On the afternoon of April 6, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), one of the top business schools in Asia, held a forum entitled "Excellent Service: The Future Competitiveness of the Healthcare Industry" in Shenzhen, which was attended by over a hundred hospital executives from Shenzhen and some other parts of the country.
Dr. Jaume Ribera, Professor of Production and Operations Management, and Port of Barcelona Chair Professor of Logistics at CEIBS delivered a keynote speech on "a model of service quality difference". Through this model, Prof. Ribera examined customer service systems of the health industry from the perspective of the customer, analysed healthcare institutions' service procedures, and proposed practical approaches to improve customer service quality.
The Chinese healthcare market is undergoing some significant changes, among which the most important is the change of patients, who are now possessing more medical knowledge, demanding more services, and requiring better quality than ever before. With the improvement of service quality in other industries, and the increasing severity of competition in the healthcare industry, the healthcare institutions equipped with advanced facilities and patient-oriented medical professionals are becoming preferred choice of the patient. In the meantime, with the furthering of China's healthcare reform, hospitals are also facing great changes in areas such as funding, and responsibilities for both patients and staff. All these have increased the complexity of hospital management, and also given many new challenges to hospital executives. Prof. Ribera's keynote speech provided the audience with new ideas and approaches to successfully meet the challenges they are facing.
The keynote speaker Dr. Ribera is a Founding Member and Member of the Board of the European Operations Management Association. His work concentrates on the design and improvement of operations systems in manufacturing and service operations, with special emphasis on healthcare systems. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Harvard Business Review (China). He has been on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Operations and Production Management. His consulting clients have included the European Union and the World Bank. Since 1987, he has been providing consulting for Chinese companies. Dr. Ribera was Associate Dean for Faculty at IESE.
CEIBS is a leading China-based international business school. Its main objective is to contribute to the economic development of China and its business communities. It does this by offering MBA students, managers and senior executives of companies operating in, or planning to enter China, the latest knowledge and a thorough understanding of current practices in international management, helping participants adapt them successfully to their own business environment. Since the first Diploma in Hospital Management (DIHM) programme in 2000, CEIBS has trained over four hundred hospital executives through various relevant programmes, and this time's forum is one more occasion showcasing the school's teaching quality to Chinese hospital executives.
