BayCare Health System, under the Trinity Health, is based in Clearwater, the state of Florida, the United States of America (Trinity Health, 2019) . BayCare is a leading not-for-profit healthcare system that connects the communities around Florida to a complete range of healthcare services across fifteen hospitals within the region. BayCare has actively been involved in the improvement of in-patient and outpatient health services. However, the challenges facing the healthcare administration necessitates the organization to introduce change (Trinity Health, 2019) . The purpose of the consultation is to find out the best practices that characterize change in the firm. The consultation process will begin by describing the organization to identify the current needs of gaps within the organization’s capability to provide adequate services to the Floridian community (Trinity Health, 2019) . The primary needs of the population that BayCare serves will be defined as well, and the role of the nurses identified, which will identify what the population is lacking from the nurses. The recommendation for the change will be provided, and a measurement plan identified.
Organizational Analysis
As aforementioned, BayCare Health System is majorly located in Clearwater, Florida, the United States of America. BayCare Health System also has locations in the other states across the US, such as Georgia, Alabama, California, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, among others (Trinity Health, 2019) . The enhanced presence of the organization ensures that it reaches the target customers in the market effectively. The firm is a not-for-profit healthcare organization and is categorized in the health care services and hospitals industry In the US (Trinity Health, 2019) . Approximately, BayCare Health System has over 10000 employees who keep the organization running and the services delivered to the targeted patients (Trinity Health, 2019) . As a whole, Trinity Health serves diverse communities with people totaling more than thirty million across twenty-two states in the US. The major departments in the BayCare Health System include the inpatient and outpatient services, which include acute, and primary care, home care, urgent care, and the laboratory and imaging sections (Trinity Health, 2019) . The leadership structure practiced by BayCare Health System is the hierarchical system of leadership, which ensures that every worker is answerable to a senior position manager. Clearwater has an estimated population of slightly above 115,000, which is directly the targeted community by BayCare Health System (Trinity Health, 2019) . The average family size in Clearwater, according to the 2010 census was 2.79, with the largest age group between 25 and 44 years (United States Census Bureau, 2018) . The individuals between 18 and 24 years were the least in Clearwater, which is an indicator that BayCare Health System takes care of an aging population with more complications than the younger generation. The per capita income of Clearwater was $ 22,786, with 12.3% of the population living below the poverty line (United States Census Bureau, 2018) . Most of the individuals below the poverty line were either below 18 or above 65 years of age. The hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient services. Typically, BayCare Health System handles cases involving acute and primary care, behavioral and home care health, and urgent care. The organization also provides additional services such as the laboratory and imaging services within reach of most of the Clearwater residents.
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BayCare Health System has a more in-depth focus on the primary healthcare needs of the population in Clearwater. One of the primary needs of residents of Clearwater is to eradicate influenza. Across the state of Florida, influenza has spread to a sizeable number of people ( Voorhees et al., 2017) . Also known as flu, influenza is a viral respiratory malady that is mainly spread from one person to another through the droplets resulting from the infected people coughing, talking, or sneezing. Like an infection that spreads rather fast, BayCare Health System has had to take strategic measures to battle the virus within Clearwater as well as in the other cities and rural areas in Florida ( Voorhees et al., 2017) . BayCare Health System vaccinates the residents of Clearwater against influenza as soon as medical researchers and experts predict an outbreak of the viral infection such as in a particular season. BayCare Health System also educates residents of Clearwater on the benefits of proper hand washing hygiene and ensuring that their children and they stay at home when affected to avoid spreading the illness to other people and contributing positively to the emergence of an influenza epidemic ( Voorhees et al., 2017) . The other primary need of Clearwater residents is to reduce drug and substance abuse among its members. BayCare Health System sensitizes the residents on the negative effects of drug and substance abuse such as the breaking of homes and the emergence of criminal issues, which are currently at their minimum in the city as well as in the rest of the state. The other primary need of the residents is to eradicate the abuse of tobacco. The state of Florida as a whole has been known for the abuse of tobacco, which BayCare Health System has strategized on how to advise the population to desist their addiction by gradually cutting down their tobacco intake. The population of Clearwater primarily needs to eradicate sexual violence. The hospital has been actively involved in the battle against sexual violence that made headlines regarding the state of Florida years back.
Nurse Leader Interview Summary
According to the nurse leader interview, the nurse leaders in the hospitals have various formal and informal roles that are in line with their designated functions within the healthcare institutions. From a formal perspective, the nurse leaders take up managerial roles that guide the professional paths of the other nurses that they work with at the institutions, which is in line with the formal influence of the nurse leader as described in The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing . Therefore, formal nurse leaders influence professional standing at hospitals. The findings of the interview indicate that informal leaders are majorly nurses with a high level of clinical competency recognized as medical experts, which agrees with the discussion tabled in The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing . The informal nurse leaders influence the group work in the clinical settings that produce a change in spheres of customer influence within the organizations. The roles of the nurse leaders are similar to the roles stipulated in The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing . The other formal role of nurse leaders is advocacy ( American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011) . Largely, the nurse leaders advocate for the patients, nurses, and their profession. Their advocacy provides a bridge that connects the patients to the organization to induce quality healthcare ( American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011) . The other role of the nurse leader, according to the interview, is to ensure quality patient care, which they control, outcomes through their formal and informal influences. From a generalized point of view, the nurse leaders lead the nursing profession from a level to another.
One of the strengths of BayCare Health System is strong leadership. In line with the leadership style within the organization, the selected leaders and managers are able to execute their functions such as by easily delegating their extra work to their juniors. For example, the nurse leaders can have more patients under efficient and quality medical care owing to the strategic delegations of their roles to the workers. The other strength is the dedication of the workers. With a team of more than ten thousand workers at their disposal, BayCare Health System can foster a spirit of quality patient care such as by enhancing the competency in customer service ( Fischer, 2016) . One of the drawbacks of BayCare Health System is its narrow focus from a geographic perspective. The hospital majorly focuses on smaller towns within Florida and the rest of the states across the US, which leaves potential customers unattended for from the major cities such as Miami and Tallahassee, both in the state of Florida. The other weakness of the organization is the lack of adequate funds to ensure that the quality improvements that are scheduled at the hospital stay afloat. The organization is thus, forced to postpone or otherwise cancel some of their projects, which may improve the services at the hospital if implemented. The last weakness of BayCare Health System is the lack of adequate patient-centeredness, which reduces the quality of care. Increasingly, the not-for-profit healthcare organizations in the United States of America are making use of the evidence-based strategies of approaching the primary healthcare needs of the population. As part of the evidence-based approach to the primary healthcare needs of the society, BayCare Health System fulfills the community health needs assessment (CHNA) provision of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( Pennel, McLeroy, Burdine, & Matarrita-Cascante, 2015) . The approach of BayCare Health System to the primary needs of the community health through a CHNA perspective has led to the diversity in the medical needs outlook of the organization and the reporting of quality in healthcare. BayCare Health System has been focused on increasing the quality of care that is given to the patients at its institution ( Pennel, McLeroy, Burdine, & Matarrita-Cascante, 2015) . The issues such as nursing leadership are important to the hospital when it comes to the need to improve the quality of services at the organization. Therefore, BayCare Health System has been involved in elaborate education for the nurse leaders to affect both formal and informal leadership styles that influence the nursing paths at the hospital ( Pennel, McLeroy, Burdine, & Matarrita-Cascante, 2015) . Additionally, the other professionals also acquire the education opportunities that make them better at customer service operations.
Recommendation for Organization Change
Recommendation
The main recommendation for the organizational change at BayCare Health System is the improvement of patient-centeredness at the hospital. The various aspects of patient-centeredness to be focused on are the customer service, patient satisfaction, the Hospital Consumer of Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) and customer experience ( Wick et al., 2015) . In as much as BayCare Health System has planned for the quality improvement to center on the patient care and the delivery of affordable and efficient services, the former has had gaps in the patient-centered approach of the firm. Therefore, the recommendation serves the purpose of increasing the focus on patients in the Clearwater community ( Wick et al., 2015) . The benefit of working on the various aspects of patient-centeredness in the case of BayCare Health System range from the ability of the hospital to bring more patients and healthcare customers under the affordable medical care and the fulfillment of the hospital’s vision to adequately handle the primary healthcare and social needs of the population around Clearwater.
The first effort that BayCare Health System can make use of to enhance patient-centeredness is the strife to deliver the healthcare services based on the schedule of the patients rather than that of the hospital ( Gurewich, Cabral, & Sefton, 2016) . The recommendation works on improving patient satisfaction and customer service. Most of the not-for-profit healthcare institutions in Florida and the rest of the United States of America have become a failure by focusing on the patient schedules that are convenient for their institutions such as by being reluctant to handle emergency cases occurring late in the night. BayCare Health System can observe and prioritize the schedule of the patients by avoiding the unnecessary long waits for the laboratory results to be dispatched, for example, to reduce the cruelty and disrespect associated with the practice and is capable of inducing the patient dissatisfaction ( Gurewich, Cabral, & Sefton, 2016) . To alleviate such a problem, BayCare Health System can have the patients assigned to specific nurses, which will save the diagnosis and treatment times at the hospital. More efforts on customer service can be seen in the warm nature of the nurses and the doctors as they take care of the patients from within the Clearwater community. Excellent customer service is not necessarily cut out of stone and inflexible; healthcare practitioners may implement their innovative customer service processes such as by greeting the patients warmly by the reception or the waiting area ( Gurewich, Cabral & Sefton, 2016) . However, BayCare Health System can have more elaborate customer service operations such as by having stopwatches to notify the patients of the end of their waiting time to reduce the wastage of time that would have in the past led to patient dissatisfaction and poor customer service. The patients can also have appointment cards with exact directions and the name of the healthcare practitioner who is supposed to take care of their medical needs ( Gurewich, Cabral & Sefton, 2016) . To boost patient satisfaction, customer service, and patient-centeredness at BayCare Health System, the employees need to be sensitized on the growing importance of educating themselves on handling customer concerns and complaints. Mostly, the healthcare sector of the United States of America handles a significant number of concerns and complaints from patients whose remarks target diagnostics, treatment, and the customer service at the organizations ( Gurewich, Cabral & Sefton, 2016) . Therefore, more education on customer service and patient-centeredness will increase the effective handling of patients concerns and complaints.
Patient-centeredness has a lot to do with the verbal and nonverbal cues that are used in the hospital. Majorly, the wrong approach of patient satisfaction and customer service is closely related to the poor use of language and non-verbal cues when the patients are involved. An example is the employees at the healthcare institution avoiding eye contact with the patients and acting indifferent ( Paternotte et al., 2015) . Etiquette is supposed to characterize most of the staff-patient interactions for the sustainability of the patient-centered treatment and customer service at BayCare Health System.
The HCAHPS is part of the customer experience determiners in the healthcare industry ( Mann, Siddiqui, Kurbanova & Qayyum, 2016) . BayCare Health System has to ensure that its systems are working correctly to improve the transparency, improvement of procedures, and the betterment of results within the institution. The improvement of the systems such as with the use of technology to enhance the communication within the hospital leads to the emergence and growth of the culture regarding the employee-customer interactions that boost the customer experience at BayCare Health System not to mention the significant increase in patient satisfaction and customer service at the institution ( Mann et al., 2016) . Particularly, a blame-free environment for the medical practitioners at BayCare Health System will increase their friendly attitudes towards their patients and substantially grow their motivation to be of help to the patients that require them. The advancement of technology has presented numerous ways of boosting the systems in the healthcare market, and BayCare Health System needs to take advantage of the same ( Mann et al., 2016) . Related to the need for a blame-free environment in the patient-centered medical care, results have indicated that nurses who work in environments where they are bullied and disrespected are more likely to indicate employees’ turnover than those who are in respectful and bully-free environments. The leaders at BayCare Health System have a task to ensure maximum respect and reduce the bullying cases at their workplaces to attract and retain competent nurses who are capable of moving the organization closer towards its objectives of patient-centeredness ( Mann et al., 2016) . The broad approach to HCAHPS by the organization enables the BayCare Health System to create more patient-centered healthcare goals that are mostly aimed at increasing the quality of patient care for its customers. The organization can take advantage of that to increase the customer experience in the institution.
Rationale
The value of patient-centeredness is inherent to the development of quality patient care in the case of BayCare Health System, which has been covered as one weakness in its SWOT analysis. With the patient centered care in mind, it is essential for the hospital to cover a larger geographical area in patient care and allocate more funds in its quality improvement projects. In as much as the organization has had the vision of integrating quality projects to expand the institution’s scope to the community within and without Clearwater, most of the projects lack a direct link to the patient-centeredness. The organization aside, the employees are hardly involved in the quality projects and to help them own the change and channel it to effective patient care. The recommendation to boost the patient-centeredness at the organization will, therefore, address the needs of the organization in terms of the fulfillment of the goals targeting patient satisfaction, improvement of customer service, enhancement of HCAHPS and the increase in the positivity associated with customer experience at the hospital. Concerning the addressing of the community’s needs, there will be more than just effective treatment of community members by providing them with more cutting-edge customer service to attract more Clearwater residents.
Measurement of effectiveness
The recommendation to change BayCare Health System to a more patient-centered institution has to follow a national benchmark of performance to have a clearly defined effectiveness measure put in place to monitor the proposed change. The national benchmark, in this case, is the improvement in patient-centeredness, which will be indicated by the change in the number of patients visiting BayCare Health System, and the reviews they give regarding services received at the hospital ( Tzelepis, Sanson-Fisher, Zucca, & Fradgley, 2015) . An increase in the number of patients visiting the organization will indicate their satisfaction by the patient-centered care practiced by the staff. An influx in positive reviews will also indicate a better patient experience at the facility as a fruit of the patient-centered care. The benchmark will have three measures. The first measure will be the “Far away from the benchmark,” which will account for a measure that has not achieved 50% of the benchmark. The other measure will be the “Close to benchmark,” which will account for the values of measures that are between 50% and 90%. The last measure will be the “Achieved benchmark or better,” which will indicate the measures, which are or have surpassed 90% of the targeted benchmark and those that are even better than the benchmark.
Conclusion
BayCare Health System is a not-for-profit organization mainly located in Clearwater, Florida, and provides healthcare services to the community within the city. The organization provides the Floridian population with both inpatient and outpatient medical care services which extend to handling the emergence of influenza as an epidemic common to most regions within the state of Florida. After an interview regarding the roles of nurse leaders, it is indubitable that the nursing leadership involves both formal and informal ways of influencing nursing. The best recommendation that will lead to the improvement of customer service, patient satisfaction, customer experience, and HCAHPS adherence is the introduction of patient-centeredness.
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