Delivery of services from a distance using Internet-based platforms or supporting environments.
Published in Chapter:
Market of Resources for Health Care Teleservices Management
Maria Manuela Cunha (Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave Higher School of Technology, Portugal), Goran D. Putnik (University of Minho, Portugal), and Ricardo Simões (University of Minho, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 5
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-885-7.ch120
Abstract
According to a report on e-marketplaces for the health sector (Kuller, 2005), the European Health and Social Services sector is a complex web of “businesses” and “customers,” characterized by a combination of public and private providers who control the strategic direction and finances. The services are delivered by microbusinesses, that is, hospitals, clinics, general practitioners, and specialists, and delivered through government, public, or nonprofit bodies, not the private sector (although this is slowly changing in some countries) (Kuller, 2005). The resulting absence of the profit goal means that the motivation for changing business processes and implementing tools is driven by a need to improve “patient care,” and not a desire to make or save money. This partly explains why the Health and Social Services sector lags behind others with regard to IT infrastructure in place and e-business usage.