Cost, Access and Quality

Guidance for Unit 5 Assignments  

For the unit 1 discussion board, we are putting it altogether and reflecting on what you found most interesting as it relates to the topics you learned about in this course.  Please explain to your peers how participating in the discussion boards helped you to better understand the course content. It is important that you cite at least one reference you used to support your thoughts and ideas during this session. Be sure to let your classmates and me know if there was a topic that you need to have more information on so you will have a better understanding. When you respond to your classmates, be very clear as to what you learned from their posts.

In chat 5, we defined quality, quality measures, and benchmarks.  We defined quality as the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge (IOM).  Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding, and adopting outstanding practices and processes to help your organization improve its performance.  A benchmark is the standard of excellence to measure and compare against.  An example of a quality measure at an acute care hospital is surgical site infection rate and a benchmark would be that the annual surgical site infection rate for the hospital is less than 1%.For the last individual project, you will be referring back to each of the previous individual projects and pulling the bullet points from each of these past assignments that are needed to complete this last project.  Please refer to feedback I provided for the previous assignments as you complete this last assignment.  The only new research you have to do for the individual project is on quality measures and benchmarks.  I expect the originality verification score will be higher because you are using content from previous individual projects.

In the unit 5 individual project, there are 2 parts.  For Part 1, you are to prepare a 5-7 page plan (not counting title page and reference page(s)) for your proposed healthcare facility.  For Part 2, you are to prepare a one page reflection on what you’ve learned and what you will work on to continue to advance your career in healthcare management.  Discuss the skills/competencies that you think you have developed and identify the ones that you will need to continue to work on.  How will you improve your skills and continue to develop your competencies?

Part 1: 5-7 page plan for healthcare facility; Part 2: 1-page reflection

Final Project

In this assignment you will finalize your plan for the proposed healthcare facility by incorporating your work from Weeks 1 through 4 along with new content as described below.  The assignment has two parts:

• Plan for your proposed healthcare facility
• Reflection on what you have accomplished in completing your course of student by your work in this capstone course and what skills you will continue to develop and improve on as you begin or advance in your career in healthcare management.

Part 1: Plan for proposed healthcare facilityYou have been asked to present your plan for the proposed health care facility to the Board of Directors. Based on your previous assignments, you are to develop a proposal as a written paper that includes the following: 

• The type of health care facility (Week 1)
  • Discuss the type of facility that you are recommending and the rationale behind your recommendation. For example, if you chose an ambulatory care facility, explain the reasons why this type of facility would be recommended over another type.  
  • Discuss the type of health care delivery and services that are provided at the facility.
  • Discuss the type of staff that will work in the facility. Specify the position categories and/or titles for these positions and include what are the credentials or licensures required by these positions in the state in which you live where you proposed facility would be located.
• Financing the organization (Week 2)
  • Discuss the method(s) of reimbursement that you believe will work best for the health care facility that you have proposed to be developed, and explain why you chose that method.
  • Discuss the pros and cons of the reimbursement method(s) you chose.
  • Discuss the impact that the method(s) may have on the financial operations of the facility that you chose.
• Medical technology (Week 3)
  • Discuss the financial and health benefits that can be realized by implementing an electronic health record (EHR).
  • Discuss the estimated cost of implementing an EHR and the estimated cost of managing an EHR over the long run.
  • Discuss current security concerns surrounding health information technology (HIT) and the EHR.
  • Discuss how electronic health records can be used for decision-making and problem-solving.
  • Choose 1 piece of federal legislation, e.g., HIPAA, HITECH Act, Meaningful Use), and discuss the requirements that legislation imposes on the use of HIT and the EHR. 
• Ethical and legal considerations (Week 4)
  • Discuss an accrediting body that will provide accreditation to the facility you are proposing.
  • Discuss the ethical or legal requirements and responsibilities that a health care organization has in ensuring that its facility is licensed, certified, and accredited. When discussing licensure requirements, ensure that you research requirements based on the state in which you reside.
  • When discussing licensure requirements, ensure that you research requirements based on the state in which you reside. 
• Quality measures (Week 5) (This will be a new section as part of your project)
  • Research and describe at least 3 measures that you plan to use in your facility that are currently used to gauge quality in health care.
  • Identify how data for these measures will be collected and analyzed.
  • Set realistic benchmarks for each proposed measurement, and explain the rationale behind the benchmarks that you set.

Note: You should include a minimum of 3 references with the new content for Week 5.

Part 2: Reflection on what you have learned and what you will work on to continue to develop as a healthcare management professional

• As you complete the course and your degree program and look forward to advancing your career in healthcare management, what are the skills and competencies that you feel you have developed and what are the ones that you will need to continue to work on?  How do you plan to improve upon your skills and continue to develop competencies in healthcare management?The American College of Healthcare Management provides resources related to the competencies that healthcare management professionals should possess. Refer to this document for a list of healthcare management competencies. 

Reference:International Hospital Federation.  (2015). Leadership competencies for healthcare services managers. Retrieved from https://www.ache.org/newclub/resource/Leadership_Competencies_Healthcare_Services_Managers.pdfHealthcare leadership competencies. (2016).  American College of Healthcare Executives.  Retrieved from https://www.ache.org/newclub/resource/competencies.cfm