QuickMedx Inc.: “McDoc-in-the-box”
QuickMedx Inc. offers fast and convenient testing centers for common ailments and illnesses at a low cost. The company has grown due to innovations in the value chain by concentrating on improvement in inbound logistics, operations, and outbound logistics. However, multiple challenges are facing QuickMedx Inc., the issue of retaining employees, improving market share, and how to work with insurance companies. In order to overcome these obstacles QuickMedx Inc. must develop a program for retaining important employees, expand to new locations and foster growth in current locations, in order to improve market share, and improve upon the current partnering with insurance companies. This case brief will address these issues by focusing on value chain innovations, improvements required to continue growth, and in which direction the company should pursue to increase its worth.
Value Chain Innovations
In reference to Porters value chain, the innovations of QuickMedx Inc. are mostly comprised in the primary sector. Inbound logistics have been improved, when compared to a primary-care facility, in that the patients self-diagnose their problems prior to being seen by the nurse practitioner (NP). This eliminates the time and money spent on diagnosis and enables expedited care for the patient. Further improvement is obtained by situating the test centers in stores that contain pharmacies. This enables one stop convenience for QuickMedx’s customers, a value adding activity that saves both time and money for the shopper. Furthermore, the operations of the NP have been greatly simplified to only include tests for illness’ that give fast and definite results. In consequence, the average throughput time for a patient has been reduced to 10 minutes, allowing the test center to service a large number of people. This low cost and high throughput approach is how QuickMedx generates value. These improvements are what allow the company to...