In that scenario, the manufacturer needs to offer a higher level of service and better quality of product to the health care provider in order to win contracts. Increased competition drives changes in the way that the manufacturers do business, and these changes result in a more value-oriented approach, while retaining an emphasis on providing supplies to the customer. Beyond that, a search of "supply oriented service" turns up nothing, and since all suppliers are in the business of supplying things to their customers, it is hard to envision how that element of the business could possibly be de-emphasized. Value and supply are not mutually exclusive, and can readily co-exist, such that a health care manufacturer would compete by offering supplies at a good value.

Question 2, Student #2. There is no apparent transition at work here. The term "supply oriented service" yields zero hits on Google, which means that the term does not exist in any useful form. Further, the term "value oriented service" is utterly devoid of meaning. All transactions have "value" to both parties. If the transaction did not offer value to one of the parties, then that party would never have entered into the transaction. All companies, by definition, that complete transactions are using a value-based business model. A company that sells nothing to anyone might lack a value offer, but that does not describe any serious ongoing business.

"Supply process" is equally empty. Basically, if some sort of transition in the way that health care materials manufacturers are doing business, this transition needs to be described using accepted terminology, and it needs to be described in such a manner than can be understood.

Question 3.

Obviously, the second question was a major problem.

Given that no transition is coherently described, clearly this "transition" is not necessary. Without backing materials that could support the idea that this industry has changed anything, it is impossible to determine whether the change made sense or not.

Question #3. Obviously, the second question was a major problem. Basically, the prompt contained vague terminology, a false dichotomy and cut far too broad a swatch across a vast industry. There are thousands of types of health care manufacturers, and the reason why any one of them would behave a certain way reflects its...

So the question pertains to a transition that is described so poorly that the major terms cannot even be Googled -- thus it is impossible to understand the transition. Then, the question asks to evaluate rationale, across a massive industry, with no background knowledge of the underlying environmental conditions. The question was the worst one thus far in the semester. Without the needed definitions of key terms and the context behind the question, it is actually not even a fair question on which to evaluate somebody.
The first question, on the other hands, speaks directly to a major issue in health care management. Considering that the industry is still refining the methods by which it is implementing HIPAA, and given that the federal government is focused on expanding the use of electronic health records, this question addresses a timely issue. The subject can be covered in-depth, but for somebody studying health care management, it is valuable to recognize how important the issue of privacy in electronic communication is. Patient privacy is a significantly more complex business now that we have electronic health records, as he prompt describes. Thus, I found the first question was not only fair, but timely, and addressed a key issue in health care management, one that in the real world I will be confronted with frequently.

Works Cited:

HHS.gov (2012). Health information privacy. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved October 10, 2012 from http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/

Medical College of Wisconsin. (2012). Confidentiality and privacy of patient information. Medical College of Wisconsin. Retrieved October 10, 2012 from http://www.mcw.edu/GME/AR/ConfidentialityandPrivacyofPatientInformation.htm

MUSA Technology. (2012). The value-oriented service model. MUSA Technology Partners. Retrieved October 10, 2012 from http://www.musatechnology.com/files/PDF/The_Value_Oriented_Service_Model_-_MUSA_Technology_Partners.pdf