Challenges of the Knowledge Society (May 2019)
WAYS OF ENHANCING COMPETITIVENESS WITHIN A NATIONAL MEDICAL INSTITUTE
Abstract
The interest of the specialized literature for the competitiveness of the organization has derived, on the one hand, from the studies on countries and regions competitiveness and, on the other hand, from the concern of both managers and researchers about identifying effective ways of meeting customers needs and of dominating competitors. Basically, the competitive advantage could aim at either reaching a low cost of products or services or differentiating them in one or several ways against the competitor products. The competitiveness of an organization derives from the price / performance attributes of the existing products. An organization attains sustainable competitiveness if they succeed creating and maintaining several core competencies that would generate effects through replication and innovation. This approach may be adopted and applied as a specific definition of healthcare organizations competitiveness, as practice shows us that core competences become the fundamentals of the strategy and even competitive advantages and sources of key success factors. This paper aims at reviewing a healthcare unit having a single specialty providing high-performance and very high difficulty medical services. The original idea was to obtain a competitive advantage by introducing an entirely new, innovative treatment method to the clinic, which is also complementary to the medical services traditionally offered.