Moving from service to sustainable services: a healthcare case study

Purpose - Worldwide, healthcare systems struggle to sustain the delivery of services at a time of increasing demand, limited resources and growing expectations from users, coupled with dealing with the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of other outbreaks. There has never been a more important time to sustain innovation and improvements. Using an illustrative case, the authors assess the application of two existing frameworks to identify the key propositions and dimensions required to deliver sustainable services. Design/methodology/approach - This illustrative case study focuses on a service provided by a chronic disease, multidisciplinary community healthcare team in the UK. Experienced-based interviews were conducted with health professionals, patients and relatives to provide a rich account of a care pathway design. A high-level process map is used to visualise the key touch points. Findings - The authors identify all seven propositions of the SERVICE framework being present along with additional dimensions relating to sustaining innovation and improvement. Research limitations/implications - This research is limited to a chronic disease care pathway. However, the authors believe the results could be applicable to other medical conditions, which are supported by a similar multi-disciplinary service delivery model. Practical implications - The authors provide a sustainable public service operations SERVICES framework for health professionals and managers to consider when (re)designing care pathways. Originality/value - This research contributes to the emerging discipline of public service operations research by empirically testing for the first time the SERVICE framework within healthcare. The authors have included additional factors associated with innovation and improvement and recommended further development of the framework to include factors, such as economic sustainability, highly relevant to the context of universal healthcare systems.