Health care systems and practices

Health Care

A major challenge that a variety of health care organizations has been continually facing is regulatory and ethical issues. This is because these kinds of entities have become inundated with: a wave of new patients and increasing demand from the community. Part of the reason for this, is because of shifts have been occurring with the Baby Boomers becoming older and new immigrants seeking out health care services. These two factors have meant that a number of facilities around the country are often inundated with patients. (Hoy, 2010) During the process of working with everyone is when various instance of discrimination and lack of caring can occur. Once this begins to take place, it means that medical errors will increase and the quality of treatment will decline. This is the point that a hospital can fall into a downward spiral that will affect its reputation and long-term viability. To avoid this kind of situation requires that administrators take dramatic action by effectively addressing the roots causes of these problems. To achieve this objective requires looking at: the problem itself, conducting a SWOT analysis, discussing the strategy and examining organizational intervention approaches. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights as to how we can be able to transform our health organization.

Briefly describe your chosen final project case study scenario.

Currently, the hospital has become a large bureaucracy that is unresponsive to the needs of the patients or the community itself. Evidence of this can be seen with the increased amounts of errors that have been reported over the last several months. The most disturbing is that treatment is not being properly accounted for and there are instances of discrimination. These two factors mean that a shift has occurred in the attitude of staff and inside the culture of the facility itself. Where, patients are seen as a number and there are no kinds of effective financial controls. These two elements will cause the underlying costs for providing treatment to skyrocket. Over the course of time, this will eat away at the financial foundation of the hospital (possibly creating a liquidity crisis down the road). To avoid these kinds of situations, we need to tackle this attitude of not caring. This has become a part of the operating environment of the facility from the top all the way to the bottom. As a result, our approach will strategically go after those causes that are contributing to these problems.

Identify the problems (organizational and regulatory or ethical issue) and its impact on the health care organization.

The biggest issues facing the health care organization is that it is a combination of: organizational, regulatory and ethical problems. The way that it is organizational is within the structure of how health care services are delivered. As, there are two forces at work: a lack of team work and communication. This is problematic, because it means that there are no effective cost controls in place. As far as regulatory is concerned, there is a bureaucratic structure in place that is unresponsive to the needs of patients. From an ethical standpoint, the staff is uncaring and refuses to help the most vulnerable patients they are seeing. These different elements are important, because they are illustrating how this is slowly decreasing the quality of services that are being provided. At the same time, this has been causing the underlying costs to increase and the profit margins of the facility to decline. This is problematic, because this can mean that the hospital will face the possibility of bankruptcy down the road.

Discuss your SWOT analysis or needs assessment of the health care organization (include these tools in the appendix section, if used).

To determine the needs and the possible challenges that are facing the facility requires conducting a SWOT analysis. This will help us to identify precise factors that can be used to address the problem and improve the reputation of the hospital. There are a number of different strengths that the organization has going for it to include: they have a history with the community, a reputation known for quality in the past and management has been able to provide these services in a cost effective manner.

The weaknesses facing the organization include: there is a culture of inefficiency and complacency. This is working like a cancer that is creating sloppiness in every department. At the same time, management's inability to adjust to changes that are taking place is adding to these frustrations.

Despite some of these issues, the hospital has a number of opportunities some of the most notable include: they are a part of the community, they have a reputation for providing outstanding service in the past and management has a proven track record of being at the forefront of medicine.

The possible threats facing the facility include: bankruptcy, layoffs, increase medical malpractice lawsuits, an increase in malpractice insurance, infighting among the staff, regulatory issues, declining care, soaring costs and declining profits. These different elements could eventually lead to the sale or closure of the facility if they are not addressed as soon as possible. ("SWOT Analysis," 2010)

When you step back and analyze the different needs of the hospital, it is clear that it requires effective leadership. They will have the job of changing the culture at the facility and improving the overall quality of services that are being provided. This means they will have to form alliances and blend in with the current culture to make these changes occur from within. Once this occurs, it will effectively address all of the pressing needs facing the facility.

Discuss your action plan:

Organizational improvement strategies (provide a minimum of three strategies).

To deal with the various challenges facing the hospital there are three different strategies that you can use to include: teambuilding, creating a change agent and internal organizational performance. Teambuilding is when you are forging various alliances with staff members about promoting changes within the organization. They will serve as a go between for the individuals in each department and the upper levels of management. Where, they can ensure that the needs and concerns of various staff members are addressed. At the same time, they can help to identify areas to improve treatment and reduce costs. They also can provide specific recommendations on what kinds of polices should be implemented to deal with the various challenges facing the facility. (Bennis, 1969)

Creating a change agent is when you are working with everyone to understand why they want to adjust. This will help to identify motivations that are beyond financial, to improve the motivation among the staff. For example, if someone has satisfaction in their work from the differences that they are making in patients' lives, this will push them to embrace these changes. This is important, because understanding these thoughts and using them as a way to motivate everyone will help to improve the overall quality of care that is being provided. At the same time, it will address issues of discrimination that are occurring at the facility. (Bennis, 1969)

Improving organizational performance is when you are looking at specific factors that could have an impact on the way everyone is interacting with one another. A few of the most notable include: communication, team work, leadership, trust and effective cooperation. These different factors are important, because understanding them will help us to be able to identify ways to improve collaboration among the staff. Once this occurs, it means that the facility can be able to have some kind of effective cost controls and they are improving upon the quality of care that is being provided. (Bennis, 1969)

Discuss your organizational plan for intervention (in other words, what you plan to do, who will do it, timeframe, expectations, and so on).

The organizational plan for the intervention is to identify areas where changes need to occur and what are the views about these shifts. The way that this will be accomplished is through the use of anonymous surveys. This will ask staff members and patients about what areas they see need to be improved. The time frame for the survey will be approximately three weeks. This will provide us with real time information about the major issues and how they could be addressed. ("Online Customer Surveys," 2011)

During the process of conducting the surveys, managers will be on the lookout for key allies in the staff. Their objective is to working with the individuals to support some kind of change at the team level. This will address specific problems that have been contributing to the various issues facing the facility. These various allies will eventually form a committee that will oversee the changes that are occurring at the hospital.

Over the next six months, the committee will begin making changes to different policies and procedures that will address the underlying challenges facing the facility. Some of the biggest changes include: having everyone work together to avoid errors, increasing cultural sensitivity training for staff members, implementing an effective cost control system, eliminating those procedures that are not in demand, implementing cutting edge treatments that will bring new customers to the facility and creating an atmosphere of putting the customer first.

The expectations for these kinds of changes will be to see gradual shifts at first. Where, it may not seem like anything is changing at the facility. However, over the course of time, these kinds of changes will be obvious in the quality of treatment that is being provided will improve. As a result, the strategy will take approximately one year to fully implement a change in the atmosphere of the operating environment.

To ensure that these improvements can continue to be built upon a new system will be introduced of monitoring for shifts that are occurring. In this case, the committee that was established to implement these changes will become way of: monitoring the kinds of treatment that is being provided and the challenges that are facing the facility. This will be accomplished by having outside consultants conduct anonymous surveys of patients, staff members and within the community. They would then present their findings and formal recommendations about what kind of changes need to be implemented. This will help to ensure that the facility is able to keep up with the changes and is effectively responding to the needs of patients along with staff members. In the general, these kinds of reviews will be conducted once a year and will they will be a top to bottom assessment of the entire facility. This is significant, because this will ensure that the hospital is able to adapt to any kind of shifts that are occurring in the community or the industry. (Badrick, 2002, pp. 281 -- 286)

Conclusion

Clearly, the above strategy can be able to transform the health care facility. This is because; it is specifically focusing on certain aspects that are causing the underlying amounts of care and costs to increase. Most notably: treatment is not being properly accounted for and there are instances of discrimination. This is problematic, because it can dramatically impact the quality of services that are being provided, the reputation of the hospital in the community and it can cause the costs to increase exponentially. These different elements are important, because they are showing the underlying problems facing the facility over the long-term.