Orthopaedic rehabilitation--the new marketing concept of value chain

With patients increasing demand on quality of life, the development in orthopaedic rehabilitation is inevitable. As an important part of overall treatment process, rehabilitation is essential for orthopaedic value chain. The integrity of the value chain can lead to high standards of health care and will keep the advantage of orthopaedic in today's competitive market. The Sichuan earthquake in 2008 shows that the patients need long term and comprehensive orthopaedics rehab services apart from ortho-paedic surgeries, so that they can resume their living ability and return to society. Moreover, the ageing trend, GDP growth and improvement on healthcare system in China show a great potential in rehabilitation industry. And the market of orthopaedics is uge. It is worth thinking that how we can seize the opportunity to let orthopaedic take the lead in the competitive medical market. In the rapid development, the orthopaedic field has to review its own development model. Apart from a comprehensive value chain with 4A supply chain concepts, the ability to heal the patients, patients' accessibility to service information, consideration of patients' affordability are needed. By improving the flow of orthopaedic rehab, the orthopaedic value chain can be enhanced, including reducing the time patients have to stay in hospital, improving the treatment effect, making the management more systematic, doing more promotion, enlarging the network, following the country's healthcare insurance scheme. As patients have higher demand for life quality, they have greater expectation on orthopaedic doctors, surgeries and medicines alone cannot provide the best rehabilitation. After leaving hospital, patients need to be referred to community healthcare institutions to have rehab treatment. Orthopae-dics rehab is an important part in orthopaedic treatments. The ideal value chain is to gather experts, resources, services and equipment, to make medical service more smooth. Thus the impact of surgeries and medical effectiveness will increase. Patients will give positive feedbacks because of the good rehab experience. This can enhance the branding and image of hospital and department. Patients, medical professionals and hospitals will all be benefited.