Boston Children\'s Hospital Has Become an Important

¶ … Boston Children's Hospital has become an important location in assisting children to deal with a host of issues ranging from cancer treatment options to transplants. According to U.S. News and World Report, it is ranked as the number one facility for helping children to address a host of issues. This is having a positive impact on their lives by offering them with state of the art treatment options in a caring environment. ("Why Chose Boston Children's Hospital," 2013) ("Number One Ranked Pediatric Facility," 2013)

To fully understand how the facility is able to adjust with different changes requires focusing on the way they are evolving with health management issues and real life problems. Together, these different elements will highlight the challenges facing the hospital and what steps they are taking to deal with them. It is at this point when these factors will demonstrate those specific ideas that helped to make them successful over the long-term. ("Why Chose Boston Children's Hospital," 2013) ("Number One Ranked Pediatric Facility," 2013)

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How they are adjusting to health management issues?

The keys that make Boston Children's Hospital so successful, is they are a nonprofit organization. This means that they are not answerable to shareholders. Instead they are concentrating on meeting a number of objectives including:

Providing high quality health care.

Working with the community to enhance the well-being and health of children.

Conducting cutting edge research.

Training a large number of doctors and nurses to effectively meet the needs of stakeholders.

The combination of these factors has created a foundation of principles which help to guide the facility over the long-term. This is allowing everyone to understand the needs of children and to quickly adapt with changes inside the field of health care. ("About Us," 2013)

Moreover, the facility has been at the forefront for innovation for over 140 years. In the last several decades, they were playing a major part in helping to improve the treatment options children are receiving in a number of areas. To include: leukemia, heart disease, transplants, spinal cord injuries, brain tumors, short bowel syndrome, new born seizures, implants, sudden infant death syndrome and many more. These different factors are allowing the hospital to effectively compete and understand the challenges impacting others. It is at this point when the staff has been able to offer patients with better treatment options and improve their overall rates of survival. This has helped the facility to stand out based upon the innovative treatment options they are offering everyone. ("Historic Milestone," 2013) ("About Us," 2013)

Evidence of this can be seen with comments from Sandy Fenwick (the President and Chief Operating Officer) who said, "I've worked at Boston Children's Hospital for more than a decade, and I'm still inspired every day by the hope and strength I see on the faces of our patients and their families. As Boston Children's navigates a challenging and evolving healthcare landscape I draw on that inspiration and determination, especially when some healthcare discussions seem to imply that cost is the only measure of a hospital's worth." This is demonstrating how Boston's Children Hospital is able to adjust with critical challenges by understanding the needs of patients and offering state of the art solutions for addressing them. When this happens, everyone is able to benefit and live normal lives. This makes the facility an invaluable part of the community. ("A Message from Sandy Fenwick," 2013)

Furthermore, the facility has a number of established partnerships. The most notable include:

Academic affiliations with 27 medical schools and institutions throughout New England.

Conducting research with a number of facilities such as: Harvard Medical School, MIT Health Sciences & Technology, the Broad Institute, the Autism Consortium and Boston University.

Close working relationships with: the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

A network of affiliations established through various community hospitals within the state of Massachusetts.

Community health programs with: the Boston Public Schools, the Community Asthma Initiative and their own Children's Advocacy Network.

These different areas are showing how the facility was able to adjust with new challenges by having greater amounts of flexibility and quickly adapting to new challenges. When this happens, the staff can offer stakeholders with better treatment options for a variety of conditions. This is illustrating how Boston Children's Hospital is continually focusing on understanding the needs of stakeholders and offering solutions for addressing them. When this happens, everyone is able to more effectively adapt with new challenges they are facing over the long-term.

Challenges

The passage of the Affordable Care Act will have an impact on Boston Children's Hospital. This is because the majority of patients are using this as a form of assistance to be able to help pay for a variety of services. However, the expansion of the program will mean that the facility will face increasing demand. This could place added pressures on staff to continue to offer the same kind of quality to stakeholders. (Herman, 2012)

At the same time, there is the possibility that these programs could face political pressures from reduced funding in the future. This will occur with elected officials making cuts to different services provided by Medicaid in select areas on the state level. Moreover, various government officials could reduce the fees that are being paid by someone who is using these programs. In some cases, this may result in states deciding that they may want to opt out of supporting these patients. (Herman, 2012)

This will have a negative impact on the bottom line results for the facility. As they must address challenges from reduced amounts of coverage in certain areas and seek out new solutions for helping these patients in the future. When this happens, it could place added pressures on their ability to quickly make adjustments with changes in these programs. This is the point that the underlying amounts of care they are providing will begin to steadily decline. In the future, this means that Boston Children's Hospital must understand how to address these challenges and continually evolve. This is the key for ensuring the economic viability of the facility and it will determine the quality of services that are provided to a variety of stakeholders. (Herman, 2012)

What Steps is Boston Children's Hospital taking to adjust with them?

The steps that Boston Children's Hospital is taking to adjust with these challenges is focusing on understanding what is important to stakeholders and implementing solutions that will address them. This is occurring through seeking out innovative programs in the areas of research / development, enhancing the quality of care, financial assistance and identifying new transformations early. It is at this point when staff members can help to improve the lives of families and children through taking this approach. As a result, the emphasis on flexibility and quickly evolving with new challenges is what has helped to keep them at the forefront for innovation. ("Historic Milestone," 2013) ("About Us," 2013) ("Partnerships," 2013)