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The use of digital reward systems is facilitated by the previous decades’ extensive digitization. Organizations now find themselves in an age where comprehensive IT-infrastructures are already in place. Thus, one can talk about a post digitization era with novel prerequisites as regards IT and performance measurements. The current paper acknowledges this and investigates the new conditions for measuring performance and rewarding certain behaviors in health care. In other words, the paper examines possible benefits and risks in connection to digitally based reward systems in health care.
The results of the study reveal several areas where the present stage of digitization allows for innovative use of reward systems. Also, even though health care differs from revenue driven corporate organizations in many respects, the traditional reward system concept can be modified and applied to health care. Furthermore, the rewards do not have to be financial, instead they might consist of, for instance, official displays of appreciation from management, favorable resource allocation, and various perquisites such as interesting conferences and social events. A crucial condition for digital reward systems to be fruitful is that organizations define, measure, valuate and evaluate input, output and performance appropriately. This too is affected by the present stage of digitization.
Given that adequate measures are established and accepted, there are really no technical limits to how input, output, and performance can be measured, valuated, and evaluated. This, in turn, can contribute to enhanced cost efficiency, productivity, and health care quality. It is, however, important to recognize that health care has some unique features that call for careful consideration. For instance, output from health care processes is difficult to define and measure, and health care is built on strict and comprehensive moral and ethic codes that do not always mix well with striving for efficiency.
Keywords:
reward systems, post digitization, information technology, health care
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