The human dimension of modular care provision: Opportunities for personalization and customization

Abstract

Various behavioral issues are at stake in the health care sector, for example, the current strong plea for more demand-based care provision as opposed to traditional supply-driven approaches. Healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of systems and approaches that allow them to be more responsive to the needs and desires of their clients. To cope with heterogeneous and multiple demands, the application of modularity is increasingly proposed in care and services. In this paper the purpose is to study how interpersonal behavior responsive to client needs and values can be accommodated in modular care provision. Drawing on relevant literature from various service-related disciplines, we develop insight into how customization and personalization are simultaneously practiced by means of case research in the context of long-term care for elder people. Our empirics indicate that in care for elder people, personalization complements customization in adapting supply to demand. Customization is used to better match the needs of an individual customer in terms of the content of the service. Personalization is also used for this purpose, however, by adapting the way in which the service is provided. Moreover, the practice of personalization effectuates customization over time. The paper shows the importance of human behavior in the application of modularity in long term care for elder people. Approaching the issue of adaptation through the lens of modularity offers care providers insight into how customization and personalization are related. These insights can be used for the design of care delivery systems that enable comprehensive adaptation of supply to heterogeneous customer demands over time.

Interfaces in service modularity: A typology developed in modular health care provision

“…Cook et al, 2002; Sampson and Froehle, 2006). Service providers, in interaction with service customers, play an important role in the provision of service elements as well as in customization of service packages (De Blok et al, 2013). Interfaces in services have indeed been recognized to connect service providers as well as providers and service consumers (Voss and Hsuan, 2009; Vahatalo, 2012).…”

Modularizing specialized hospital services

“…Healthcare is a heterogeneous industry that consists of distinct service fields, such as elderly care and hospital care, which react to managerial methods in different ways (Dranove, 1998;Lillrank et al, 2015). Healthcare modularity studies have been carried out in areas such as mental care (Bushe et al, 2008;Chorpita et al, 2005;Weisz et al, 2012;Soffers et al, 2014), elderly or home care (de Blok et al, 2014(de Blok et al, , 2013(de Blok et al, , 2010a(de Blok et al, , 2010b, and in health insurance companies (Dörbecker et al, 2013). Hospital contexts have also been studied (Bohmer, 2005;Kuntz and Vera, 2007;Meyer et al, 2007), but to a lesser extent than elderly care.…”

“…Modularization and mass customization are seen as promising means to increase variety and customization in healthcare, while exploiting the advantages of mass production and standardization (Berwick, 1997;Bohmer, 2005;McLaughlin and Kaluzny, 2000). Modularization is expected to bring several benefits in services such as enhanced flexibility (Bask et al, 2010), increased variety (de Blok et al, 2013), and cost savings (Duray et al, 2000;Eissens-van der Laan et al, 2016) through reducing complexity in fragmented systems (Simon, 1962).…”

“…There is evidence of the benefits of modularization in healthcare (de Blok et al, 2013;Meyer et al, 2007;Soffers et al, 2014;Vähätalo and Kallio, 2015), but it remains scant in highly specialized hospital care. Can the implementation of modular service architecture deliver the promised outcomes?…”

Linking product modularity to supply chain integration in the construction and shipbuilding industries

“…In make-to-stock or assemble-to-order industries, as well as in services, modularity has well-known advantages, i.e. it allows for flexibility, mass customization, cost reduction and control for variety (Browing 2001, Brun and Pero 2012, De Blok et al 2013.…”