Service experiences and dyadic value co-creation in healthcare service delivery: a CIT approach

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate value co-creation processes from the focal dyad of the patient and the physician and how their experiences in the consulting room affect the value that is created. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews incorporating the critical incident technique (CIT) were conducted with 8 doctors and 24 outpatients in selected hospitals in Ghana, exploring their experiences during their encounter in the service delivery impacting on the value creating healthcare opportunities. An abductive and thematic analytical approach was used to identify 76 useable critical incidents that had clear consequences on both the outcome of the service and the service experiences of the patient. Findings – The study reveals three critical areas needed to support the value co-creation process and respective elements or activities to be considered during the service encounter. The critical areas comprise of the social context, beliefs and perceptions, and partnership between the focal dyad. The findings also suggests that patients do not consider “getting well” as the only value that they seek, but also the total experiences they go through in the consulting room. Also some physicians find it difficult to accept the recent changes in the patients’ behaviour and attitudes, resulting in knowledge conflict that adversely affects actors’ experiences in the consulting room. Research limitations/implications – The study considered only one of the many professionals in the healthcare delivery, which may affect the true value perceptions of the patient. Practical implications – The study provides service providers understanding of the processes that influence the patients’ experiences and value creation and the changing trends in the patient’s attitudes. The findings suggest a need for providers to take a holistic view of the service delivery and consider the critical areas, which could impact on the overall service outcomes. Originality/value – This study extends the research on CIT to exploring the value co-creating processes in the healthcare setting. This also provides clarity in understanding the interdependence of the two actors and how this is managed as a resource in the value co-creation process at the micro level.

Patient co-creation activities in healthcare service delivery at the micro level: The influence of online access to healthcare information

“…one directed entirely by the doctor) to one that is more patient-centered (Laing et al, 2002;Taylor, 2009), all in the quest to satisfy the patient's needs as a consumer. Given that consumers of healthcare are also becoming more demanding with higher expectations, some doctors find this consumerist attitude unacceptable but tolerate this practice and improve on their delivery approach (Osei-Frimpong et al, 2015).…”

“…Considering these consumerist behaviours exhibited by patients, their active participation in clinical encounters is deemed critical in relation to managing their health or ill conditions (Gallan et al, 2013). As a result, sharing ideas or contributing to the decision-making process with healthcare providers is essential in order to enhance treatment options as well as improve on expected health outcomes (Elg et al, 2012;McColl-Kennedy et al, 2012;Osei-Frimpong et al, 2015). To co-create improved healthcare, patient's active participation is viewed as being important (Gallan et al, 2013;Hausman, 2004;Jaakkola and Halinen, 2006).…”

“…In related studies on co-creating healthcare, some authors have focussed on patient value creating practice styles (McColl-Kennedy et al, 2012), micro level influencing factors of value co-creation from the focal dyad (doctor-patient) perspective (Osei-Frimpong et al, 2015), and models of co-creation taking into consideration the nature of leadership of the online health community and the nature of knowledge activity facilitated by the online health community (Ayers and Kronenfeld, 2007;Gutierrez et al, 2014;Nambisan and Nambisan, 2009;Woo et al, 2015). To our knowledge, there exist no empirical studies that examine the influence of online information seeking on patient co-creation activities in healthcare at the micro level (service-for-service exchange that occurs among individual actors) despite an increased e-health literacy rate.…”

Service Innovations in the Healthcare Service Ecosystem: A Case Study

“…Current literature highlights how the continuous participation of actors in the value co-creation process is significantly influenced by both their past and present knowledge and experience [75,76]. In this respect, some studies have investigated the value co-creation process within the focal dyad doctors and outpatients (micro level), finding out that it is influenced by the following critical issues: social context, actors' believes and perceptions, and partnerships among actors [77]. The emergence of a system-thinking enables a multi-actors perspective that looks at healthcare as a service ecosystem in which numerous actors interact within and across different levels, sharing their resources to create new ones [78,79].…”

Service Innovations in Health Care Service Ecosystem: A Case Study

“…Literature underlined that actors' continuous participation in value co-creation process is deeply influenced by both their past and present knowledge and experience [73,74]. In this respect, some studies investigated value co-creation process within the focal dyad doctors and outpatients (micro level), finding out that it is influenced by the following critical issues: social context, actors' believes and perceptions, and partnerships among actors [75]. The emergence of a system-thinking enables a multi-actors perspective that looks at healthcare as service ecosystem in which numerous actors interact within and across different levels, sharing their resources to create new ones [76,77,78].…”