Service Design for Delivery of User Centered Products and Services in Healthcare

Abstract

In the broader context of healthcare, hospitals have begun to adopt Service Design to understand and improve the patient experience.1 The patient experience has increasingly become more important in the USA as hospital reimbursement is tied to patient satisfaction scores.2 Beyond improving patient experiences, Service Design is extendable to helping care providers build relationships with individuals across different functions and silos to improve cooperation and communications internally and externally – while also improving outcomes.

This paper, will firstly cover the essentials of Service Design and observe that service is an important element in the evolving Pharma 3.0 business model where patient focus, or centricity is the emphasized (along with importance of the payer in adoption of healthcare solutions). From there is discussion of Service Design in the evolving healthcare ecosystem, recognizing the importance of interactions throughout the system – patients, providers, physicians, extended care networks, etc. The discipline’s value is then illustrated through various applications in several mini case studies.