Case Study Consulting for the Caring Angel Hospital Final Case Study Final Case Study

Final Case Study: Consulting for the Caring Angel Hospital

HSA 501 Management in Healthcare

Final Case Study: Consulting for the Caring Angel Hospital

As a senior consultant for Practical Health Care Consulting Firm, I have been asked to examine the goings on at Caring Angel Hospital in order to help in different areas within the hospital. I have been tasked with improving the quality of care, adding value, and improving employee morale among other things. I was asked to spend three months in Caring Angel Hospital, and the first two months I have attempted to make progress and noticed a lot of areas for improvement. I’ve also acknowledged the hospital’s thriving areas. With all of this information, I will attempt to help the hospital achieve its goals and enhance its revenue.

From a consulting perspective, propose the major steps the Caring Angel Hospital could take to achieve each of the following goals:

Improve the quality of care.

Caring Angel Hospital could take a lot of different steps in order to achieve its goal of improving the quality of care. The hospital can improve the quality of the care provided by having the professional staff focus more on the patients and present with a more pleasant demeanor when addressing the patients. With the medical staff learning to smile more during their interactions with the patients, it will allow for the patients to feel more confident in the abilities of the staff. The pleasant demeanor will improve the quality of care because the patients will have increased assurance in the medical staff.

Add value to the organization.

In Caring Angel Hospital, there is an enormous need for the addition of value to the organization. Caring Angel Hospital is struggling in a lot of areas as it pertains to value in the organization. One way in which the hospital is struggling is the addition of more specialized care. Various patients are hopping from our hospital to other hospitals looking for more specialize care in different areas. One area is cardiovascular care. In order to add value, we need to begin to look into getting more physicians who specialize in cardiovascular care as well as other areas in which the patients seek to get care outside of Caring Angel Hospital.

Also, the patients regularly show up for their appointments on the incorrect days. We can quickly and efficiently add value to the services by putting into place a system where we have a member of the staff call the patients at least a day prior to their appointment. The calls will add value because it allows for the patients to have a friendly reminder of their appointment, and they will less likely show up for their appointment on the wrong day.

Improve employee morale.

Employee morale in Caring Angel Hospital is at an all-time low right now. The employees do not feel as though their superiors are listening them to. I’ve also noticed that there is a lot of blaming going on between the different members of the staff when there are problems even minor ones. The best way to determine what is the morale problem in this hospital is to ask the staff. Most employees would rather have a work environment that is dynamic and professional (Crawford, 2014), and this is what I suggest for the employee morale at Caring Angel Hospital. There needs to be a higher level of professionalism, as well as teamwork, in order for it to be more productive. The communication will allow the employees to have more confidence in their employment and superiors.

Another issue that came up when the survey was conducted was that the employees are dissatisfied with their working conditions, and precisely their inability to voice their opinions and concerns to the management about anything. The lack of communication is why they were so unsmiling when they had any interaction among one another. They felt as though their voices were not being heard. In order to reconcile this imposition, we have created an open-door policy as well as changed the chain of command.

Design an efficient organizational chart.

There are a few things that Caring Angel Hospital can do to develop an effective organizational chart. An organizational chart shows the flow of the organization, and what this means is the way that information flows within the organization. The “managerial focus should always be on tailoring the communication as much as possible to fit the profile of a particular…organizational culture” (Burns, Bradley, and Weiner, 2012, p. 175). This process entails learning how the organization is best going to deal with the problem of communication between various fields.

In my professional opinion, I would suggest that there be an open-door type of communication as it pertains to the supervisory roles at Caring Angel Hospital. Also, I am going to suggest that those who are in supervisory positions be able to communicate with one another as well as with those they supervise. Since this is a hospital, I am also going to suggest that there be a free-range communication among those who are not in supervisory roles when it comes to the relaying of information about patient care. There is certain information that is best directly relayed between caregivers, and those who are giving patient care must be able to converse with one another freely.

Create a strong team environment.

Teamwork is of the utmost importance as it relates to health care. Burns et al. (2012) suggests there are both opportunities to be as well as challenges to the teamwork structure as it relates to diversity. It is important to note that the health care arena has many possibilities for diversity. Important factors for a team to take into consideration are supervision, communication, and team structure, especially as it pertains to negative aspects (Upenieks, Lee, Flanagan, and Doebbeling, 2010).

The important thing that needs to take place in order to put together this team is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the individual members of the group. Another aspect that needs to be is the amount of time that the team will be together as that determines how this team will interact over time.

Create the hospital’s edge.

Most importantly in creating the edge of Caring Angel Hospital is evaluation of the programs that the hospital currently offers. There are a few things that need to be when looking at the programs. There needs to be something to compare the hospital too, so we must also evaluate the programs of other hospitals. Also, the programs must be of comparative value to the programs that are at Caring Angel Hospital. The programs that are need to be programs that are going to enhance the needs of the consumers of the programs. In other words, there needs to be something in the edgy program that is going to benefit the patients of the hospital.

Recommend one approach that the hospital could use for acquiring a larger market share given the prevailing financial circumstances. Justify your recommendation.

In order to acquire a larger market share in the current financial circumstances that Caring Angel Hospital are under, there needs to be a drastic change. What we must note is that there are some positive qualities that the hospital has. The hospital has the very well-renown cancer center, and that is one area that we excel. There is another hospital within the area that specializes in a few other fields wishes to merge with Caring Angel Hospital. Since Caring Angel Hospital is constantly in a financial downfall year after year, it will be in the best interest of the hospital to merge with the other hospital. The two hospitals joining will allow for Caring Angel Hospital to remain in business as well as allow for the clientele to get what they want. What I mean by this is that the patients are constantly looking for specialized care within the area, and merging with this other hospital will give it more specialized care that the consumers want.

It is important to give the customers what they want in order that they will continue to utilize Caring Angel Hospital. When merging with the other hospital in the area, it will allow for increased revenue, and will likely do away with the repetitive losses that are faced by the hospital. It provides a bigger market share and the greater pool of health care recipients to gain consumerism from with the merging of the two hospitals.

Investigate at least two value-added services that Caring Angel Hospital could offer to strengthen its value proposition

In order to have the best possible care of an organization, there must be a value added to the particular services that are. One possible way to add value to Caring Angel Hospital is to have it set up so that there can be remote consultation in specialized fields (Pott and Holtz, 2014). The patients are constantly looking for specialized care in different areas and when we can not offer that particular practice there is an enormous likelihood that we are going to lose that patient to another hospital. To accommodate these patients, the hospital can partner with a few other hospitals that specialize in different areas where they are lacking.

Another chief complaint of the consumers is that they are constantly showing up on the wrong day for their appointments. If we implement electronic health records, this may help with some of the complaints as it pertains to missing appointments. The electronic health records will add value because the individuals who come here will have the option of getting their appointment reminders online through their email. Appointment reminders will keep down the number of people who are coming in on days that are not their appointment days. Along with that, it will allow for us to be able better to offer a continuum of care between other physician practices and ourselves. These are all important as it relates to our patients and our patient care?

Conclusion

Caring Angel Hospital has a lot of positive qualities that it should continue to see to for the benefit of those who are utilizing the hospital. I have outlined a lot of opportunities for improvement while also highlighting the positive qualities of the hospital. With these recommendations, I feel that the hospital can only become a stronger business and health care organization.

References

Burns, L.R., Bradley, E. H., & Weiner, B.J. (2012). Shortell and Kaluzny’s Health Care Management Organization Design and Behavior. (6th ed.) New York: Delmar Cengage Learning

Crawford, R. (2014). 90% believe flexible working boosts employee morale. Employee Benefits.

Pott, J., and Holtz, J. (2014). The potential of value-added services in health microinsurance. Enterprise Development and Microfinance 25 (1) p. 11-24. DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.2014.003

Upeneiks, V.V., Lee, E.A., Flanagan, M.E., and Doebbeling, B.N. (2010). Healthcare team vitality instrument (HTVI): developing a tool assessing healthcare team functioning. Journal of Advanced Nursing 66. (1) p. 168-176. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05137.x