Understanding sustainability in healthcare systems: A systems thinking perspective

M. Mutingi, C. Mbohwa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Healthcare systems are often confronted with problems of scarce resources and the ever-increasing demand. As a result, healthcare organizations always seek to ensure sustainable satisfaction of the society's health status, the employee's expectations, as well as the organizational objectives. While patient satisfaction is known to be a crucial factor in the social component of healthcare sustainability, employee satisfaction (job satisfaction), and organizational effectiveness (satisfaction) are important; fulfilment of the patient, the employee, and the management is essential. However, there are complex factors behind the three major players in the healthcare system. A balanced, holistic systems view is therefore necessary to ensure sustainable quality of life and business survivability and growth. By viewing the healthcare system as a system of systems, we propose a systems thinking approach to analyze individual and overall satisfaction, together with the pertinent factors and their relationships within the healthcare system. We suggest a set of satisfaction indices defined in terms of the perceived satisfaction of the three players in a complex healthcare system.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIEEM 2014 - 2014 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages597-601
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781479964109
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event2014 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2014 - Selangor, Malaysia
Duration: 9 Dec 201412 Dec 2014

Publication series

NameIEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
Volume2015-January
ISSN (Print)2157-3611
ISSN (Electronic)2157-362X

Conference

Conference2014 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, IEEM 2014
Country/TerritoryMalaysia
CitySelangor
Period9/12/1412/12/14

Keywords

  • Healthcare sustainability
  • causal linkage
  • holistic satisfaction
  • system dynamics
  • systems thinking

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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