Planning and Measurement in Halthcare Organizations - Essay Sample

Introduction

Planning and measurement contribute significantly to healthcare organizations’ performance. The planning function determines how organizations’ goals will be achieved, and at what cost, while following the federal and regulatory policies. It involves understanding the repercussions of several health matters and approaches to handling them. It also prepares the organizations to tackle any predetermined risks that may affect operations. Through the performance baseline, performance measurements seek to assess the degree to which the different sections in the healthcare systems meet various goals. The importance of these functions is further evaluated in this essay.

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Implications of Various Health Issues and Methods of Managing them

As healthcare organizations focus on quality services for improved patient outcomes, the nature of health issues presented to them affects their performance. Each health issue's complexity demands a unique treatment plan that directly affects the cost and quality of services provided (Ross, 2019). For instance, treating cancer demands that hospitals hire oncologists and invest in equipment such as medical linear accelerators (LINAC). Failure to invest in highly qualified practitioners translates to poor and untimely care services, or increased medical errors, which causes increased patient mortality or prolonged hospital stays. This could also lead to the emergence of lawsuits from patients and families and a tarnished reputation.

Health organizations can manage health issues implications through process improvement. One common way hospitals can improve processes is through the six sigma, which is a quality improvement framework. QI encompasses constant efforts to achieve consistent and desired results, eliminate variations, and improve patient outcomes (Tinker, 2018). It also involves investing in the right medical equipment and training employees to gain skills and knowledge to handle different diseases. This will make processes more efficient, sufficient, timely, and error-free (Ross, 2019). Hospitals will achieve quality and safe health services, which will reduce patient mortality, hospital costs, overstays, and lawsuits, all of which contribute to the organization's performance.

Performance Baselines for Healthcare Organizations

Health organizations can measure their performance based on mortality rates, nature of care, re-admissions, patient experience, and effective use of medical equipment (Tinker, 2018). An increase in mortality rate reflects the failure of medical operations due to medical errors, derailment of service provision, or poor quality services. The performance also depends on the nature of the care provided. Hospitals have to ensure that the care provided to patients is safe, efficient, and timely (World Health Organization, n.d). Increased re-admission cases also show that hospitals failed at controlling and managing medical illnesses. Patient experience and satisfaction are also indicators of quality services (Tinker, 2018). The efficient use of hospital equipment, such as medical imaging, contributes significantly to improved outcomes and more cost-friendly services.

Strategies to manage and measure performance indicators in hospitals include inspection, surveys, statistics, and data recording, and third party assessment (WHO, n.d). Hospitals can conduct inspections to assess patients’ and employees’ safety. Regular inspections measure if processes used provide patients with error-free, quality, and safe care with efficient utilization of hospital resources. Surveys are sufficient for analyzing the patient's satisfaction. Organizations should also assess if the patients felt comfortable, safe, and cared for during their stay in hospitals because it also determines their response towards the medication. Third part assessments involve examining if organizations follow the standards and policies (WHO, n.d). For instance, they could examine if their standards are in line with ISO standards, which are the global standards for quality.

Efficacy of Management Practices in a Contemporary Healthcare Organization

Management in modern healthcare organizations involves preparation, organization, and controlling of processes to accomplish specific goals. The business environment continues to evolve due to contemporary issues rising every day, such as new and complex diseases, lifestyle changes, and the emergence of technology. Efficacy in management means that the managers must adjust to the evolving healthcare environment to efficiently achieve quality with minimal waste of time, labor, and resources. Managers achieve efficiency through efficient planning and organizing (Schang & Morton, 2016), ensuring that hospitals have the right technology, equipment, and skilled labor to run operations.

Managerial efficacy also involves creating a conducive environment for employees to work in, such as building trust, providing the necessary PPEs, employee empowerment, and fulfilling employees' needs. Efficacy is also achieved through streamlining the supply chain to ensure that suppliers deliver quality deliverables at the most efficient cost and time (Schang & Morton, 2016). In the processes, managers oversee efficient processing to reduce wastages that would otherwise increase operational costs or compromise the quality of the patient outcome.

A Crisis Management Plan for a Healthcare Organization

A critical management plan entails all the activities involved in disaster response and management. It involves mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery plans (FEMA. Gov, 2020). The mitigation plan involves activities carried out to reduce the occurrence or effects of a hazard before its occurrence. These activities involve taking insurance policies, investing in resilient structures, and efficient supplies of resources such as oxygen tanks, hospital beds, and medical kits. The preparedness phase encompasses activities that should be carried out in a potential disaster. Hospitals need to prepare the response team by training them on how to actively respond to the different crises. The plan must entail a communication strategy that defines the coordination of information between the hospitals and other agencies (Haddow et al., 2014). During a crisis, people rely on administration guidance, hence the importance of efficient communication.

The response phase involves putting the preparedness plan into action. The organization has to plan how it will effectively provide emergency care to victims, vacate patients and staff to safety, distribute resources to fit victims’ needs, reduce injuries and mortality rate, and work with the federal agencies to control damages. The recovery phase involves getting the organization into shape again. Activities involved include building more resilient structures, repairing any damages, securing compensation from insurance companies and federal government, reassuring stakeholders, and restoration of any network infrastructure. The crisis management plan needs frequent updating (Haddow et al., 2014). Thus, the organization can use disaster simulations and drills to test how ready employees are and how competent it is to handle various disasters.

Impact of Legal and Regulatory Policy on Decision Making and Strategy Development

Legal and regulatory policies are important in healthcare organizations as they set the standards that should be met, thus influence decision-making and strategy development. These policies provide certain guidelines that companies have to meet for their services to be deemed quality and safe and for operations to be legally accepted. Organizations are expected to make decisions every day regarding various operations. Since any health organization's primary objective is to make profits, they are more inclined to make decisions to maximize their profits and overlook other factors such as patients' or environmental safety. According to Herzig (2010), legal and regulatory policies are present to ensure that organizations do not oppress patients, employees, or other organizations in their operations. For instance, HIPAA policies exist to protect patients' data from third parties to reduce any sort of defamation. Failure to follow these regulations could cost the organization its reputation, licenses, or lead to legal liabilities (Herzig, 2010).

Healthcare Organizations Policies for Health Service Vendors

Healthcare organizations use the healthcare vendor contract to address the legal and regulatory necessities to guarantee safety, care, and secrecy of patients. In this contract, organizations pay attention to policies that address legal compliance, organizations’ policies, and patients’ confidentiality. Vendors are expected to adhere to the company's standard policies in terms of quality and safety. This involves delivering deliverables that contribute to the quality of services provided to patients, such as quality medication and safe equipment (Ross, 2019). When it comes to electronic data, vendors are expected to meet the requirements addressed in HIPAA concerning protecting the patients' confidentiality and privacy. They are not expected to share patients' information, and in case of any data breach, vendors are mandated to report to the organization for implementation of the mitigation measures (Herzig, 2010). The vendor should also protect the organization from any legal claims concerning security breach and fulfill the security-related requirements instead.

Conclusion

Conclusively, planning, and measurements allow an organization to improve its operations. By understanding the implications of health issues, it can effectively formulate strategies to control and manage them. The crisis management plan guides the organization in disaster response and management. Federal and regulatory policies dictate the standards that organizations should meet in the provision of care. By using the performance measurements, organizations can gauge their performance and identify the various aspects that may require improvement.

References

FEMA. Gov. (2020). Accessed HYPERLINK "https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4339/emergency-preparedness" https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4339/emergency-preparedness

Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2014). Introduction to emergency management.Herzig, T. W. (2010). Information security in healthcare: Managing risk. Chicago, IL: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Ross, T. (2019). Applying Lean Six Sigma in Health Care. Place of Publication Not Identified: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Schang, L., & Morton, A. (2016). Health system efficacy: how to make measurement matters for policy management. Accessed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436881/

Tinker, A. (2018). The top seven healthcare outcome measures and thee measurement essentials. Accessed https://www.healthcatalyst.com/insights/top-7-healthcare-outcome-measures

World Health Organization. (n.d). How can hospital performance be measured and monitored? Accessed https://www.euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/evidence-informed-policy-making/publications/pre2009/how-can-hospital-performance-be-measured-and-monitored#:~:text=Findings,have%20never%20been%20tested%20rigorously.