Personalized care with mass production efficiency: integrating care with a virtual care operator

Abstract

PurposeThis article aims to describe the thinking behind MASSE, a project in Finland that helps address the fragmentation of care and patient journey disruptions for long-term care. It outlines the conceptualization of an information technology (IT)-assisted solution and presents preliminary findings and research problems in this ongoing project.Design/methodology/approachThe project employs a service engineering and design science approach with the objective of addressing chronic and multimorbid patients in specialized multiprovider environments. It does this by applying information and communication technologies and organizational design. The project has been a cocreative effort with ongoing interviews and workshops with various stakeholders to inform the conceptualization of a solution, an intermediary step before the implementation phase.FindingsPatient journey disruptions occur when caregivers do not know what to do in specific situations. A potential solution is a virtual care operator (VCO) with a personalized patient card that would enable service ecosystem actors to integrate and coordinate their tasks. This article presents the basic design principles of such a solution.Research limitations/implicationsConceptual ideas and preliminary results only indicative.Practical implicationsSystemic integration efforts like those ongoing in Finland can benefit from the VCO concept encouraging a more collaborative way of thinking about integrative solutions and opening up new avenues of research on business implications and ecosystem strategies.Social implicationsThe VCO concept answers to the continuity of care, the rising costs of health care and the growing numbers of patients with chronic disease and multimorbidity whose care remains fragmented and uncoordinated.Originality/valueTaking an ecosystem approach to care integration and addressing interoperability issues are on the cutting edge of healthcare system transformation.

Service system resilience under resource scarcity: from vulnerability to balanced centricity

“…Extending this definition of consumer/customer vulnerability to a focal service firm, susceptibility to adverse events is potentially detrimental to firm continuity, value creation and cocreation, yet also has potential for service adaptations and resilience, if appropriately managed (Ritter and Pedersen, 2020). Relatively modest service adaptations in response to disruptive shocks can significantly benefit firms, employees and customers by advancing economic efficiency (Lillrank et al , 2022).…”

“…Coping Adaptation Process of service system resilience enables firm, employee and/or customer to integrate unrecognized resources How can services be co-created in a multiprovider and multi-stakeholder context to anticipate economical use of resources, e.g., by preventing unnecessary use of resources due to inadequate information and unfit procedures (Lillrank et al, 2022)?…”

“…For service firms Co-create to determine solutions for the benefit of all partners Prepare service blueprints considering roles of all members (see Lillrank et al, 2022) Enable frequent informal communication Support lines of communication with experienced boundary spanning personnel For service employees Share tacit knowledge with colleagues and employ collegial decision-making to prevent potentially unnecessary work…”

“…Alter service schedule and amend service protocols to optimize resource processes for personalized but economically effective outcomes (see Lillrank et al, 2022) For service employees Co-design service practices and/or activities with customers and their family members How is adaptation measured? For whom?…”