The Health Care Industry Overview Version 2

There is growing evidence that the current health systems around the world will be unsustainable if they go unchanged over the coming years. The health care industry is under constant pressure to streamline operations and cut extraneous spending, while providing quality, safe, and cost-effective care to its patients. In addition, operating in a highly regulated environment, industry players need to constantly adjust their systems and processes for compliance. As a result, they are fine-tuning their business strategies and turning to information technology to eliminate inefficiencies in the value chain, to address issues of access, to improve quality, and to reduce cost. This course provides a high-level view of the health care industry environment, including its key players, trends, structure, and relevant business and regulatory issues. It also provides an overview of the state of affairs and insights into the health care industry. The course reflects on issues and challenges that the industry is facing in North America and other parts of the world, and examines strategic solutions the industry is using to overcome them. The overall purpose of this course is not to make learners industry experts, but to help them better understand the health care industry and some of the successful strategies the key players are applying.

Consulting houses, corporations, and small-to-medium-sized enterprises that sell products or services to other sectors and industries; companies looking for knowledge and key business information in the health care industry