A Study And Empirical Analysis Of The Management Of Remote Medical Follow-up Services

With the increasing popularity of services in the network era, mobile Internet technologies have been widely applied. Modern services are characterized by organizational networking and informational networking. Artificial intelligence and network communication have been extensively applied in medical services, so an alternative way to meet users’ needs has been identified. Network-based remote services have gradually become a new competition advantage and a new value adding point for medical service institutions, and medical services have been significantly improved as a result.In this model, medical services are provided for patients through the network communication and information management platform. The Internet has changed the conventional doctor-patient face-to-face medical service mode. In the Internet era, the management of medical service institutions integrating resources of multiple parties is a new challenge. In this context, the remote medical service model has come into being.The management of remote medical follow-up services is not completely the same as the management of hospitals’ conventional follow-up services. Through the remote medical service management platform, medical service institutions achieve the scientific management of remote medical services, innovate the medical service model, improve the medical service quality and increase the value of remote medical services. Meanwhile, network communications technologies are used in line with the trend of the latest intelligent and information-based medical services.As an emerging medical service model, remote medical follow-up services are characterized as follows:at the initial stage, medical service institutions need to spend a large amount of money in the purchase of equipment, the recruitment of computer network professionals, and the training of medical staff members in computer techniques, which increases hospitals" operation cost and brings new management problems to hospitals; in addition, the remote medical follow-up service management system does not necessarily generate quick returns on the investment, and the management of remote medical follow-up services is not completely the same as the management of hospitals’ conventional follow-up services.The remote medical follow-up service management system entails high equipment costs and proficiency in computer network technologies, and it involves complicated levels of medical service institutions and special service management. More importantly, the management of remote medical follow-up services is based on the integration of new technologies and medical services, it is just being empirically explored, and no mature theory system has been developed.Medical service institutions face the pressure from market-oriented competition in modern medical services and the changes in the ways to provide medical services. Therefore, medical service institutions should enhance their core competitiveness in remote medical services and use scientific management theories to improve medical services. The use of computer multimedia technologies in remote medical follow-up services plays a very important role in improving patients’ life quality and learning about patients’ medical service needs, and it also provides references for medical service institutions to achieve intensive growth and timely adjust the medical service management strategy.As can be seen from the academic books and papers at home and abroad, people are strongly interested in all aspects of medical service management and have been deepening their studies of the theories about "medical service management" But the management of remote medical follow-up services is studied at the initial stage, the studies are based on individual cases, and no theories have been proposed. When some Chinese experts and scholars in medical service management conduct empirical studies of the problems encountered by medical service institutions in the management of follow-up services, they use Western service management theories, have touched only on the management at lower levels, and have not developed a truly sound system of theories about the management of remote medical follow-up services. These experts and scholars focus only on treatment effect, service convenience, hospitals’ internal management and other local issues, and they have not conducted systematic in-depth studies of the management of remote medical follow-up services in organizational system, planning system, factors of service needs, remote planning and forecasting, development of management strategy, allocation of medical service resources, business process, quality assessment, management mechanism and other aspects.Innovation is the lifeblood of medical services management. The studies of innovative medical services based on new technologies and new theories have an important position in medical research. This paper centers on the problems in the management of remote medical follow-up services, and systematically studies such management from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Starting from the macroscopic management of medical services, this paper studies the development of strategies and the optimization of resource allocation for medical follow-up services in the network environment; studies the efficiency and effective control of the complex systems in medical services; interprets and integrates quality management, scientific decision-making management, social ethics, medical science, service operation management, collaboration and other theories with the specific actual application of medical service management; and studies microscopic actual conditions from the perspective of objective laws of service management. Based on the full understanding of participants’behaviors in and strategies for remote medical follow-up services, this paper explores the value co-creation model for services not restricted by time or space and the cross-institutional services. The study of the management of remote medical follow-up services provides ways for medical service institutions to transform their management of follow-up services, provides practical solutions to the management of medical follow-up services, and to some extent promotes the in-depth studies of the management of medical follow-up services.The contents of this paper are as follows:the introduction of the theories related to medical services, and the identification of the starting point for the application of these theories to medical follow-up services; the detailed analysis of the concept of, the characteristics of, the targets of, the carrier of, the value of and the needs for remote medical follow-up services, and the analysis of the functions of the subsystems of the management system and the key points for the actual application of these subsystems; the study of the "online and offline" management of remote medical follow-up services, and the proposal of the measures for "online and offline" management; the development of the remote medical follow-up service management platform based on theoretical research, and the use of this platform for specific empirical studies; the study of the theories about the management of remote medical follow-up service, the models of such management and the empirical use of the models, the design of the model of collaborative management of remote medical follow-up services, the use of the remote medical follow-up service management platform in providing remote medical follow-up services for cancer patients, the identification of problems through empirical studies, the in-depth analysis of these problems, the analysis of the causes of these problems, and the development of the solutions to these problems based on the causes. Patients not only call for the improvement of the software and the facilities of medical service institutions, but also demand the improvement of medical service quality. This paper proposes the eight-step method to improve the quality of remote medical services, and uses the SERVQUAL evaluation model to evaluate and analyze the quality of the management of remote medical follow-up services, so this study is of practical significance.The study of the management of remote medical follow-up services is very helpful in improving the management of medical service institutions, meeting patients’needs for medical services and improving the treatment effect.This paper is arranged in the following order:introduction to the topic (management of remote medical follow-up services) -- theoretical basis -- analysis of the problems and the problem causes -- solution to problems.The structure of this paper is as follows:Chapter I "Introduction" introduces the background of this study, the status quo of and the problems existing in the management of remote medical follow-up services, the purpose, significance and necessity of this study, the structure of this paper, the methods used in this study and the major innovative points.Chapter II is the review of the domestic and overseas literature related to this study. Domestic and overseas literature on the management of medical follow-up services is analyzed and reviewed, and the new research trends in recent years are summarized to lay the foundation for further study and determine the research focus.Chapter III is the remote medical follow-up service management problems found and analyzed.This chapter investigates and researches on the telemedicine follow-up service for patients with cancer with concrete cases, identifies the problems during the research and their possible influences on medical service management to chart a course for next research. This chapter conducts an in-depth analysis and research of the problems in telemedicine follow-up service management and their causes, and points out the challenges facing the telemedicine service management of current medical service organizations.Chapter IV is the theoretical research of telemedicine follow-up service management. This chapter mainly expounds on the concepts and characteristics of medical follow-up and telemedicine follow-up, the value and necessity of the management of telemedicine follow-up service, and its objects, carriers and so forth. And the research of the management system for telemedicine follow-up service and its functions;And discusses the integration of the service management concept of "online-offline" into the telemedicine follow-up service, analyzes the problems in the management of "online-offline" telemedicine follow-up service, and proposes the fusion of managements;And research builds the management platform for telemedicine follow-up service based on the researches in support of the subsequent empirical researches.Chapter V is the management model for telemedicine follow-up service and its application. Based on the theoretical research, this chapter puts forwards coordination model for the management of telemedicine follow-up service, SERVQUAL evaluation model, service quality gap model, and service quality improvement research, providing theoretical support for scientific managerial countermeasures for telemedicine follow-up service as well as applying the model to specific medical services.Chapter VI This chapter of remote medical follow-up service comparing with the conventional outpatient follow-up service, remote medical follow-up service management implementation strategy is put forward, finally use specific examples to verify this research paper.Chapter VII is the summary of this study and the outlook on future research.This study is innovative in the following aspects:1. This paper conducts an all-round and in-depth analysis of the root causes of the problems in the management of remote medical follow-up services, combines macroscopic theories and microscopic actual conditions in the study of the management of remote medical follow-up services at the strategic decision-making layer, the service management layer and the actual operation layer, and proposes the innovative ideas about the management of remote medical follow-up services and the routes to such management.2. This study puts forward the system structure and the evaluation model for the management of remote medical follow-up services, and the concepts of the collaborative management of remote medical follow-up services and the management of "online and offline" services. In the study of the Value model and the quality evaluation model and the quality improvement model for the management of remote medical follow-up services;In the study of remote medical follow-up service value model, find out the flaws in the design, Zeithaml model by adding the elements of time, space, and spiritual benefits, make value model is more complete;it is pointed out that remote medical follow-up services should be managed through the use of modern network communication and artificial intelligence control technologies, with the focus on the collaborative management of remote medical follow-up services, via the management of online and offline services, by centering on the provision of services for patients and for the purpose of the maximization of the value of medical service innovation.3. Based on the study of the theories about the management of remote medical follow-up services, paper author develops a Linux-based remote medical follow-up service management platform, and uses this platform for empirical research from a practical perspective, so that this study is more in-depth and objective.Study limitations and future research:As the author’s understanding of the management of remote medical follow-up services is limited and this study is challenging to some extent, this study should be improved in the following aspects in subsequent research.(Ⅰ) The research should strengthen the multi-angle analysis.This paper studies the management of remote medical follow-up services mainly from managers’ perspective, so it is one-sided to a certain degree. The management of remote medical follow-up services should also be studied from the perspectives of patients, medical service institutions and other involved parties.(Ⅱ) Expand the study sample size. Clinical samples of patients are limited and the study results may be biased to some extent, and more samples should be collected to improve the reliability.(Ⅲ) Strengthen the service management research of transverse comparison.The differences between the management of remote medical follow-up services and the management of other services should be analyzed and compared in an in-depth manner.