Healthcare Organization Research Essay Paper
Healthcare Organization Research Essay Paper
Research a health care organization or network that spans several states with in the United States (United Healthcare, Vanguard, Banner Health, etc.). Assess the readiness of the health care organization or network you chose in regard to meeting the health care needs of citizens in the next decade.
Prepare a 1,000-1,250 word paper that presents your assessment and proposes a strategic plan to ensure readiness. Include the following:
Describe the health care organization or network.
Describe the organization\’s overall readiness based on your findings.
Prepare a strategic plan to address issues pertaining to network growth, nurse staffing, resource management, and patient satisfaction.
Identify any current or potential issues within the organizational culture and discuss how these issues may affect aspects of the strategic plan.
Propose a theory or model that could be used to support implementation of the strategic plan for this organization. Explain why this theory or model is best.
Healthcare Organization Research
Describe the health care organization or network.
Vanguard Health Systems, Inc., is an organization that offers health care services to include neurology, orthopedics, obstetrics, cardiology, internal medicine, general surgery, emergency care, and acute care services. Founded in 1997, the organization is a private company with its principal executive offices located in Nashville, Tennessee (Bloomberg, 2020). The organization’s business focus is on acquiring nonprofit hospital systems and converting them to investor-owned status. It typically purchases near-bankrupt or bankrupt medical facilities then makes capital investments targeted at upgrading and improving their services. It recognizes that many non-profit medical facilities are struggling to meet the financial needs of the evolving health care industry. To address the concern about capital requirements, the organization focuses on consolidating medical services delivery and turning the acquired facilities into investor owned systems. Currently, the organization has fourteen principal operating units spread across five states in the USA. The organization’s principal competitors include Triad Hospitals, Inc., Tenet Healthcare Corp., Iasis Healthcare Corp., and HCA Inc (Reference for Business, 2020). The organization’s mission is to help communities in the USA to achieve health for life. It expects to achieve this by changing the way in which healthcare is delivered in America through regional and corporate business strategies. In addition, it has established a corporate values framework that includes accountability, integrity, respect, excellence and safety (United States Securities Exchange Commission, 2009).
Describe the organization’s overall readiness based
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
on your findings.
A review of the organization’s business strategies reveals that it is ready to meet the health care needs of American citizens in the next decade. Firstly, it has a good understanding of the health care industry that has allowed it to remain profitable since it was formed in 1997. It understands that there is a growing need for health care services in the country. In addition, there is a growing premium on high-performance, patient-centered care networks. Besides that, there have been significant health reforms in the country, to include Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act that increase reimbursements for medical services provision. Secondly, the organization has significant competitive strengths that include operating in an attractive market with substantial growth opportunities, regional focus on integrated care networks, and comprehensive portfolio of attractive facilities. Also, its activities are focused on high-quality patient-centered care with a track record of consistent organic growth and cash flows. Additionally, it has leveraged its health plan capabilities, has proven its ability to complete and integrate acquisitions, and has an experienced and incentivized management team. Thirdly, the organization’s growth strategy indicates its overall readiness. Its growth strategy is to pursue growth opportunities in established markets, capitalize on acquisitions, strengthen market presence and leading reputation, drive physician collaboration and alignment, leverage health plan capabilities, and pursue selective acquisitions (United States Securities Exchange Commission, 2011). Healthcare Organization Research Essay Paper
Prepare a strategic plan to address issues pertaining to network growth, nurse staffing, resource management, and patient satisfaction.
Although Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. already has a strategic plan to address issues pertaining to growth, staffing, resource management and satisfaction, there is a need for a revised strategic plan. In this case, the new strategic plan would incorporate elements of capacity building. Capacity building, as a concept, is defined as the practice of strengthening the organization by making investments that not only focus on financial profits, but also focus on building sustainability and organizational health while increasing the organization’s overall efficacy and impact. Firstly, the organization should engage in assessment, planning and evaluation activities that are particular to the needs of the communities being served. This includes engaging in activities such as impact evaluation, operations planning, program planning, strategic planning, and community needs assessment. This helps with network growth, resource management and patient satisfaction. In addition, the organization should strive to garner the support of its stakeholders who include the local community. This encompasses strengthening supervision skills, team-building, coaching and training, as well as best practices for recruiting and retaining a diverse talent pool of nurses. Building the efficacy and leadership of nurse personnel is an important part of these activities. The activities help with improving nurse staffing. Besides that, the organization should refine organizational infrastructure, systems and processes by addressing technology and facilities improvements and process enhancements in areas of strategic communication, human resource, management and operations, development, and financial management.
Identify any current or potential issues within the organizational culture and discuss how these issues may affect aspects of the strategic plan.
The main line of business activities for Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. is on acquiring nonprofit hospital systems and converting them to investor-owned status. This line of business is fraught with cultural issues as the acquisition involves bringing together different organizational cultures that may result into a dysfunctional culture. The cultural problems could have negative implications for the strategic plan, and result in failure. That is because a dysfunctional culture results in lower earnings and profits, poor relations with patients and other stakeholders, high turnover, and disengaged personnel thereby negatively impacting the organization’s bottom line (Schein, 2017). Besides that, a dysfunctional culture reduces the organization’s control mechanism, reduces the sense of identification with the organization and shared awareness among stakeholders about what is important. Given that the organizational culture sets the context for everything that the organization does, then it would be important for adapting the organizational culture to the prevailing situation since organizations vary significantly and there is no one-size-fits-all culture template that would meet the needs of Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. in its acquisitions. Through applying the right organizational culture, Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. would be able to improve its overall performance as the culture would offer a strategic competitive advantage by enhancing cooperation and trust, reducing opportunities for disagreements, and resulting in more-efficient decision-making (Schein, 2017).
Propose a theory or model that could be used to support implementation of the strategic plan for this organization. Explain why this theory or model is best.
The implementation of the strategic plan is best supported by Lewin’s Change Management Model. The model proposes three stages in change management. The first stage is unfreezing whereby the organization prepares for the change by acknowledging that it is needed and crucial. This stage breaks the status quo by explaining to the stakeholders why there is a need for a change and how the change would have a positive impact on the organization. For Vanguard Health Systems, Inc., this stage involves identifying business shortcomings and the need for a change before communicating the same to stakeholders in order to convince them. The second stage is change whereby the organization undergoes a change with the stakeholders embracing new developments and happenings. This stage is important for leveraging time and communication, and leading the organization to embrace the change and making it easier for stakeholders who are involved in the change process. The final stage is refreezing whereby the change is implemented, embraced and accepted by stakeholders so that the organization becomes stable. The change is accepted at it becomes normal and routine with the stakeholders becoming confident and comfortable with the change (Ellis, 2019).
References
Bloomberg (2020). Vanguard Health Systems Inc. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/VHS:US
Ellis, P. (2019). Leadership, Management and Team Working in Nursing (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications Inc.
Reference for Business (2020). Vanguard Health Systems Inc. https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Ul-Vi/Vanguard-Health-Systems-Inc.html
Schein, E. (2017). Organizational Culture and Leadership (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
United States Securities Exchange Commission (2009). Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045829/000104582909000020/june302009_10k.htm
United States Securities Exchange Commission (2011). Vanguard Health Systems, Inc. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045829/000095012311036130/g25907sv1.htm .Healthcare Organization Research Essay Paper
