Business Project

Recommendations (7)


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During our most recent weekly group meeting, participants
expressed concern over the quality of senior citizen residential communities in
Taiwan. According to the World Health Organization, Taiwan
became an advanced aging society as of the end of 1993, with over 7% of its
population 65 years or older. According to estimates from the Council for
Economic Planning and Development, the islands elderly population will
account for 14.42% and 20.04% of the population by 2121 and 2131,
respectively. Restated, one out of every five individuals will be classified as
belonging to the advanced age elderly population. Traditional societal values in
which the elderly parents live with their son and daughter-in-law have
diminished, creating a growing public awareness that the elderly must make
preparations in advance for their long term care. The aging trend in Taiwan
explains the growing concern over the market demand for long term care
residential communities, in which middle to senior aged individuals live
independently in houses or apartment units designed for their special needs
upon retirement. Many industries have already heavily invested in this
emerging growth sector. Given physical and mental health factors, senior
citizens must adjust as traditional societal values change. To facilitate a more
ideal living environment for the elderly, governmental organizations and the
private sector must coordinate efforts to create an environment in which senior
citizens living independently is the norm instead of the exception. In doing so,
numerous commercial opportunities will arise.
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For instance, RUENTEX Construction Company in collaboration with
Rien Fu Newlife Company has established a senior citizen residential
community in Tan-shui by drawing from the Japanese long term care
model to provide residents with a hotel style management approach.
The facilities provide high-quality comfort with a 300 residential unit
capacity, all of which have already been leased out. Given population
trends and enhanced living standards, the climate for growth
opportunities in the long term care sector in Taiwan is favorable.
Identifying factors for successful operation of senior citizen residential
communities are thus essential for businesses to gain a competitive
edge, explaining why governmental authorities and industrial planners
are anxious to to evaluate the most appropriate management
strategies for further development.
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However, while evaluating the success of certain
management practices in satisfying consumer demand in this growing
market sector, long term care studies have seldom attempted to identify
success factors in managing senior citizen residential communities.
Relevant considerations in the management of a senior citizen
residential community include environment analysis of the location,
analysis of relevant management strategies, , pricing and promotional
strategies and strategic alliances. Correspondingly, all success factors
should be prioritized based on their importance.
For instance, the lack of an objective assessment method makes it
impossible for administrators of senior citizen residential communities
to determine which management approaches will be successful or not.
The lack of an effective model to identify success
factors in managing senior citizen residential communities makes it
impossible to determine tangible and intangible benefits in long term
care research. Moreover, senior citizen residential communities of
varying scale sizes will have difficulty in adopting effective management
strategies to remain competitive.
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Therefore, we recommend developing an AHP-based
method that enables administrators of senior citizen residential
communities to identify critical factors for successful operations.
To do so, a questionnaire survey can be designed to select the
most appropriate sampling method. A valuation standard that reflects
enterprise values can then be derived based on interviews with experts in
the field. Next, critical factors for successful operations can be identified
using the AHP method. As anticipated, the proposed AHP-
based method can enable enterprises involved in the development of
senior citizen residential communities to identify the features of and
prerequisites for successful operations. The proposed
method can enable administrators of senior citizen residential
communities to select the most feasible options during decision making
by considering finance and market analysis related concerns in order to
ensure success in daily operations. In addition to enhancing the
competency of administrators in making their residential communities
productive in this increasingly competitive sector, the proposed method
can provide a valuable reference for experts, academics and investors in
the long term sector attempt to devise relevant marketing strategies.
(:)
At a recent meeting, members discussed the
increasing incidence of unqualified information technology
suppliers that service the nations medical information
infrastructure. Since the National Health
Insurance scheme was established in 1995, medical
expenditures have been recorded via electronic media as the
Taiwanese government promotes the use of the National Health
Information Network (HIN), enabling medical institutions island
wide to make data accessible and transparent in a digital form.
According to the National Health Insurance Bureau, prior to
establishment of the National Health Insurance scheme, only
20% of all medical institutions had computerized their operations;
whereas that figure exceeded 60% by the end of 1995.
Whereas only 25.7% (4666) and 54.9% (6509) of all medical
clinics in industrialized countries had computerized their
operations in 1994 and 1996, respectively, that figure jumped to
76.3% (6977) in 1997.
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Although 92.9% of all medical clinics process information into
the HIN, 84.6% of all clinical software used originates from outsourced
information technology vendors, making outsourcing of medical information
needs a major issue among hospital administrators. Given the recent issuance
of health insurance IC cards on line, clinical administrators are faced with
increasing medical information-related costs and complexity in information
integration. (NOTE : Add 1-2 sentences that describe characteristics of the
problem or statistics that reflect its severity) Moreover,
with the unique environment of Taiwans National Health Insurance scheme
and trend for hospital clinics to outsource their medical information needs to
information technology vendors, appraising potential vendors to outsource
those needs is extremely difficult, especially given the current ability of medical
information systems operating under the National Health Insurance scheme to
select the most reliable information technology supplier.
The inability of hospitals to adopt an explicit and objective standard to select
information technology suppliers may lead to an inappropriate selection,
subsequently increasing development and maintenance-related costs, a waste
in human resources and time, inefficiency in the processing of medical
expenditures, as well as the inability to promote the quality of medical treatment.
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Therefore, we recommend developing an AHP-
based decision-making method for hospital clinics to assess
objectively the quality of an information technology supplier
when outsourcing their medical information needs, as an
alternative to previous decision-making approaches based on
subjective evaluations. To do so, an appraisal
criterion for selecting an appropriate information technology
vendor can be made using Delphi technique to gain mutual
recognition among experts in the field. Criteria for outsourcing
vendors and sub-criteria of medical information system for clinics
can then be evaluated using the group decision process of the
Delphi method. Next, a questionnaire can be designed for
constructing the decision attributes in order to evaluate MIS
vendors. Additionally, using the Delphi method, preferences of
the group members can be elicited and a group consensus can
be achieved. Moreover, results of interviews with experts can be
integrated with the AHP method to establish an objective
evaluation criterion for MIS vendors.
(:)
Furthermore, an AHP-based survey can be designed using
pairwise comparison to respond to MIS outsourcing demand
scores for each item. Moreover, each criterion and rank can
pass a consistency test for decision-making of the AHP model.
Finally, participation and involvement of the group experts
combined with AHP can be incorporated to calculate the weights
and optimum alternatives. As anticipated, the AHP-
based decision-making method can provide hospital
administrators with a decision-making and evaluation criteria that
actively encourage the medical sector outsource to information
technology contractors. In addition to avoiding
unnecessary risks and reducing overhead costs, the proposed
decision-making method can incorporate an AHP evaluation
model and several evaluation criteria for large-scale hospitals
outsourcing their technological needs. (NOTE : Add 2 more
sentences that describe more thoroughly how the proposed
method contributes to a particular field or sector)
Further details can be found at
http://www.chineseowl.idv.tw