RELIGIOUS HEALTH CARE

HSA 300

Introduction

Religious Health Care is a not for profit organization. It serves the Middleville community. Samaritan Hospital and Protestant Hospital are other two important organizations which are having religious origins. Religious Health care governing board hire a consulting firm to measure and evaluate the strategic performance of the organization. The leaders of Religious units were also asked about their point of view about organization’s performance. As the part of the consultant team, I am responsible to generate the response for complementing organizational performance so that leader can further proceed with CEO and governing head to evaluate the strategic performance of the organization. As per rule of the firm to suggest correction with criticism, it is important to recommend important corrections to improve the core functions of the organization. This paper is relate to the study of important elements to improve core organizational functions, key performance dimensions for performance improvement, performance measures for measuring staff performance, strategies for improving public image, increasing market share and technology based data collection strategies will be studied in order to bring strategic reforms in Religious Health Care.

1. Describe the five (5) important elements of the governing board’s agenda for areas of improvement in core functions.

The five important governing board agenda elements to brought improvement in the core function area include the following:

The first element of governing board agenda is to ensure the planned service of nursing. It must not only plan but also need to be implemented and evaluated in order to ensure the safe and high quality of care to the life of the residents. In this way a trust can be built among care receivers.

Second element of governing board agenda is to ensure the planning, implementation and evaluation of social service program in organization. It is important to meet the social and psychological needs of residents (Thomas, Clark & Gioia, 1993). It will ensure other that the organization is giving preference to the residence in order to maximize the quality of care. It will create a positive image among public.

Third one is to ensure the planning, implementation and evaluation of food service program. It will ensure that the organization is governing their efforts toward the resident’s nutritional needs which will lead the organization towards the maximization of quality of life and care.

Forth element of governing body is to ensure the planning, implementation and evaluation of program based on therapeutic recreation/activity. It is important to meet the needs of residents and build their interest towards the organization by achieving high quality of care and life.

Fifth important element is to ensure the planning, implementation and evaluation of the pharmaceutical program to support resident’s medical care. It will provide support to increase the quality of life and care.

2. Describe three (3) key performance dimensions (other than those mentioned here) and include specific measures that Religious Health Care could use to improve overall institutional performance.

Numerous performance dimensions are used by organization to improve the overall performance of the organization. There are various performance dimensions which are used to measure performance includes following:

The first performance dimension is the “cost of care”. This dimension has basic focus on the measurement of the services which is provided under the health care plan. Information is gathered on the bases of rate of certain kinds of trends, high cost facilities and high occurrence of some cost. The costs of various health care interventions are also managed by medical management. the medical manager must take specific interest on how this cost was specifically planned and how it is actually implemented . Management must take interest to compare the cost with others.

The second dimension of performance which Religious Health care could use is the “effectiveness of care”. This measure has main focus on the clinical care which is provided to the patient and the result which has been achieved from it (Slater & Narver, 1995). For example, the effectiveness of care can be measured by this fact that is there examination of eyes is provided to the individual who was admitted for the screening of breast cancer or having diabetes issue or follow up provided to somehow one who as hospitalized due to mental illness or the eye checkup to the children who has any form of infection. This measure is very beneficial to access the fact that how effectively an organization is performing.

Third dimension which could be used by Religious Health Care is the satisfaction with care experience. It focuses on the fact that how well the plan is meeting the various needs of the health care populations. It measures the level of satisfaction. A satisfaction survey could be done with in standardize members and multiple questions will be asked in order to measure the satisfaction of population (Winstanley & Stuart-Smith, 1996). Health care population includes the health care receivers who want quality and satisfactory care from the organization.

3. Determine the performance measures Religious Health Care could use to evaluate nursing staff performance in its Emergency Room. Explain the rationale for each performance measure.

Nursing staff is an important part of any health care organization. It plays an important role in regulating organizational performance and satisfying the needs of health care population. It is very important to train the nursing staff and measure and evaluate their performance in order to attain the maximum performance level with in organization. Emergency room is a critical department of every health care organization. The nursing staffs in this department are required to be efficient in order to provide maxium support in health care treatment. Some measures which can be used by Religious Health Care to evaluate the performance of nursing staff in Emergency room are following:

Nurses in Emergency room must be registered and must have the specific skills and knowledge in order to perform their task effectively and efficiently. They are required to use their skills in effective manner in order to a safe care to the patients. Orientation and transition programs have been organized in Individual emergency departments in order to provide a complete structure for nursing practice development. It must need the standards of safe and effective care within organization.

Other measure which can be used to train the nursing staff in Emergency department includes accessing the competency which ensures that the individual which is in the emergency room is qualified enough to offer the professional services to the patients who need them. It is important to access their abilities to provide the health care service to the patients inside the emergency room. It can be done through theoretical assessment in the case of presentation. It ensures that the situations that are happening are taken seriously. It also ensures the quality of care provided by the nurses and ensures that there is no report about the poor performances of nurses.

4. Suggest the steps that should be taken next by Religious Health Care to get better at managing specific patient groups. Explain the rationale for each step.

Certain steps need to follow to manage the group of specific patients with in the Religious Health Care in order to solve the problems within the organization. These are following:

The first step is to understand the needs of patients which are essential and which is important to help them accordingly.

Secondly, after understanding the problems faced by specific group, nurses must be trained enough to provide them the services according to their requirements and according to the informed point of view. By understanding the point of view of specific groups, it can be possible to provide them a better service.

Thirdly, this must be ensured that this group of specific patient is satisfies and closely takes care of.

It is necessary to have special nurses who are the specialist in required field in order to provide the specialised services to the patients and can deal with them with competence.

Additionally, it is better to treat the patients of this specific group individually. Individual attention to them makes them able to feel special and solve their issues. It is important to look at their needs keenly (Ling, Franklin, Lindsteadt & Gearon, 1992). Close attention towards them make it possible to provide a good solution to their problems and solved their problems amicably.

Lastly, these patients must be accorded the right care which must ensure their absolutely good conditions. This will imply that these patients have been recovered fully.

5. Decide what strategies Religious Health Care could implement to enhance its public image and increase market share. Explain the rationale for each strategy.

The strategy which is important for Religious Health Care to implement in the organization in order to create a good public image and increase the market share includes:

It is the group of personnel’s which must be qualified and competent enough to meet the needs of health care receivers. People seek their services because they have trust on them. To retain such image it is very important to provide effective and efficient service to the health care population. Their need s must be recognized and satisfied in order to build their trust and create a positive image. It is important to generate the policy which ensures high quality care to the public. Mutual trust, honesty and efficiency in services are important elements to build a strong relationship between management and client of facilities.

There should be the smooth flow of information between staff, client and management. It is only possible in the case of creation of good channels of communication between concerned parties (Rezgui & Marks, 2008). It is important to share information for smooth running of operations in facilities. It will create positive image among the health care providers and receivers’.

6. Describe two (2) technology-based data-collection strategies that Religious Health Care could use to conduct an internal management audit.

Religious Health Care could use the following technology based data collection strategies to conduct internal management audits:

Metric stream solution is the technological solution which can be used to collect data to enable auditors to record quantitative and qualitative findings along with observation. It must have detailed and predefined format of recommendations (Blumberg, 2002). Their still also be checklist criteria for evaluation. All the operations must be computerized in facility. It will reduce the chance for errors and omissions and reduce the chance for loss of information or problems in retrieving information. In such kind of technology implementation, information can be audited easily.

Conclusion

Health care sector is one of a most important sector, which is required to be managed in appropriate way in order to build a trust among public. Religious Health Care is a not for profit organization. Enhanced Public image and social welfare programs are the most important factors behind organizational success. It is important to evaluate the performance of the organization in order to meet the success and to overcome the issues related to organization. Individual performance plays an important role in enhancing organizational performance.

References

Blumberg, D. F. (2002). Managing high-tech services using a CRM strategy. CRC Press.

Ling, J. C., Franklin, B. A., Lindsteadt, J. F., & Gearon, S. A. (1992). Social marketing: its place in public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 13(1), 341-362.

Slater, S. F., & Narver, J. C. (1995). Market orientation and the learning organization. The Journal of Marketing, 63-74.

Thomas, J. B., Clark, S. M., & Gioia, D. A. (1993). Strategic sensemaking and organizational performance: Linkages among scanning, interpretation, action, and outcomes. Academy of management Journal, 36(2), 239-270.

Rezgui, Y., & Marks, A. (2008). Information security awareness in higher education: An exploratory study. Computers & Security, 27(7), 241-253.

Winstanley, D., & Stuart-Smith, K. (1996). Policing performance: the ethics of performance management. Personnel Review, 25(6), 66-84.

Religious Health Care operates in a community of 225,000, called Middleville. Summary statistics on Religious and its competitors, from the AHA Guide, are shown in Table 1. All of the organizations in the area are not-for-profit. Although Samaritan Hospital and Protestant Hospital have religious origins, they now view themselves as secular, not-for-profit organizations.

Table 1: Middleville Health Care Systems

Name	Beds	Admissions	Census	OP Visits	Births	Expenses (000)	Personnel
Religious	575	13,000	350	221,000	2300	$125,000	2000
Samaritan	380	17,000	260	175,000	1200	$130,000	1875
Protestant	350	10,000	180	40,000	900	$80,000	1200

The governing board of Religious hired a consulting company to evaluate its strategic performance. As part of the consultant’s evaluation, several leaders of Religious’ units were asked their perspective of the organization’s performance.

You are working for the consultant. Your job is to identify the issues from the response that should be considered further by the consultant team and possibly discussed with the governing board and the CEO. The firm has a rule, Never offer a criticism or negative finding without suggesting how the client organization can correct it,” so you must indicate what sort of correction would be recommended as part of your list. Because you know there were about two dozen other interviews, you decide you should rank your issues in importance, to make sure the most critical are discussed.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Describe the five (5) important elements of the governing board’ s agenda for areas of improvement in core functions.
2. Many organizations now use a balanced scorecard or multiple dimensions of performance measurement, such as productivity, profit, market trends, quality, patient satisfaction, and worker satisfaction. Describe three (3) key performance dimensions (other than those mentioned here) and include specific measures that Religious Health Care could use to improve overall institutional performance.
3. Determine the performance measures Religious Health Care could use to evaluate nursing staff performance in its Emergency Room. Explain the rationale for each performance measure.
4. Suggest the steps that should be taken next by Religious Health Care to get better at managing specific patient groups. Explain the rationale for each step.
5. Decide what strategies Religious Health Care could implement to enhance its public image and increase market share. Explain the rationale for each strategy.
6. Describe two (2) technology-based data-collection strategies that Religious Health Care could use to conduct an internal management audit.
7. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Explain how public policy has shaped the development of the U.S. healthcare system.
• Examine how healthcare management concepts and theories are applied to critical issues in healthcare organizations.
• Analyze the critical management issues, purpose, functions, and performance measures of different departments within healthcare organizations.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health services organization management.
• Write clearly and concisely about health services organization management using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.