Possible Solutions Pacific Healthcare, Case Study Example

Introduction

Technology development is one of the main drivers of effective and manageable health care in the United States. With different options offered by health care supply companies for X-Ray departments, managers need to consider different aspects, namely: cost, consistency, reliability and quality. The below overview will analyze three possible solutions to make the health care service more effective and the running costs lower.

Possible Solutions.

While previously there was no other option than using Kodak’s services for supplies and maintenance. While there are four other companies offering the same service at a lower price, only two of them match the quality of Kodak products.

Option 1. Continue to use Kodak, entering into negotiation with the company in order to obtain higher discounts as a reward for continuous business. Further, it would be possible to obtain extra service and support from Kodak, based on the long term collaboration between the supplier and the X-Ray unit.

Option 2. Opt for DuPont and Agfa by entering negotiation and requesting a quote. Comparing the two options, service and quality assurance levels before making a decision. This way the quality of service would be consistent, however, DuPont price per unit is lower.

Option 3. Choosing the lowest cost option, as minimum quality requirements are still met by 3M, and the unit price is 45 cents below Kodak’s. This means that the department would save 645 dollars a day in operations expenditure.

Difference in costs, savings and quality

Option 1. Continuing to use Kodak products would create consistency in the department, would not require training and changes in the equipment. However, it is not likely that Kodak as a leading supplier of the market would enter a price competition and reduce the monthly package and sheet prices significantly. The costs would remain more or less the same, while the quality would be consistent with previous services.

Option 2. Choosing between DuPont and Agfa would reduce the cost of supplies, and possibly the services as well. However, it is not known how the changes would affect the cost of training, equipment maintenance and services. Without knowing how much the two companies charge for servicing and maintenance, it would be unwise to opt for this solution.

Option 3. Choosing the lowest cost solution, namely 3M would save a significant amount in the X-Ray department and supplies would be obtained at a lower price. As the quality of the films is still accepted and above the industry quality requirements, there seems to be no risk. However, the compatibility of equipment and retrieval machinery is questionable. Further, quality standards are determined based on general terms and therefore, testing would be required in order to decide whether the quality of sheets is suitable for the imaging carried out in the department. This would, consequently result in training and testing costs.

Advantages and Disadvantages