Case Study: Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing in a Hospital

This case study analyzes a hospital's outsourcing decisions, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. The report examines the benefits of on-site services, such as increased employee satisfaction and quality control in food services, while also considering the problems that arise when outsourcing. The case study then delves into specific scenarios, including the negative impacts of outsourcing housekeeping services, leading to high employee turnover and quality issues. Finally, it highlights the benefits of outsourcing laundry services, emphasizing affordability, convenience, cost-effectiveness, speed, and professional results. The conclusion stresses the potential cost savings through outsourcing, particularly for services like laundry, and the advantages of collaboration with other organizations to further reduce costs and improve service quality.

Case Study- Outsourcing

INTRODUCTION
Outsourcing can be determined as a process with the help of which organization reduce
their cost. This is done by transferring the part of work to some other firms (Hirschheim, Heinzl
and Dibbern, 2013). There are both advantages as well as disadvantages but the benefits are
more than its merits. Present report is about a hospital which focus on outsource their work but in
doing so they faced negative and positive situations. This report covers the importance and
disadvantage of outsourcing to this organization. Further, in the second scenario why were the
employee turnover high when the firm tries to do the same with housekeeping. Lastly, it also
includes the importance of outsourcing laundry and benefits including another hospital with it.
Advantages of having outsourced work performed within premises
There is a presence of many advantages if outsourced work is performed within the premises. In
case of given hospital setting, it leads to increased employee satisfaction (Oshri, Kotlarsky and
Willcocks, 2015). This is as the staff members felt a sense of ownership and greater connectivity
with the job.
It was further easier for the management to maintain overall food quality followed by ensuring
that risk of contamination is minimized. They also had an increased association with to the
hospital on account of the family atmosphere that was present in kitchen and cafeteria.
The work disruptions due to distance and travelling can further be minimized (Chen, Hong and
Kubik, 2013). This may help the company to cut costs that is likely to be spent on unnecessary
traveling. There is further a reduction in downtime. This may enable the hospital to meet the
food needs of consumers in a quick as well as efficient manner (5 Benefits to Outsourcing On-
Site Technical Support for Your Business, 2015).
Problems of not deciding to have the work performed in house
If another hospital outsourced the food services and decided not to perform the work in house
then it is likely to face many problems (Chen, Li and Lou, 2014). This can be related to increased
employee turnover it is a possibility as the employees may get disheartened and lose connection
with the work as well as hospital.
It may further act as a hindrance with respect to their willingness to perform the job. The change
may further not be acceptable to the employees. On the contrary, but not perform the work in-
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house the hospital could save on the expenses (Feng, Davis and Hubacek, 2013). They may
further utilize the cafeteria for other purposes. These can be in form of warehousing and storage.
Outsourcing in case of housekeeping situation
With respect to the scenario presented in housekeeping, it is better to turn down the offer of
outsourcing. It is on account of several reasons.
Outsourcing the housekeeping service could have led to loss of control on the operational
activities.
It is likely chance that outsourcing might it have led to generation of increased consumer
complaints followed by enhancing the quality issues.
These mat further put a negative impact on the consumers and investors who are linked to the
hospital (Schniederjans, Schniederjans and Schniederjans, 2015). It may also lead to a decreased
brand value, profitability and sales figures. In the long run, there may be creation of competitors
that is likely to prove as a disadvantage for the company.
The hospital is further required to have a clear and constant communication strategy in place.
This is not a possibility in case of housekeeping on account of external interferences.
Outsourcing laundry services
There are many benefits through outsourcing laundry services to hospital, among which
following are the few benefits:
Affordability: Hospital will able to make afford for the laundry. In this context, the laundry
changes are very low and firm will be able to get highly benefited as it is affordable (Hirschheim,
Heinzl and Dibbern, 2013). It is important for the organization to select the firm carefully so that
they may not have to pay extra.
Convenience: There are many types in which the hospital can make their laundry. Firm can
outsource their laundry on weekly basis. This will be helpful in for the firm as they will get their
laundry done within every end of the week.
Cost: It is really cast effective as for doing proper laundry, it is important for the firm to have
dryer and washer (Oshri, Kotlarsky and Willcocks, 2015). In order to buy these things for the
firm will cost high. In this context, by outsourcing laundry firm will be able to save money and
they will be able to get high quality services as well.
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Speed: Laundry work are very quick. Organization will be able to their get their work on the
demanded time. This way hospital will be able to make use of that time on other important thing.
In other work, firm can look up on other works and the laundry work will be done within the
given time.
Professional results: Firm which only look upon laundry work will be professional towards their
work. They will be able to provide high quality services towards their work (Chen, Hong and
Kubik, 2013).
One of the main reasons for rationale for asking to another hospital will be for reducing
cost. It the firm joins up with other organization, then they have to opportunity to reduce the
case of laundry. This will be beneficial for both the hospitals as they will be able to save money.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be articulated that outsourcing is very beneficial for the organizations.
One of the main advantage through outsourcing is that firm can save lots of money. In
accordance with the case, in order to have a proper laundry firm need to have dryer and washer
which is very costly. On the other hand, organization can outsource their laundry and save their
money and moreover they will get high quality services at cheaper rate. Lastly, it can be
concluded that if firm joins with other organization for outsourcing for single thing, then they
will be able to reduce their cost highly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hirschheim, R., Heinzl, A. and Dibbern, J. eds., 2013. Information Systems Outsourcing:
enduring themes, emergent patterns and future directions. Springer Science & Business
Media.
Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J. and Willcocks, L.P., 2015. The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and
Offshoring 3rd Edition. Palgrave Macmillan.
Chen, J., Hong, H. and Kubik, J.D., 2013. Outsourcing mutual fund management: firm
boundaries, incentives, and performance. The Journal of Finance. 68(2). pp.523-558.
Chen, X., Li, J. and Lou, W., 2014. New algorithms for secure outsourcing of modular
exponentiations. Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on. 25(9). pp.2386-
2396.
Feng, K., Davis, S.J. and Hubacek, K., 2013. Outsourcing CO2 within China. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. 110(28). pp.11654-11659.
Schniederjans, M.J., Schniederjans, A.M. and Schniederjans, D.G., 2015. Outsourcing and
insourcing in an international context. Routledge.
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