source: (Developed by the author)

Identification of Industry factors influencing operating conditions

Multiple factors influence the operating conditions of health care for aged people. The foremost factor that affects is the culture of the aged people. Australia has a diverse culture, and many people belong to the Aboriginal and Strait cultures.

Healthcare organisations need to anticipate this issue by considering the solving methods. This pollution in the environment affects the health of aged people (Panda 2021). Thus, it has a significant impact on the aged health care sector. A high amount of disease in Australia impacts people's lives typically because the organisation needs to focus on the organisational ecosystem to improve its services. The introduction of various new viruses and bacteria can be a threat to the aged health care sector, as aged people are prone to be attacked by viruses and bacteria causes' disease. Psychological factors can also be a crucial one in the aged health care system of the country. Negative thoughts, stress about personal health and others can affect the health of old aged people. Industry, specifically the BlueCross, must initiate some steps to counter that, like positive counselling the aged people to get rid of negative thoughts and lead a healthy life. Alongside this, financial conditions can also affect aged health care. Due to the recent pandemic, every country has suffered in financial crisis, which creates problems regarding the accumulation of proper health treatment to the aged ones. Thus, steps of mitigation regarding this can also be formulated. Another significant factor that impacts quality medical care is the inaccessibility of certain places (Van Gaans & Dent, 2018, p. 12). There are remote locations that are out of reach. Setting up the infrastructure to support the aged people can be expensive and, at times, impossible. Providing care to aged people in remote areas can be extremely difficult.

Trends, challenges and weaknesses confronting the health sector/segment

The number of older adults is escalating, and the infrastructure has to be improved to accommodate the growing number. Challenges faced by the Australian health segment of elderly age care include:

1. Chronic conditions like obesity and overweight are becoming more prevalent among aged people. Conditions like these demand attention as these can lead to far-reaching consequences.

2. Lifestyle-related diseases are also growing in numbers. A sedentary lifestyle can take a toll on health, impacting bodily functions.

3. Disability is also a common trend among aged people. They require additional precautions, and the health systems must handle the operational procedures.

4. A distinct challenge faced by the health systems of Australia is to deal with aged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders ("Health system overview - Australian

Institute of Health and Welfare", 2021). They have a unique culture and are unaware of modern medical practices (Rheault et al. 2019, p. 8). They comprise a significant number of the Australian population. Aged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders may not be well-versed in the language and are apprehensive about the advanced health care facilities. Making them understand can be a significant challenge.

Strategic Response:

For the short term and long term (following the Commission's recommendations and the government's response to budgetary investments), proactive aged care providers will outperform their peers in evaluating their activities. Such include a strategic measure which includes:

1. Priorities must be clearly articulated, actively supported, and appropriately funded, spanning the organisation's entire spectrum. Additionally, providers may consider diversifying certain customer segments (like wealth, age, cultural needs) or the scope of their services (i.e. home care service) so that they can make a name for themselves and stand out from the rest. The associated risks should be carefully managed.

2. The sector needs to implement a strong support-oriented policy in Australia that can prevent people from pollution-oriented things that can assist aged people to live a healthier life.

3. The industry needs to seek strong government support that can help promote and enhance the living standard of older people.

4. Transparency and accountability should be considered. Providers must respond. Strategic goal setting, measurement of key performance indicators, and rapid interventions to address/correct gaps will be critical for operations in the aged care sector. As consumer expectations rise and the level of care becomes increasingly standardised, providers need to differentiate themselves. This requires providers to articulate unique market offerings for their target segments that align with consumer preferences (PWC 2021).

5. A different type of approach should also be considered with indigenous peoples. Cross-cultural communication will play an important factor, and there is a need to recruit people from the same community in such a situation.

Ethical Issues

The aged people have the right to decide about their health care system, and they can choose the mode of mediation or whether to follow the instructions of a doctor. The doctors are also mandated to provide detailed information about the health conditions of an aged person so that the person can make informed decisions. However, it can be not easy to follow these ethical principles. A person who may require immediate medical care but is not interested in availing of the facilities can threaten that person (Maile et al. 2018, p. 373). Managing ethical principles can be tough in these situations. Also, different cultures have different beliefs, like the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have different value systems(Sivertsen, Harrington & Hamiduzzaman 2019, p. 12). They might deny some medical practices. These ethical issues may hamper the overall quality of services.

Conclusion

The health care industry is one of the most crucial industries of any country, and hence it has the utmost importance. Based on the above analysis, it can be stated that infrastructural development is needed in aged care services, and Blue cross needs to offer a better-customised service.

References

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