Publications

April 2022
Article

Consumers Value Effort over Ease When Caring for Close Others

By: Ximena Garcia-Rada, Mary Steffel, Elanor F. Williams and Michael I. Norton

Many products and services are designed to make caregiving easier, from premade meals for feeding families to robo-cribs that automatically rock babies to sleep. Yet, using these products may come with a cost: consumers may feel they have not exerted enough effort.... View Details

Keywords: Effor; Caregiving; Close Relationships; Symbolic Meaning; Signaling; Relationships; Consumer Behavior; Perception

September 2014 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Mayo Clinic: The 2020 Initiative

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Robert S. Huckman and Jenny Lesser

Describes the challenges facing Dr. John Noseworthy, President and CEO, in implementing a long-term strategy for the growth of the Mayo Clinic—a leading academic medical center with a reputation for excellence in tertiary and quaternary health care. The case highlights... View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care Industry; Health Care Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

Educators

2006
Chapter

Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Transforming the Delivery of Health Services

By: R. E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Demand and Consumers; Health Industry

June 10, 2021
Article

Preparing Hospitals for the Next Pandemic

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The COVID-19 epidemic response has shown that the U.S. is blessed with heroic physicians and other health care providers, researchers, and facilities. But it has also revealed a health care system that was woefully unprepared for the surge of pandemic patients. In the... View Details

Keywords: Hospital; Hospital Management; Hospitals—administration; Health Care; Health Care Industry; Health Care Investment; Health Care Operations; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Operations; Performance Improvement; Investment; Health Industry; United States

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26 Jun 2000
Research & Ideas

What’s an Internet Business Model? Ask a Health Care Professional

by panelist Andy Slavitt (HBS MBA '93), Founder, President and CEO of Healthallies.com, is an exchange that links patients with local health care providers who offer preferred rates. Services include... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

April 2003
Module Note

Design and Management of Health Care Delivery Processes, The

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Discusses the design and management of clinical processes in health care. Presents a framing of the clinical process as a problem-solving process that fundamentally involves learning along two dimensions and at least two levels. The two dimensions are: 1) learning in... View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Delivery; Management Practices and Processes; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

20 Aug 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Can Shared Service Delivery Increase Customer Engagement? A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

Keywords: by Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas, and Nazlı Sönmez; Health

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program). Health plans could choose to cover more services and treatments for competitive reasons, but they could not be forced to do so by lawsuits. This change would refocus health View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

January–February 2024
Article

Shared Service Delivery Can Increase Client Engagement: A Study of Shared Medical Appointments

By: Ryan W. Buell, Kamalini Ramdas, Nazlı Sönmez, Kavitha Srinivasan and Rengaraj Venkatesh

Problem Definition: Clients and service providers alike often consider one-on-one service delivery to be ideal, assuming – perhaps unquestioningly – that devoting individualized attention best improves client outcomes. In contrast, in shared service delivery, clients... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Customer Satisfaction; Outcome or Result; Performance Improvement

June 1992
Teaching Note

Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Teaching Note

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

Summing Up Does U.S. health care need more pull or push? There are clear symptoms that something is wrong with U.S. health care. In Edward Hare's words, "It's making us uncompetitive and turning us against each other." In this... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

October 2013
Case

FasterCures: Removing Barriers to Treatments

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and James Weber

In mid-2013, as FasterCures celebrated its 10th anniversary as a center of the Milken Institute, Executive Director Margaret Anderson thought about what the organization should do to ensure it had even more impact in its next 10 years. FasterCures was a non-profit... View Details

Educators

May 1999 (Revised July 2000)
Teaching Note

Reading Rehabilitation Hospital: Implementing Patient-Focused Care TN

By: Jody H. Gittell and Sandra J. Sucher

Teaching Note for (9-898-172). A rewritten version of an earlier teaching note. View Details

Keywords: Health; Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Health Testing and Trials; Valuation; Service Operations; Balance and Stability; Production; Demand and Consumers; Risk and Uncertainty; Technology; Health Industry

Article

One Obstacle to Curing Cancer: Patient Data Isn't Shared

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Kathy Giusti

Precision Medicine requires large datasets to identify the mutations that lead to various cancers. Currently, genomic information is hoarded in fragmented silos within numerous academic medical centers, pharmaceutical companies, and some disease-based foundations. For... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Cancer Treatment; Precision Medicine; Personalized Medicine; Data Sharing; Technological Innovation; Analytics and Data Science; Health Disorders; Medical Specialties; Research and Development; Customization and Personalization; Health Industry; United States

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Article

Social Technology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improving Care for Older Adults

By: Arthur Kleinman, Hongtu Chen, Sue E. Levkoff, Ann Forsyth, David E. Bloom, Winnie Yip, Tarun Khanna, Conor J. Walsh, David Perry, Ellen W. Seely, Anne S. Kleinman, Yan Zhang, Yuan Wang, Jun Jing, Tianshu Pan, Ning An, Zhenggang Bai, Jiexiu Wang, Qing Liu and Fawwaz Habbal

Population aging is a defining demographic reality of our era. It is associated with an increase in the societal burden of delivering care to older adults with chronic conditions or frailty. How to integrate global population aging and technology development to help... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Age; Service Delivery; Information Technology; Collaborative Innovation and Invention

Read Now

February 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: Coordinating Patient Care

External cost pressures are motivating the adoption of case management (CM) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), but several of the organization's key professional groups are working against it. President and CEO David Dolins must decide whether CM is... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Boston

Educators