Middleville Regional Healthcare

Middleville Regional Healthcare

Institution

Name

Date of Submission

Middleville Regional Healthcare

The crucial role for the governing board of every organization is to oversee the activities of the organization. In addition to the oversight role, the governing body is also responsible for policy making. The governing board also plays a significant role in making crucial decisions that pertain to the achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives.

1. Role, responsibility, and involvement of the governing board in the strategic initiatives

The oversight role played by the governing board of Middleville Regional Healthcare is the most significant. In the exercise of this role the governing board is entrusted to oversee all the activities that take place within the organization. The governing board will therefore be held accountable for the irresponsibility of staff in the nursing department, emergency department and the clinic. Oversight role ensure that the operations within these departments run smoothly so that the organization can meet its set objectives. Policy making is also an important aspect of the governing board’s responsibilities. Policies are important in outlining how the functions of an organization are to be carried out. Well outlined policies ensure smooth running of the organization’s activities and ensures they are carried out in a coordinated manner. Policies should be evaluated regularly to ensure there are no collisions among the staff carrying out various functions. The other fundamental role that the governing board plays pertains to making of decisions. For Middleville Regional Healthcare to meet its vision, mission and objectives, decision making is vital. Proper decision making process requires an assessment of the present performance so that future projections can be made with more efficiency. Strategic initiatives are meant to ensure efficiency in the running of an organization. Middleville Regional Healthcare’s governing board needs to foresee the performance of various departments in order4 to gauge their performance and determine how these can be improved. There has to be coordination between the governing board and the management. The management is responsible for the planning and the board is responsible for harmonizing the plans so that optimal strategy can be arrived at and to assess whether the organization is headed in the right direction. From the statistics provided Middleville Regional Healthcare need to readjust its facilities to cater for the high number of admissions. A case example is that the facility has only 575 beds with an admission level of 13,000 patients. It can be concluded that the healthcare facility can only accommodate 575 patients but given the high number of patients being admitted, the facility needs more beds. The facility needs to be diversified into different wings each serving a specific category of patients. There is therefore need for employment of more staffs to cater to the patients with more efficiency. Middleville Regional Healthcare also needs to employ modern technology for record keeping purposes for easier reference. The implementation of the above recommendations by the governing board of Middleville Regional Healthcare will improve not only the performance of the staffs but also the efficiency of this healthcare facility.

Patients are always interested in the quality of service they get from a healthcare facility. Healthcare organizations must improve the quality of service they offer so that they can build trust within the community. Various measures taken into account by a healthcare facility may include process measure, structure measure, and the outcome measure.

1. Three quantitative measures that Middleville can use to measure its success in providing quality healthcare to the community, identifying quantifiable and measurable indicators and the importance for each performance measurement.

The process measure of success indicates the operations of the healthcare facility. The measure looks at the length of stays for patients and could include immunization rates for children as well. Process measure further indicates what the healthcare provider has done so that they can maintain and improve the quality of health for the patients. Process measure also provides essential information to patients concerning the level of quality of service they expect from a healthcare facility. Likewise, process measure informs patients on the conditions they are likely to get assistance from a healthcare facility. The process measure is therefore vital in determining the quality of health patients acquire from a healthcare facility.

The structure measure is another crucial measure of the success of a healthcare facility. Structure measure provides patients with information about the healthcare provider capacity and whether they can obtain quality care from the facility. The statistics provided about Middleville Regional Healthcare show that the facility does not have enough beds to accommodate the high number of patients. Further, there is need to hire more staff to take care of the high number of patients being admitted to the hospital. In this regard, Middleville Regional Healthcare needs to consider purchasing more beds and hiring more medical staffs.

The outcome measure of success is also an essential measure of the success of a healthcare facility. The outcome measure assesses the efficiency of healthcare services that the patient receives. Middleville Regional Healthcare should consider patients specifications to remove doubt as to whether they were treated in the prescribed manner. Outcome measure, therefore, evaluates the patient’s health before and after treatment and has a higher contribution to the determination of the success of the healthcare facility.

To maintain its competitive market share and as well continue providing healthcare to the community, Middleville Regional Healthcare requires to focus on some areas. The number of beds in the facility is very low as compared to the high number of patients it admits. On the other hand, Brierfield Health Care has 380 beds that are 195 less than those owned by Middleville Regional Healthcare. Greystone Healthcare is not as powerful competitor to Middleville Regional Healthcare as Brierfield Health Care. Middleville Regional Healthcare is, therefore, Middleville Regional Healthcare by bed spaces and patient admissions. Despite the low number of beds held by Brierfield Health Care, it admits more patients than Middleville Regional Healthcare. This suggests that Brierfield Health Care might be offering better healthcare services than Middleville Regional Healthcare. There is, therefore, need to improve the quality of services provided by Middleville Regional Healthcare as to increase its share in the market.

1. Areas that Middleville should focus on to maintain its competitive market share and to continue providing healthcare to the community.

Moreover, Middleville Regional Healthcare needs to consider improving the hygiene levels of the environment. A clean environment is more appealing to patients, and as a result, this will serve to increase the patients who seek services from the facility. The attractiveness of the medical personnel is another factor that needs to be considered. An increase in motivation of the medical personnel tends to make them friendlier to the patients since their needs are as well satisfied. Middleville Regional Healthcare should consider motivation strategy to its staff since this will improve their friendliness to the patients. The patient-friendly medical staff so achieved will attract more patients to Middleville Regional Healthcare and thus serve to increase its market share.

Technological developments in the past years are credited with the innovation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR). The implementation of EMR has become a necessity for every healthcare that seeks to maintain a competitive advantage. The recent interest by some of Middleville Regional Healthcare’s board members suggesting the need for implementation of EMR and associated health data systems will result in the facility incurring some costs and benefits.

1. Some of Middleville’s Board members are very interested in pursuing advanced technology systems over the next five (5) years, while others are concerned about the enormous expense and need assurance that the investment in technology will be worthwhile. In both monetary and process terms, describe the costs and benefits associated with implementing EMR and associated health data systems. Lay out a plan for how various systems can be implemented

The implementation of EMR and the associated data systems will result in some significant benefits to Middleville Regional Healthcare. Implementation of EMR at Middleville Regional Healthcare will improve the management of patients’ data. Transfer of patients’ data from one department to the other will be easier and faster when EMR is used as compared to the traditional methods of managing patient data. Additionally, the number of patients served per day will increase significantly. Moreover, with the digitization of medical records space will be saved. Likewise, the level of care accorded to patients will improve since patient’s medical history will be easily accessed. In conclusion, the quality of patient data management is set to improve with the implementation of EMR and the associated data systems, and this will help Middleville Regional Healthcare to maintain its competitive advantage.

On the other hand, the implementation of the EMR and associated health data systems will make Middleville Regional Healthcare incur some significant costs. The cost of purchase and installation of EMR and the associated data systems is high, and this will make Middleville Regional Healthcare incur substantial initial costs that would harm its financial sustainability. Likewise, security costs primarily related to threats in privacy will be costly to the facility. Conflict of interest may also where the systems are used to manage the patient’s medical records more efficiently, but some patients may fear that the privacy of the medical records will be compromised.

Retaining of healthcare personnel has become a nightmare in the recent periods due to the rising need to satisfy the medical staffs with the limited budgetary allocations provided to the facilities. Middleville comes about as a victim where it has faced enormous challenges in retaining its medical personnel. The human resource department of Middleville Regional Healthcare, therefore, has the obligation of recognizing the services provided by the staff so that they may feel satisfied with their work. There are some ways through which Middleville Regional Healthcare Human Resource Department might exploit to promote employee satisfaction and as a result retain its experienced personnel.

1. Suggestions to the Human Resource to promote employee satisfaction and retain experienced personnel.

Employees with an outstanding performance need motivation. Giving monetary considerations as salary increase4 will in some way serve to motivate employees, and this will improve their satisfaction in their place of work. A group of employees will feel more satisfied with their work if they receive promotions in their place of work. Other employees will feel more satisfied with their jobs if their leave periods are observed. Regular gifts such as trip sponsorships given to the employees will also improve their satisfaction in their work and thereby reduce the likelihood of seeking alternative employers. Most significantly, equality in the treatment of employees helps retain more employees. The implementation of the above strategies by the Human Resource department of Middleville Regional Healthcare will serve to achieve the goal of attaining employee satisfaction and retain its experienced personnel.

References

Kash, B., Spaulding, A., Johnson, C., & Gamm, L. (2014). Success factors for strategic change initiatives : A qualitative study of healthcare administrators’ perspectives. Journal of Healthcare Management 59(1), 65-81. Retrieved from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: https://healthit.ahrq.gov/key-topics/electronic-medical-record-systems

Spurgeon, P., Clark, J., & Ham, C. (2017). Medical leadership: from the dark side to centre stage. CRC Press. Retrieved from Board Effect: fect.com/blog/roles-responsibilities-board-directors-hospital/

Trucker III, J. (2018). Practitioner Application: Sustained Hospital Performance on HCAHPS Survey Measures What Are the Determinants. Journal of Healthcare Management, 29-30.