| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 管理研究所 === 97 === The motivation of the research was the phenomenon that the popularity of telecare and telemedicine programs was dramatically growing. However, there were few business applications found. Most telecare programs were either at the experimental or pilot study stage. Only few or none attempted to study proper business models. In this author’s view, the business model and the sustainable management were the crucial elements for telecare. Hence the purpose of this research was to investigate the possible business models for telecare.
This research took one of the telecardiology service, which provided by one of the hospitals located at Taipei City, as example (hospital C). It firstly looked into the theories of Michael E. Porter’s competitive strategy (Porter, 1980) and competitive advantage (Porter, 1985). Then how the hospital C selected its competitive strategy and forming its advantage in the health service market were described. Then the paper searched for the features of business model, elements and structure were included. The research of business model literatures had a focus on the “business model ontology”, which was proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2004). Next the “business model ontology” was applied in explaining hospital C’s telecardiology service. Finally the approach of scenario planning which suggested by Schoemaker (1995) was adopted in describing the possible situation of the telecardiology service.
The result of the analysis revealed that the value propositions for the hospital management team are: empowerment of core competency, widening gap with competitors, expansion of market, more channels (to reach patients), improvement of quality of clinical service, improvement of hospital’s image and (possible) additional profits. The value propositions for the clinical team are: real-time ECG for accurate diagnosis, shortened period for diagnosis, improved cardiology service and more resources available for treating heart disease patients. The value propositions for patient are: the availability of services not covered by the national health insurance, reduced rate of sudden death, faster diagnosis, the cut of the expenditure on the heart disease and the improvement of life quality.
This paper proposed two possible business models for telecare. The model one was the patients-paid model. In this model the service provider reached customers through its own channels such as OPD, IPD and ER service. The model two was the third-party-paid model. There were health insurers, nursing homes or telecare programs, provided by other hospitals, acted as brokers (the third-party payers) between the service providers and the patients. These brokers purchased service on behalf of their patients from hospitals (the service providers).
In terms of the finance, the average monthly balance in 2007 was NT -290,000. It was estimated that based on the annual growth of 60%, it would take at least 5 years to reach the point of breaking even. This paper suggested two stages of financial strategy. The first stage was to expand the market and market share. The second stage was to break even and make profit.
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