Organization and Management of a Health Care Facility

Organization and Management of a Health Care Facility

HSA. 515

Our Mission

The mission of an organization defines its reason for existence, reveals its nature, and

expresses the organization’s commitment and aim. The ministries of our system have such a

mission. Every member organization in the System has a role in carrying out this mission and

each individual associate, physician, volunteer, board member and leader is dedicated to making

the mission statement a reality within his or her organization. 

Our Healthcare is committed to living out the healing ministry of Jesus by providing

exceptional and compassionate health care service that promotes the dignity and well-being of

the people we serve.

Our Vision

Our health ministries will be recognized in each community we serve for superior and

compassionate patient service, clinical excellence, as the health care employer of choice, and the

preferred partner of physicians.

Our Values

Our Values, which flow from our Mission and Catholic tradition, must have meaning for

every one of us. Through them we put the healing ministry of Jesus into practice throughout our

organization. The following are behaviors that are expected of all associates, physicians,

volunteers, and anyone else acting on behalf of the organization. We hope these behaviors will

influence for the better every person whose life we touch. 

Respect – We value each person as sacred, created in the image and likeness of God, which gives

worth and meaning to each person’s life. 

Integrity – We value honesty and words and actions that build trust. 

Development – We value personal and professional growth that combines the physical,

emotional, spiritual, and relational aspects of life and work. 

Excellence – We value superior performance in our work and service. 

Stewardship – We value our responsibility to use human, financial, and natural resources

entrusted to us for the common good, with special concern for those who are poor.

A sound strategic plan sets the long-term course for a healthcare organization.

Our healthcare specific strategic goals:-

The specific adaptive strategy can be a case for change, a new service, or a further

• Fixed accountability for results by person and date.
• An easy to use tool with which leadership can manage day-to-day results.
• Alignment and commitment from stakeholders.
• A unique solution specify your facility and needs.

development of an existing service and can involve major changes or relatively minor

changes.  But with any change, certain elements need to be in place. Even small changes can

make a difference to the quality of care.

The development of strategies within health care can be devised at a local or national level,

and encompass a different size of area, or focus upon a specific topic or aspect of health. The

strategy can be formulated through individual or cross-departmental or agency or cross-

government programme. The majority of government strategies are currently developed with

inter-departmental consultation e.g. Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross–Government

Strategy and this approach is also undertaken at a local level e.g. Children and Young People’s

Plans (Borkowski, (2005))..

When we are communicating strategy, we are communicating change. The key for

communicating strategy is to be able to align the extent and scope of the change and the

approaches of implementation with the values and principles outlined in the related policy

document.

The specific strategy that ensure the organization’s strategic goal to be achieved:-

Motivating change: Creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance.

Creating a vision: Mission, valued outcomes and conditions, midpoint goals.

Developing political support: Assessing change agent power, identifying key stakeholders,

influencing stakeholders.

Managing the transition: Activity planning, commitment planning management structures.

Sustaining momentum: Providing resources, building support system for change agents,

developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviours.

Example: The strategic intent of the local health department is to ensure that within 5 years

nowhere in the area is more than 30 mins ambulance travel time from a trauma centre.

Health systems are only as effective as the services they provide. These critically depend on:-

Networks of close-to-client primary care, organized as health districts or local area networks

with the back-up of specialized and hospital services, responsible for defined populations.

Provision of a package of benefits with a comprehensive and integrated range of clinical and

public health interventions, that respond to the full range of health problems of their populations,

including those targeted by the Millennium Development Goals.

Standards, norms and guidance to ensure access and essential dimensions of quality: safety,

effectiveness, integration, continuity, and people –centeredness.

Mechanisms to hold providers accountable for access and quality and to ensure consumer

voice.

Support components that will be necessary for achieving the strategic goals:-

Leadership and governance

Each country’s specific context and history shapes the way leadership and governance is

exercised, but common ingredients of good practice in leadership and governance can be

identified. These include:-

Ensuring that health authorities take responsibility for steering the entire health sector and for

dealing with future challenges (including unanticipated events or disasters) as well as with

current problems.

A formulation of the country’s commitment to high level policy goals (health equity, people-

centeredness, sound public health polices, effective and accountable governance).

A strategy for translating these policy goals into its implications for financing, human

resources, pharmaceuticals, technology, infrastructure and service delivery, with relevant

guidelines, plans and targets.

Effective regulation through a combination of guidelines, mandates, and incentives, backed

up by legal measures and enforcement mechanisms.

Effective policy dialogue with other sectors.

Mechanisms and institutional arrangements to channel donor funding and align it to country

priorities.

Health information systems

Good governance is only possible with good information on health challenges, on the

broader environment in which the health system operates, and on the performance of the health

system. This specifically includes timely intelligence on:-

Progress in meeting health challenges and social objectives but not limited to household

surveys, civil registration systems and epidemiological surveillance.

Access to care and on the quality of services provided.

Health financing, including through national health accounts and an analysis of financial

catastrophes and of financial and other barriers to health services for the poor and vulnerable

(Corcoran (2007)).

Health financing

Health financing can be a key policy instrument to improve health and reduce health

inequalities if its primary objective is to facilitate universal coverage by removing financial

barriers to access and preventing financial hardship and catastrophic expenditure. The following

can facilitate these outcomes:-

A system to raise sufficient funds for health fairly.

A system to pool financial resources across population groups to share financial risks.

A financing governance system supported by relevant legislation, financial audit and public

expenditure reviews, and clear operational rules to ensure efficient use of fund.

For an organization to maintain its strategic plan that speaks to the mission, vision, goals

and niche of the organization. The organization uses this strategic plan to create an annual

operational plan. Every organization should regularly (every four to five years) engage its Board

of Directors and staff in a strategic planning process. The strategic plan that results from such a

process will provide the organization with a four- to five-year road map, identifying the goals

towards which the organization will work to meet its mission and realize its vision. The strategic

plan should include the following steps:-

The annual operational plan identifies the work the organization will undertake in the coming

year. An operational plan is a practical one-year plan of action that includes objectives, activities

and timelines. It should be intimately tied to the strategic plan in that any activity the

organization will undertake in the year ahead should move the organization towards meeting the

goals and objectives identified in the strategic plan. To create an operational plan, start by

identifying any work to which the organization is already obligated to conduct based on its

current grants and contracts. Chart out the work, including what will need to be done to

accomplish what was promised in the grant or contract, who will do the work, and by when will

the work it get done. Then think through what new work the organization can take on, based on

its niche, to move towards meeting the goals and objectives outlined in its strategic plan. Again

identify the activities staff would undertake, who would conduct the work and by when would it

be accomplished. Finally, try to identify where the organization might go for funding for these

activities.

If an organization has more than one department or program/project, then an annual

operational plan should be created for each. Senior staff should then work to join the individual

plans in an overall organizational operational plan. It is this organizational plan that is then used

to create an organizational budget and funding proposals (Corcoran (2007)).

The annual financial plan is the organization’s fiscal plan of action. It includes:–

The creation of an organizational budget as well as the conduct of a number of processes

to monitor the financial health and well-being of the organization. To create the annual budget,

staff should sit down with the organization’s financial manager to create an activity budget for

each department’s/project’s operational plan. To create the activity budget consider the work

outlined in each operational plan. What activities will it take to complete this work? What

resources will be needed to conduct these activities? Include travel, supplies, consultants,

postage, telephone, etc. What staff will work on the program and for what percentage of their

time? Include salaries and benefits. Once each department/project has an activity budget, the

financial manager can collapse these into an organizational or line item budget. Like activities

across projects (such as staff travel) are collapsed into one line item. Line items might include

staff, fringe, travel, supplies, meetings, consultants, telephone, postage, etc (Borkowski,

(2005)).

Another financial tool every organization should employ to be sustainable is the cash

flow analysis. It is not enough to know that the organization will raise the funds it needs to meet

its budget. It is essential to know if the funds will come into the organization in a timely manner

to pay the bills and to meet the payroll as it comes due. Financial managers should create a

spread sheet that identifies what funds are expected to come in each month and measure that by

the anticipated expenditures for each month. The spreadsheet should anticipate the cash flow for

at least a year, should be updated every month to reflect at least a year from that time point, and

should be used to identify if a cash flow shortage will arise and when. Only through this process

will management be able to anticipate a cash flow problem and take steps to fix it in time.

The annual audit is another important part of the annual financial plan and should be

conducted by an independent certified public accountant (CPA). An annual audit will test for the

accuracy and completeness of an organization’s financial statements and accounting practices

and controls. The CPA will examine the organization’s financial records and statements and will

issue an opinion stating whether or not these records accurately reflect the organization’s

financial position. Further the audit will state whether or not the organization complies with

generally accepted accounting principles. An audit can help the organization to find and repair

important record-keeping errors and can help build confidence among funders of the

organization’s financial health (Department of Health (2008)).

All charitable, non-profit organizations have to file certain forms with the Internal

Revenue Service and, usually, with their state government as well. The annual financial plan

identifies the officer responsible for filing these reports and helps to ensure that filing occurs

correctly and on time.

References

Borkowski, N. (2005) Organizational Behaviour in Health Care USA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers Inc

Corcoran, N 2007 Communicating Health, Strategies for Health Promotion London: Sage

Department of Health (2008a) High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review London: Crown