Option #2: Recruitment: Strategic Plan or Strategic InitiativesAs you continue working on your Capstone Project this week, begin drafting a strategic plan and/or strategic initiatives for recruiting h

Strategic Management in Healthcare

Amanda Black

CSU-Global Campus

HCM 580-Strategic Management in Healthcare

Tracy Smith

December 15, 2018

Abstract

The main backbone of the report lies in the assessment of the project’s feasibility and providing recommendations to support its implementation. The report calls for the creation of an assessment that focuses on different parts of the clinic. The main focus should on the identification of external and internal stakeholders concerning foreseeable challenges.

Strategic Management in Healthcare

The Pocahontas County rural population has several challenges regarding obtaining the needed healthcare. Among the many difficulties include financial hurdles. Many of the residents in the rural country live in abject poverty. It becomes difficult for them to pay for healthcare services. A huge number of residents cannot afford health insurance. The above factor means that only a few numbers of residents have access to existing health insurance benefits. The second benefit revolves around transportation challenges (Griffiths, Ball, Drennan, Dall’Ora, Jones, Maruotti & Simon, 2016). The word rural is enough for anyone reading the report to imagine the type of landscape and infrastructure that exists in the Pocahontas rural areas. The residents have either little or no public transportation.

The challenging landscape makes it hard for the government to provide residents with adequate roadways and other transportation networks. The situation creates difficulties for the citizens to acquire appointments from doctors and care from other health experts in the county. The challenges experienced by the residents of Pocahontas County rural areas creates a need to establish a Satellite Clinic that provides the same services that are provided by the hospital (O’Leary, 2017). This considers the fact that the citizens have to receive the needed services without them having to go long distances. It becomes easy for them to receive their health services while being in their home and social environments.

Pocahontas Memorial Hospital (PMH) and the Satellite Clinic

Pocahontas Memorial Hospital (PMH) has its location in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The health facility has decided to focus on the feasibility of establishing a satellite clinic. The satellite clinic serves as a component in its strategic planning process that exists annually. The clinic exists as a framework to expand its care to more than 9,000 residents of the vast rural Pocahontas County. PMH serves as a health facility possessing values and a mission statement that works to ensure the improvement of healthcare in the country. This is possible through compassion, best practices, positive culture, and compassion. Pocahontas Memorial Hospital (PMH) already runs a clinic in its internal environments with a focus on specific areas. Among the areas include vaccinations, monthly clinic (for a wide range of diseases), and provision of laboratory services.

As stated above, the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital strives to deal with the above issues by providing care to rural residents. This may be undertaken through the establishment of a Satellite Clinic to the rural residents. The services of the hospital will be diverse and would be provided to individuals who live away from the hospital. It is essential for the Satellite Clinic to achieve the desired outcome. The project will entail motivating residents in the County to access affordable healthcare and receiving assistance from diverse health practitioners through a universal care framework.

Stakeholder Assessment

Concerning stakeholders, it will be essential to focus on the external and internal stakeholders. They comprise of individuals with interest in the development of an organization. They have their positions within the organization and the external environments of an organization. They care about the hospital and are affected by its changes. Stakeholders are individuals who have their involvement in strategic changes, perhaps not every person in large organizations, but they have their opinions registered in their operations.

Internal Stakeholders

These are stakeholders that are found within the environments of an organization. They are affected by any current changes that affect an organization such as the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. Concerning PMH, four main groups of internal stakeholders exist. They comprise of patients, employees, patients’ families, and the Board of Directors. The Satellite Clinic will affect the employees directly more than anyone. The situation may see the transfer of some employees which will disconnect them from their home environments (McHugh, Kutney-Lee, Cimiotti, Sloane & Aiken, 2011). They will have limited interaction with the members of their families. Other employees will experience workload alterations, meaning that the work undertaken may become lighter.

The change will exist from all employees, starting from cafeteria staff to physicians. The current patients will also experience the changes. They may have the opportunity of receiving care near their homes. This may mean motivating them to make more visits to the Satellite Clinic. Those closer to the hospital may have more time with the physicians and quick services because of the few numbers of patients who visit the hospital. The clinic may pull some of the patients, and this may leave the hospital with few patients. The situation may see patients seeking more care. The patients’ families assist with the provision of care in the home environment. The Satellite Clinic will support care at home for families living in the rural area. Despite limited transportation for the rural communities, the Satellite Clinic will facilitate less drive time. This will lead to less interference on the school and work schedules of some family members.

PMH Executive Board has a significant interest in the development and potential of the clinic. This originates from the fact that they make most decisions associated with strategic planning. As per their decisions, they would like to have the knowledge and be assured that the change would to continue to support the concrete implementation of the organization’s mission statement. Another key factor would be about funding the hospitals (Billett, 2016). When it comes to the healthcare sector, it is crucial to consider funding.

External Stakeholders

These are stakeholders found in the outside environment of the organization. Their role and position need to be acknowledged. They are influenced by the change affecting an organization and vice versa. PMH has the community around the county serving as its external stakeholders and potential investors for the establishment of the Satellite Clinic. The community will comprise of patients/potential patients. Their position has a significant impact on the decision-making process (Forman-Hoffman, Middleton, McKeeman, Stambaugh, Christian, Gaynes & Viswanathan, 2017). According to research, rural community healthcare receives much of its influence from community members since they are involved directly in the decision-making process.

Discussion forums such as town hall meetings and workshops ensure that community members engage in speaking about the decisions they make about the development of the clinic. Concerning potential investors/donors, community members may make a majority of their composition. Therefore, they are keen about the decisions they make and ensure the availability of the funds needed to support development. As external stakeholders, such individuals want assurance that the Satellite Clinic provides them with a return on their investments and donations.

Internal and External Environmental Challenges

When it comes to the proposed PMH satellite clinic, stakeholders have to realize the various challenges that are being faced currently. The same applies to those that may be faced by the clinic. Staffing problems such as equipment and workload that are out of date, funding hurdles, and community engagement serve as the main issues surrounding the operations of the hospitals. The above factors will influence struggling staffing issues. According to reports provided by staffs, the workload becomes extreme in the healthcare system because of staff shortage. The patient ratio in PMH includes 8,508:1. The statistics show that only two physicians exist in the county (O’Leary, 2017). The ratio is higher compared to the nationwide general ration. Currently, there is lack of data regarding nursing staff and other members’ ratio for PMH to ensure a full workload evaluation. A shortage of staff may lead to mental illness (anxiety and depression) for staff members.

Medical equipment is an integral part of the operations of a hospital — many staff report of either using old equipment or suffering from an aspect of inadequate equipment. The above factor affects workload. If testing machines fail to work correctly, it means that the staff members will have to wait for another one to finish their tasks. This may cause delays to the general development of the clinic. Most health practitioners working in rural areas report that the aspect of possessing inadequate equipment acts as the hardest challenge since it adds problems to their large workloads.

Most rural healthcare organizations lack enough revenues in support of the expansion and updating their equipment. Such an organization ends up supporting a smaller population that possesses government-funded healthcare (Koebnick, Langer-Gould, Gould, Chao, Iyer, Smith & Jacobsen, 2012). The counterparts in large cities and towns with larger populations have access to better health services and insurance. The situation serves as a challenging factor because of lower costs placed on quality care.

Concerning community engagement and involvement, the rural community has a close relationship and lacks a high likelihood of changing. A rural community fears healthcare due to the significant costs associated with it. The satellite clinic will need the support of community members who will demand its use. This will make its operations to become worthwhile. Due to the challenges faced by community members, it may be prudent for the community members to identify the different services provided by the clinic. They need to know the exact services provided by the community.

Market Analysis of the Satellite Clinic

Market analysis involves the hospital trying to create a new rural clinic. This means that it is crucial to evaluate the market to achieve positive development and operations. A market analysis consists of five major parts. The five major parts include the industry’s overview, target market, existing competition, projections, and current regulations.

Industry Overview

The healthcare industry has experienced many challenges due to several laws and the increased status of public interests. Despite the above changes, it continues to experience growth. The main reason focuses on increased federal funding on healthcare, but experience underperformance more than other developed nations (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010). The country experiences poorer health outcomes than Australia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth Fund (2014) stated statistics show the United States finishing last when it involves healthcare equity, efficiency, and care. The implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) reduced costs of quality care are expected. This could increase the quality of life among patients, mostly those in rural areas. The above factors have motivated Pocahontas Memorial Hospital to create a clinic.

Target Market

PMH serves as the only health facility in the county with over 9,131 patients to serve. This shows that the market is a small rural county found in West Virginia. The population is predominantly Caucasians who have lower levels of income (Cheadle, Schwartz, Beery, Gee, & Solomon, 2010). $26,401 is the average income for the county and this is an example of external forces that threaten all organizations (O’Leary, 2017).

Competition Analysis

Pocahontas Memorial Hospital is the only hospital that services the county. However, the above factor does not mean PMH lacks competition. Pocahontas County is surrounded by six counties and each county has a county hospital. The county hospitals are more convenient when it comes to serving residents that live on the opposite side of the county. While looking at the competition, it is evident that the rest of the hospitals surrounding PMH are the same size and experience the same challenges (Cheadle et al., 2010). However, that does not mean that PMH should relax and lose focus when it comes to competition and care. Pocahontas Memorial Hospital needs this to work out to ensure that the organization improves its operations

Projections

Healthcare continues to engage in tremendous changes yearly. Patients are required to possess health insurance and if they are not compliant they will face substantial penalties. This situation has healthcare organizations trying to figure out how to successfully handle an increased patient load. The clinic would care for those in that vicinity while the hospital could take care of the rural populations within the county (Gowrisankaran, Nevo, & Town, 2015). This will lead to growth and future improvements in the health industry.

Regulations

There are several regulations that the healthcare industry face when it comes to protecting the patient. Rural clinic operations face the same regulations as the hospitals. CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) develop and enforce several regulations that organizations have to comply with to receive payments from organizations such as Medicaid and Medicare. It is essential for hospitals and clinics to comply with regulations at the state, local, and federal levels.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is an originator of strategic planning and demands realistic and objective assessment. Using a SWOT analysis helps a company identify vital internal and external issues and refresh the strategies and tactics of the marketing plan. A SWOT analysis is fundamental to achieving the company’s future goals. It is also useful in healthcare and other organizations by helping the company concentrate on marketing zones that contain the most powerful benefits (Healthcare Success, 2018). SWOT analysis focuses on some aspects of the external and internal environments of an organization.

Strengths

PMH has many strengths associated with its focus on the establishment of the clinic. These strengths involve the organization having the capacity to create a healthy lifestyle among its patients, which is part of their mission statement. Another strength of PMH focuses on the readiness of the hospital to make a difference. PMH already provides diverse services, such as immunizations, rotating clinics, and laboratory services, to boost its operations (Gowrisankaran, Nevo & Town, 2015). This information confirms that the satellite clinic will have the same capacity as the hospital. This is a positive reflection for PMH especially when it comes to the care that is being provided to their patients.

Weaknesses

One of the weaknesses within PMH involves the size of the hospital. The hospital is small and can only accommodate approximately twenty-five beds. With this being said the hospital is a low trauma level hospital and is not equipped to handle any large-scale traumas that may occur. PMH has a primary care physician ratio of 8508:1 (County Health Roadmaps & Rankings, n.d.). That puts PMH at a significantly higher ratio than the rest of the United States (County Health Roadmaps & Rankings, n.d.). Another weakness within PMH focuses on the surrounding environment. In the rural environment transportation is a critical challenge for residents that need assistance with transportation to and from their appointments. This reveals that PMH is failing to meet their goals of maintaining full schedules and supporting revenue streams.

Opportunity

There are several areas within Pocahontas Memorial Hospital that are beneficial. Expanding Medicaid benefits for their increasing patient load is vital. At PMH, there is the potential for an increase in patients in the near future. An increase in patients at PMH will boost revenues for the organization. PMH will also be looking for several organizations to help provide funding for the expansion of the satellite clinic that will benefit the rural communities and also assist the hospital.

Threats

External forces threaten all organizations alike. $26,401 is the average annual income in the county (O’Leary, 2017). This income level is below what is necessary to maintain the operations of a hospital such as PMH. The rising costs in healthcare threaten the ability of the hospital to initiate a sufficient budget. This leads to PMH having to absorb the cost of care through insurance companies when patients fail to meet their medical costs occurred.

Recommendations and Strategies

For the clinic to work efficiently and adequately, solutions need to exist to overcome challenges which are discussed in the above segment. The first weakness focuses on the small size of the hospital. The proposed clinic serves as an alternative for the increased number of patients in the hospital to create more space for the provision of care. The location of PMH is towards the southeast part of the county. The expansion of the satellite clinic is the same as expanding the hospital. When talking about the threats, policies are essential to follow as it enables the hospital to achieve its objectives and goals concerning the opening of the clinic. It also acquires the opportunity to assist patients in dealing with their health problems. Another key challenge that needs focus is the rural environment found in Pocahontas County (McCann, Graves & Cox, 2014). The issue is to reduce any barrier associated with patients failing to receive the needed attention and care.

Community engagement is critical in establishing the new clinic. Some hospitals work with local banks to borrow loans for development. Others use volunteer organizations such as Rotary Clubs in doing so. PMH may borrow money from banks and non-governmental organizations to acquire more significant sums of money to support logistical development. It may take several combinations of tools to raise the needed funds. Another critical issue focuses on the shortage of staff. Despite the patient-physician ratio being high, there is a lack of known data associated with the numbers of nurses, therapists, technicians, and nurses.

Employees need to be encouraged regarding benefits and salaries (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010). They need to work in environments that possess quality equipment. Their working environments should possess a high level of quality assurance. The hospital has to think of the best possible approaches to employ in retaining and attracting their employees. Concerning the development of the clinic, one has to understand that financial incentives do not always work. Rural environments possess limited budgets, meaning that it may become hard to initiate financial improvement of their employees.

Feasibility

Funding and staffing are two significant factors to consider in the process of developing the Satellite Clinic. The project is possible to undertake when the involved stakeholders use the two factors stated above. Other key areas include compliance on CMS regulations. Following regulations is important. Regulations may initiate proper guidelines for finding the right way of doing things in the health sector. It is also important to look at the relationship between the hospital and its current employees. How does the hospital support the development of the patients? Are the patients having a problem trying to acquire health services from the hospital? The above questions are enough to note the need to start the clinic.

Value and Support

Value adding in the case of the clinic involves dealing with the equipment and technology. Social media may be used to market and create awareness of the clinic to the members of the Pocahontas County. Technology may involve establishing a web-based resource center and a database focusing on the health status of patients and their historical health backgrounds. It is easier to use technology to assess the well-being of patients than using traditional media. It becomes easy for the PMH to influence development in dealing with patient-related issues and initiating developmental procedures in the rural area.

The technology involves the use of emails to communicate between patients, medical experts, and managers of the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. It also creates awareness regarding different illnesses that the community members suffer from and possible ways to communicate them to patients (McCann, Graves, & Cox, 2014). The clinic ensures that it supports the stakeholders through the provision of care, job security, and assists in the process of overcoming health problems.

Plans for Implementation

For the plans to go as per the desires of the hospital, some issues need to be addressed. The hospital has to secure funding from all sources as discussed above. The community should have information about the development of the clinic. The community members should speak on the type of services that they need to receive and the treatment that they should acquire from the medical experts working for the clinic. It is essential to develop a decision that works on introducing stationary versus mobile clinic. The board should ensure flexibility of this project for a practical outcome (Körner, Wirtz, Bengel & Göritz, 2015). Decisions should also focus on equipment, skills of employees, and their number.

Long-term plans include planning to recruit employees who will work for the clinic. The plan needs to run continuously to avoid any staffing shortages. Another essential plan focuses on the marketing approach. The clinic will be used if many community members know about it. Another critical factor includes creating collaborations with insurance firms.

Evaluations and Benchmarks

All projects need locations and strategies to ensure active performing of standards. Projects should be given opportunities to reach their developmental marks. There should be a timeline to keep teams on track about the concluding results (McHugh et al., 2011). Essential items to be included in this case comprise of security equipment, hiring employees, and purchasing land for project development. The project also needs to be up to standard.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the report has focused on significant items involved in the establishment of the new clinic opened by the Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. Challenges regarding staffing numbers, financial problems, transportation hurdles, and inadequate equipment have been handled through some incentives. The report has introduced incentives to retain and attract employees, acquire funding from loans and donations, and purchasing new equipment. The introduction of the clinic serves as a way through which to deal with the transportation issue. Benchmarking entails using the opportunities, benefits, and challenges to improve the operations of the hospital and its intended clinic. This means working on long-term and short term-goals to initiate the desired outcome.

References

Billett, S. (2016). Learning through health care work: premises, contributions, and practices. Medical education, 50(1), 124-131.

Blumenthal, D., & Tavenner, M. (2010). The “meaningful use” regulation for electronic health records. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(6), 501-504.

Cheadle, A., Schwartz, P., Beery, W., Gee, S., & Solomon, L. (2010). The Kaiser Permanente community health initiative: overview and evaluation design. American journal of public health, 100(11), 2111-2113.

County Health Roadmaps & Rankings. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/sites/default/files/state/downloads/2012%20County%20 Health%20Ranking%20West%20Virginia%20Data%20-%20v2.xls.

Forman-Hoffman, V., Middleton, J., McKeeman, J., Stambaugh, L., Christian, R., Gaynes, B., & Viswanathan, M. (2017). Quality improvement, implementation, and dissemination strategies to improve mental health care for children and adolescents: a systematic review. Implementation Science, 12(1), 91.

Gowrisankaran, G., Nevo, A., & Town, R. (2015). Mergers when prices are negotiated: Evidence from the hospital industry. American Economic Review, 105(1), 172-203.

Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Drennan, J., Dall’Ora, C., Jones, J., Maruotti, A., & Simon, M. (2016). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: strengths and limitations of the evidence to inform policy and practice. International journal of nursing studies, 63, 213-225.

Healthcare Success. (2018). SWOT: The high-level self exam that boosts your bottom line. Retrieved from https://www.healthcaresuccess.com/blog/medical-advertising-agency/swot.html.

Koebnick, C., Langer-Gould, A., Gould, M., Chao, C., Iyer, R., Smith, N., & Jacobsen, S. (2012). Sociodemographic characteristics of members of a large, integrated health care system: comparison with US Census Bureau data. The Permanente Journal, 16(3), 37.

Körner, M., Wirtz, M., Bengel, J., & Göritz, A. (2015). Relationship of organizational culture, teamwork and job satisfaction in interprofessional teams. BMC health services research, 15(1), 243.

McCann, J., Graves, D., & Cox, L. (2014). Servant leadership, employee satisfaction, and organizational performance in rural community hospitals. International Journal of Business and management, 9(10), 28.

McHugh, M., Kutney-Lee, A., Cimiotti, J., Sloane, D., & Aiken, L. (2011). Nurses’ widespread job dissatisfaction, burnout, and frustration with health benefits signal problems for patient care. Health Affairs, 30(2), 202-210.

O’Leary, S. (2017). West Virginia economy would suffer under proposed health care plans. West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, (Policy brief 1-11). Retrieved from https://wvpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/5/WVCBP-Policy_AHCAreport-F.pdf.

O’Leary, S. (2017). West Virginia economy would suffer under proposed health care plans (Policy brief 1-11). Retrieved from https://wvpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/5/WVCBP-Policy_AHCAreport-F.pdf.

The Commonwealth Fund. (2014). US health systems ranks last among eleven countries on measures of access,equity, quality, efficiency, and healthy lives. Retrieved from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/press-release/2014/us-health-system-ranks-last-among-eleven-countries-measures-access-equity.