Abstract
Patient well-being after an organ transplant is a major outcome determinant and survival of the graft is crucial. Before surgery, patients are already informed about how they can influence their prognosis, for example by adhering to treatment advice and remaining active. Overall, effective selfmanagement of health-related issues is a major factor in successful long-term graft survival. As such, organ transplant recipients can be considered as co-producers of their own health status. However, although keeping the graft in good condition is an important factor in the patient’s well-being, it is not enough. To have a meaningful life after a solid organ transplant, patients can use their improved health status to once again enjoy time with family and friends, to travel and to return to work -in short to get back on track. Our assertion in this article is twofold. First, healthcare providers should look beyond medical support in enhancing long-term well-being. Second, organ recipients should see themselves as creators of their own well-being. To justify our argument, we use the theoretical perspective of service-dominant logic that states that patients are the true creators of real value-in-use. Or as Bon Jovi sings, “It’s my life and it’s now or never.”
Introduction
In 2021, when the Corona virus pandemic resulted in many planned transplant operations being postponed, around 144,000 organ transplants were still performed globally. Most of these were kidney transplants (66%), followed by liver (24%), heart (6%), and lung (4%). Those 2021 data are based on the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) data, produced by the WHO-ONT collaboration []. Organ transplants are generally the preferred treatment to improve the lives of patients suffering from organ failure [, ]. It is safe to say, thanks to the current high standards in organ transplant procedures, and despite the serious conditions of patients suffering from these life-threatening diseases, that, in 2021, many lives were not only saved but also improved through organ transplants. Through this, many of the organ transplant recipients and their families are now able to resume their life in a more-or-less normal way. This is an impressive worldwide achievement of all the professionals involved.
As an illustration of this, the first author (WS) of this paper is a kidney transplant recipient who has regained his well-being. He has also been a volunteer for the Dutch Kidney Patients Association for over a decade and is therefore familiar with the topic of living well after an organ transplant.
It is important that organ transplant recipients understand their personal responsibility in protecting the functioning of their new organ. In this article we distinguish two domains where patients are responsible. The first domain is “responsibility from a medical perspective,” the second is ‘about “responsibility from a personal well-being perspective.” In the first domain, healthcare professionals encourage patients to take all the necessary steps to protect the functioning of their new organ. This includes adhering to the prescribed medication, maintaining a healthy diet and having sufficient physical activity. This first domain is part of normal medical practice, also referred to as ‘the health factory’ [], and falls within the scope of healthcare services as “diagnosing and treating illness and promoting health.” The second domain is about personal well-being, including quality of life. The sense of well-being has been associated with feelings such as experiencing positive emotions, of having self-control to a certain extent, and a sense of purpose []. In 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) described well-being as a subjective state of mind that goes beyond “the mere absence of disease” and is rather “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” [, ]. Our view is that, within the personal domain, patients create their own value of living, their quality of life, and their feeling of well-being. To justify our argument, we use the theoretical framework of the service-dominant (S-D) logic. S-D logic is a holistic approach to delivering healthcare services with an active role for patients to create value. S-D logic has several similarities and differences compared to the integrated care concept and chronic care management (hereafter referred to as integrated care). In the next section we introduce S-D logic and we compare S-D logic with integrated care. Then, we discuss the relationship between S-D logic and well-being. Finally, we suggest four themes in introducing of the S-D logic in practice.
Service-Dominant Logic and Integrated Care
During the past decades the S-D logic framework has been developed to present a different perspective on value (co-)creation [–]. The traditional view in service innovation on the creation of value has been that providers deliver value to the customer, hence the service provider is the value creator [, ]. The S-D logic, however, distinguishes between value creation from the perspective of the provider and of the customer [, –]. According to the S-D logic, the service provider creates potential value in the provider sphere, whilst the provider and the customer together co-create value in the joint sphere. In healthcare the doctor and the patient interact in the joint sphere and co-creation is realized because doctors and patients know different things and integration of their knowledge and dialogue may lead to improved and personalized interventions []. Furthermore, the patient, in this case the organ recipient, is the independent creator of value-in-use (real value) in the customer sphere (Figure 1, adapted from Grönroos and Voima []). Once dismissed from the hospital after surgery the patient is on his own and, beyond self-management on health-related issues, is working hard to regain his normal life activities. This is all done in the customer sphere and highly determines the patient’s well-being.
FIGURE 1
A central theme in the S-D logic is “value-in-use” (or real value), stressing that a service in itself has no value and that value comes from its use. For transplant recipients this means that after surgery and the first recovery they resume their lives as well as possible. Patients are the creators of value and well-being in their personal lives, for instance by getting back to work. The S-D logic, with value-in-use as the core value-driver, has already been applied to healthcare [
S-D logic can be compared with the integrated care approach. Integrated care is a well-known approach in healthcare service delivery and was developed as an answer to fragmented specialization in healthcare and especially adds value to the service of patients with chronic care needs [
We argue that integrated care, in terms of S-D logic, is mainly focused on the joint sphere (Figure 1), the area where a variety of healthcare providers and patients interact. Where integrated care models promote a system that delivers coordinated and optimal care for and together with patients, S-D logic considers the patient as an asset, an active producer of value. We argue that this is a different way to patient involvement than described in current integrated care models. In integrated care the patient is a receiver of care whereas in the service-dominant logic approach patients are (co-)creators of value in their home environment and doctors are considered as facilitators, enabling patients to create value. We argue that this is an important and valuable addition to the role of the patient in healthcare services that aim to improve patients’ well-being. Therefore, the implementation of the S-D logic in healthcare offers a different perspective on service for patients than the paradigm that the set of medical interventions themselves deliver value, which we feel is the common premise of integrated care. A quote from an oncologist illustrates this: “Oncology practice provides treatment, but that is a fraction of the patients’ needs” [
Well-Being of Organ Transplant Recipients
If we consider the organ recipients’ well-being from the S-D logic perspective and in terms of value-in-use, we can argue that well-being is created by the organ recipients themselves after discharge from the hospital and independent of the monitoring by healthcare professionals. This creation of value by organ transplant recipients is a process that evolves out of the sight of the medical profession. During the period when patients are restoring their sense of well-being, for instance by once again socializing with their family, finding the energy to read a book, enjoying cooking, visiting cinemas and theatres, continuing their studies, reintegrating into the workplace and daring to travel again, the well-functioning of their new organ facilitates this process. In essence, this is the key message of the S-D logic: medical health services, providing diagnoses, surgery, and aftercare, should be seen as facilitators (or enablers) for patients to attain the highest possible level of well-being. The organ transplant is an indispensable starting point for patients to regain their lives, but after the operation, they have to move forward themselves. We were told of a case of a nephrologist who asked a kidney transplant patient during a regular consultation: “How are you doing?”, and the patient responded, “I think my kidney is doing well.” However, this was not what the nephrologist, who was also interested in the broader context of the patient’s well-being, meant. For the professional, the most important outcome of an organ transplant is also that organ recipients regain their lives. Although this point of view may not be groundbreaking, to serve organ recipients based on the S-D logic raises some issues. We therefore now discuss four themes related to the introduction of the S-D logic in the daily practice of organ transplant actions: the awareness that healthcare providers are facilitators, the complex process of achieving well-being, managing an S-D logic-oriented service network and rethinking value-based healthcare.
Healthcare Providers Are Facilitators
First, transplant healthcare providers (tHCPs) should acknowledge that they are a crucial, but not the only, part of their patients’ struggles to regain their lives. While tHCPs offer potential value, this still has to be converted into value-in-use by their patients. The tHCP’s role is to facilitate patients to give meaning to their lives, and a successful complex health intervention such as an organ transplant alone is not enough. In addition to saving a life, tHCPs can have an important role in patients having a life. After providing a correct diagnosis, an organ transplant and high-quality care, the creation of real value by the organ transplant recipient continues. Here, value-in-use should be focused on well-being, which is up to the patient, possibly with support of other, possibly non-medical, facilitating health services. For instance, it is acknowledged that having a job is an important factor in a patient’s feeling of well-being [
The Complex Process of Achieving Well-Being
Second, it needs to be recognized that creating well-being is a process that involves various actors surrounding the sphere of the patient, and that achieving patients’ psychological ownership of their well-being is complex [
Managing an S-D Logic-Oriented Service Network Partnership
Third, management has the responsibility to make decisions on the scope of services to be offered by the organization, either at the unit (department) or at the organization (hospital) level. The scope of services that are offered beyond medical care should be discussed. These extended services should aim to support organ recipients in creating well-being in their daily lives. For instance, since employment is considered an important influence on well-being [
Rethinking Value-Based Healthcare
Fourth, when adopting the value-in-use paradigm, there is a need to rethink the concept of value-based healthcare (VBHC). Value-based healthcare focuses on ‘what matters most to patients’ and relates these outcomes to costs [
Conclusion
The well-being of organ transplant recipients is not only realized through good medical practice. Keeping the graft in good condition and sustaining long-term graft survival are important facilitators for organ recipients to regain their lives. Embracing the paradigm of S-D logic by the professional transplant community may lead to a supportive healthcare service system that in addition to high medical quality transplants, also takes into consideration the capabilities of transplant recipients to regain their daily life, in all its aspects. After all, transplant recipients could sing along with Bon Jovi “It’s my life and it’s now or never.”
Statements
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
WS drafted the original manuscript, MdJ and KA provided feedback on different versions of the manuscript. All authors were involved during the whole process from idea generation until finishing the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
service-dominant logic, organ transplant, value creation, quality of life, value-based healthcare
Citation
Sipma WS, de Jong MFC and Ahaus KCTB (2023) “It’s My Life and It’s Now or Never”—Transplant Recipients Empowered From a Service-Dominant Logic Perspective. Transpl Int 36:12011. doi: 10.3389/ti.2023.12011
Received
05 September 2023
Accepted
14 December 2023
Published
22 December 2023
Volume
36 - 2023
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© 2023 Sipma, de Jong and Ahaus.
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*Correspondence: Wim S. Sipma, sipma@eshpm.eur.nl
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