The Future Challenges For Health Care Management

The studies carried out between 1999 and 2002 by the Kaiser Family Foundation brought out some of the initial perspectives on the challenges facing the health care sector in terms of management and service delivery. The research studies showed that challenges to the US healthcare management relate to disparities in gender, ethnicity or geographic location.

It is irrefutable that the healthcare sector is unique and distinct in nature from other service sectors in the industry. This also makes the challenges that face it unique. Therefore, the uniqueness of the healthcare sector, the exceptional vulnerability of the customers that consume its services as well as the need for special support and advocacy needed for the consumers of the health care services provide a picture of the complex nature of the challenges that shall continue to debacle the healthcare management arena. This is even made more critical by the fact that the environment in which the health care system operates is constantly changing and bringing new demands every day. The demands relate to special technologies needed, the need for customer safety, security, and assurance on patient privacy in the face of high technological revolution that has also been embraced in the health care system.

Another important challenge that faces the future of heath care management is the need to strike a balance in power of information relationship that subsists between the health care practitioner and the patient. Patel and Mark mention that the existing information power asymmetry between the two main stakeholders in the health care sector makes it difficult for even the most educated technology-savvy patient to acquire comprehensive knowledge that accompanies clinical practice. Therefore, patients have to trust that the health care service provider and professionals are competent at all times. This implies that there is no amount of audit that can substitute or change the nature of this trust even if performance measurement is put in place or league tables introduced. The challenge is still formidable even in the distant future.

While the above challenges relate to the patient and health care provider relationship, another still significant challenge is the fact that even though the rate of technological development and use in the health care sector has been high, the organization in the sector still bears the picture of decades ago. Therefore, there has been flexibility in one aspect and rigidity in another. Most, if not all, health care organizations such as clinics are more like marketplaces than factories. The patients would not need to be whisked slickly along a conveyor girdle from waiting bay to end like the case of a factory.

Lastly, there is the perspective of the role played by the healthcare system in the society and the economy, which presents a unique challenge. In most developed economies like the US and Germany, the health care sector comprises a considerable part of the total GDP and economy. It evidently stands as one of the biggest industries in the economy. With this revelation comes the possibility that the sector can be very powerful politically and socially. The future challenge lies in creating a balance in the political, social influence, and the universally-accepted role of the sector in the society.

Bibliography

Patel, Kant and Mark E. Rushefsky. Health care in America: separate and unequal. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2008.

Williams, Richard Allen. Healthcare disparities at the crossroads with healthcare reform. New York: Springer, 2011.