Compassion as a competitive advantage in South Africa's dialysis healthcare industry.

Abstract

In the competitive dialysis industry in South Africa, dialysis organizations are required to useinnovative strategic initiatives to maintain or improve their positions as industry and marketleaders. The research aimed to understand the benefits of compassion towards individualpatients and the organization, as well as investigated if these benefits contribute to acompetitive advantage. Compassion in the dialysis healthcare industry is providing empathiccare and support to patients receiving dialysis treatment. This method prioritizescomprehension, compassion, and profound empathy towards the physical, emotional, andpsychological difficulties experienced by patients with kidney failure undergoing dialysis.This qualitative study employed semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants from adialysis organization in South Africa. The interviews consisted of direct questioning usingopen-ended questions to gather participant observations and experiences in the dialysishealthcare industry. A purposive sampling approach was used to choose the eighteenparticipants ranging from junior to executive management. The data was subjected to athematic analysis to discover the underlying themes.The study findings indicated that compassion may provide benefits for both the individualpatients and the organization, including enhancements in quality of life, patient experience,staff engagement, and physician engagement. Furthermore, the research underscored thesignificance of value-based care and patient-centred care, which provide advantages for bothindividual patients and dialysis organizations in South Africa.The study indicated that compassion provided a competitive advantage to dialysisorganizations in South Africa by adopting either a cost focused or differentiation focusedcompetitive strategy within the paradigm of Porter's generic competitive strategies. Based onthese findings, it is recommended that dialysis organizations implement a structured programto teach and encourage compassion, integrate compassion into the organization's culture,assess and track compassionate practices, and utilize technology to enhance compassionatecare