Organisation or service: LEARNING DISABILITY (Order Number: 21786)

Examination Questions:

Question 1.
Identify and analyse three strategic issues facing the overall sector of your chosen business or service appropriate frameworks like PEST AND PEST or Porter’s five forces.

Question 2.
Identify and analyse three challenges facing your chosen company or service base on the strategic issues identified in question one. (SWOT analysis and competition)

Question 3.
Identify and analyse the three solutions to address the challenges identified in question two facing your chosen (Learning Disability) company or service.
RBV (VRIO), Ansoff, Gantt Model frameworks, etc.

Question 4.
Explain how your company or service (Learning Disability) could practically implement one solution from those listed in Question 3.

Note: Can you use United Kingdom English translation.

LEARNING DISABILITY SERVICES

Name of the student

Affiliation

Course

Instructor’s name

Submission date

LEARNING DISABILITY SERVICES

Introduction

The healthcare sector is a versatile industry comprising of medical services and businesses that help manufacture medical equipment, drugs, facilities, and insurance necessary among patients. The industry is described as one of the largest and complex industry; as it is faced with numerous challenges and strategic issues in the wake of technological advancements among other phenomenon events (Dutta, 2019). In this assignment, an in-depth analysis of the strategic issues and challenges facing the health industry is discussed. Further, solutions and an implementation plan regarding these challenges are outlined and discussed at length. The research of Learning Disability Services and the implementation plan involves looking up the health’s sector in-depth, as well as, the operational and strategic issues reported in the sector’s annual reports and news. The project management tools, techniques, and knowledge in addition to supplementary information acquired from scholarly publications on the central issues will guide the development of the implementation plan. Strategic analytical tools and frameworks used include a PEST analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT analysis, and VRIO framework, to mention a few.

Strategic Issues Facing the Healthcare Sector

Healthcare sector highly depends on developed legislations, technological advancements, and changes in the economy, as whenever there are shifts among people, the government and technology, the industry is profoundly affected. According to the PEST analysis tool, three main strategic issues facing the industry have been established that hail from political, economic, and technological spheres. They include rising cost-effective healthcare costs among employees and the government, increased digital technology in healthcare such as virtual care systems, and cybersecurity risks. Primarily, the rising cost-effective healthcare costs among employees and the government is a political and economic issue. The need for cost-effective healthcare in the country continues to increase daily and annually, for instance, according to the NHS funding of 2020-2021, the report forecast to attain a funding gap of €30 billion (Consultancy.uk, 2018). This funding gap is expected to rise due to the projected and expected rises in the costs of chronic conditions. In 2018, the funding of chronic conditions hit €5 billion. The home care services are projected to have at least an increase in emergency admissions and attendance by 40%-50%. Medical costs are expected to increase by 6.3% (Consultancy.uk, 2018). This issue affects not only the employee but also the suppliers, patients and government at large. Rising healthcare costs result in suppliers acquiring supplier power, as Porter describes in his Five Forces, where they drive up prices, resulting in an uneconomic balance. The affected parties, such as medical facilities are left with no choice but to increase prices among products and services to fill the gap. This result in funding problems among the government; arguably, government trade policies, regulations, and taxations they develop can be described as the sixth force in Porter’s framework.

The increased Virtual Care adoption of digital technology in healthcare and cybersecurity risks are technological issues that have profoundly affected the strategic decisions and operational activities in the industry.  People use tele medics, where they acquire internet-based services with online or virtual consultants. Seventy-five percent of the population in the country uses virtual care systems whereby the highest percentage records 97% high satisfaction, 94% better compliance treatment, and 62% increased confidence. They access these virtual care systems through numerous apps with reduced paperwork needed and increased patient face time increased by 29% (Taylor, 2018). However, despite the changes, the European mobile healthcare market is likely to have increased and acquired the most considerable revenue compared to global revenues. The highest predicted growth is about 61.6% compared to the worldwide growth rate of 54.9% equivalent to $7.1 billion in Europe and $21.5 billion global markets, as of 2018 onwards. Finally, cybersecurity risks are seen when data security in the healthcare sector is highly challenged due to the extensive nature of personal information, records on insurance, patient healthcare, and insurance companies (Ghafur, 2019). The industry requires extensive IT collaboration that strategically includes adequate resources and modern technology that guarantees data security and legal compliance, preventing data loss and fraud activities in hospitals.

Challenges Identified

Learning Disability Services is a service in the Healthcare sector that helps address diverse intellectual disabilities. Learning disability is a multifaceted and multi-determined condition that affects an individual’s capacity to learn, which may be slower than ordinary quick learning abilities. Learning Disability Services is faced with numerous challenges, which can be identified using the SWOT analysis framework. In this case, problems are mostly seen from weaknesses and threats facing the productive and successful operations of the service. Three main challenges include increasing healthcare costs and funding gaps, technological disruption of the traditional healthcare processes, resulting into virtual care systems and reliance among people, and finally medical errors, data losses, fraudulent cases, and cybersecurity risks.

The increasing healthcare costs and funding gaps in the healthcare industry have affected the operations of medical companies and services (Luna, 2018). Learning disabilities vary, as they are categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. Healthcare costs for patients with critical conditions are different and even higher compared to those with benign conditions.

Moreover, patients require high-level treatment and care. Increasing costs and reduced funding is a threat to the service in an economic context. According to the NHS in England, the medical prices in 2018 in actual spending included over €100 billion and the planned spending in 2023 is over €120 billion, which is an extra €20 billion. The expenditure of the government is estimated to increase by 3.4% annually (Luna, 2018). The government expects high health lobbyists while Learning Disability Service facilities are faced with constrained budgets due to high funding gaps. The medical costs and complexities are continually rising, which is straining sufficient care providence. There has been increased patient expectations and demand for better healthcare, which is countered by reduced funding availability and increased costs.

Technological disruption of the traditional healthcare processes, resulting in increased virtual care systems and reliance among the people is another challenge and threat. The LDS facilities have profoundly been affected by the events of globalization and advanced technologies, as medical systems and the people are shifting towards virtual medical assistance, where they do not require much paperwork or travelling for health checkups (Taylor, 2018). The proliferation of virtual-based Medicare technology results in reduced traditional importance and decreased costs across departments. Patients are the backbone of LDS systems, and these virtual-based technologies will erode the agenda of helping healthcare, as well as its relevance. This will also affect healthcare laws and regulations, as digital healthcare laws, must be developed.

Medical errors, data losses, fraudulent cases, and cybersecurity risks are technological threats and challenges facing LDS. They are vulnerable to cyber threats, which is compromising the safety of people’s health information and transactions. There is prevalent data theft, data corruption, and hacking of systems that are directly harming the patients and the hospitals. (Ghafur, 2019) Data and system breaching is costing hospitals, and LDS many millions hence increased costs and decreased business sustainability. The NHS is trying hard to address these challenges effectively.

Proposed Solutions

Strategic issues and challenges facing the healthcare sector and LDS require strategic solutions that help in uncovering sources of the discontinuities or flaws and provide strategic solutions that protect core competencies and resources for competitive advantage. This is achieved through conducting an RBV and VRIO analysis of the situation, which will help focus on value, rareness, imitability and organization of the service in a resource-based view. According to the investigation, addressing the virtual-based threat would require implementing and integrating telemedicine and virtual care-based care as extensions in LDS (Dutta, 2019). This will help the hospitals bridge the service-providence gap technology is trying to create. The survival of the brick and mortar healthcare facilities will depend on the fast acceptance of technology in the operations and processes (resource-based).

This solution plays two vital roles, namely cutting operational costs while increasing the cost-saving opportunities and increasing revenue (value).  Hospitals can collect revenue from physical hospitals and improve their gross profits with virtual-based healthcare benefits (Resources) (Dutta, 2019). Besides, 70% of the population remains an untapped niche that hospitals can exploit. Seventy percentage is a large number with much potential in terms of monetary and nonmonetary benefits (Increased Competitive Advantage). The solution provides LDS with an opportunity to create value, increase its organization strategies, and provide extension services, hence increased sustainable competitive advantage.

Increased costs and funding gaps can be addressed through seeking and implementing alternative measures of bridging the funding gaps that increase income inflow. Exploring and implementing alternative sources of funding will help reduce health costs and expenditure while finding adequate sources of the funds. For instance, adopting telemedicine and virtual-based care will help in cutting costs in the hospital departments, trim nonvalue adding functions, and control various operations costs (Resource-based). This will increase the future costs savings, hence better sources of funding (Dutta, 2019). Secondly, the ageing population should have increased years and provided with sources of employment. This will help them take up health benefits while working and having some income flow that will help them pay for the high costs. With increased income flow, the insurance premiums and health costs will significantly reduce. Overlay, this shows the capabilities and resources presents in LDS to help eliminate competitive disadvantage while creating sustainable competitive advantage and parity.

Cybersecurity threats, including medical errors, data losses, and fraudulent cases, can be addressed through increased IT collaboration and implementation of effective cybersecurity risk management strategies. This will help hospitals address cybersecurity risks effectively and efficiently while integrating a value-based care system. Value-based care focuses on increasing value by tapping unused competitive advantage and using resources such as new risk management processes, which will help create sustainable advantage. The models will assist in identifying sources of threats and providing the most effective solutions. Moreover, change management will help in effectively addressing the digitalization change and adopting appropriate risk management strategies with the advancement in technology (Luna, 2018). LDS can utilize the core competencies and strengths seen from the SWOT analysis, including IT facilities, equipment, practitioner resources, and R&D to address these challenges and threat in a value-based view.

Implementation Plan

Learning Disability Services can easily implement and integrate telemedicine and virtual care-based care as extensions in the hospitals and LDS. The implementation plan would follow all Project Management directives and guidelines for efficiency and effectiveness. In this case, the implementation plan involves two main phases. In phase one, the plan involves identifying specific and general objectives and establishing an efficient approach on marketing, operations, HRM, and practice management. In phase two, project management steps, including scope development, critical milestone development, timeline scheduling, delivery, evaluation, and monitoring, are established. The primary and specific objective of this plan includes Screening and Testing for Learning Disabilities among affected people through technology and accommodation. The attainment of this objective will require general objectives including

1. Identifying effective virtual-based strategies to screen and test people suffering from LD
2. Developing a virtual-care based system and applications for providing the service
3. Establishing an LDS brick facility that includes both virtual-based care and a supporting brick and mortar facility.

The implementation of the solution will be conducted through elaborative and rigorous marketing of the activity to the target market. The target market, in this case, includes parents, older population, pupils and students. Different marketing strategies will be used depending on the target market. For instance, social media, content, and digital marketing strategies will be used to capture the niche using mobile phones and those active on social media. Traditional marketing, including brochures and billboards, will be used to capture the attention of all people, as they will be strategically placed in learning institutions and religious places, among others. The company will also send marketing text messages to all patients in the database, informing them of new services and virtual-based services option. There will be the training of the staff and equipping the HRM with necessary and adequate skills and resources for efficient operations.

In stage one of the second phase, inputs will include trained staff, 20 test subjects with learning disabilities and difficulties such as dyslexia, attention difficulties, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia, among others. In addition to screening and testing materials such as computers with programs that spell check and produce predictive texts. The most important materials and equipment, such as encoding machines, supportive muscle equipment, touch-type devices, monitoring, and evaluative tools, will be used. Hence, the project will require financial funding of all tasks and wage payment among other aspects in the budget. In stage two, the project will be scheduled to take place in six months, whereby the milestones of the projects include:

1. Project scope planning and financial analysis, which will take place in three weeks
2. Training and certifying staff to last three weeks
3. Ordering and purchasing the required tools and machines, which is expected to take one month
4. Identifying and setting up the brick and mortar facility to take two week
5. Installation of the devices and setting up the facility, expected to take one month
6. Actual screening and testing of the test subjects expected to take two months.

In the final step, the delivery of the project will follow the WMO Service Delivery Strategy. According to the strategy, deliverables will focus on achieving the specific objective, providing high-quality results and processes. They will ensure dependability and credibility to test subjects and all other involved stakeholders. Monitoring and evaluation will be conducted using the project’s deliverables, success criteria and indicators, follow-up meetings, and key performance indicators to determine the effectiveness of the project.

References

Consultancy.uk, 2018. UK health care benefit costs will increase by 6% in 2019. [Online]
Available at: https://www.consultancy.uk/news/19671/uk-health-care-benefit-costs-will-increase-by-6-in-2019 [Accessed 28 February 2020].

Dutta, C. M. &. D. K., 2019. Editorial: Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (January 2019). Technology Innovation Management Review, pp. Vol 9, Issue 1: 3-8.

Ghafur, S. E. G. N. R. J. A. D., 2019. The challenges of cybersecurity in health care: the UK National Health Service as a case study. Digital Health, 1(1), pp. 10-12.

Luna, R. B., 2018. A Framework for Evaluation of Risk Management Models for HIPAA Compliance for Electronic Personal Health Information Used by Small and Medium Businesses Using Cloud Technologies. s.l.:East Carolina.

Taylor, K., 2018. Connected Health: How digital technology is transforming health and social care, s.l.: Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions.