Overview
The selected case study is about Huntington Hospital (HH), which is located in Pasadena, California. HH was a non-profit regional healthcare facility with a bed capacity of 625. In particular, the case study revolves around Kim Markey who started working at Huntington Hospital (HH) in November 2012 as the executive director of revenue cycle (Soule & Drabkin, 2015). The case study focuses on the mission and vision of HH. The long-term vision of Markey involved a re-evaluation of the implemented revenue cycle and the processes of the hospital. This move would enable her to improve the overall performance of this medical facility. However, achieving the long-term vision was not an easy task since she had to control her metrics. Consequently, she could be in a position to transform the departments that she oversaw into business centres that focused on the various needs of the patients. Additionally, Markey would eliminate all the barriers for the patients and the issues that were facing her departments. As a result, most people would recognize HH as “an organization that is going to work with you to help you understand what’s going on.”
The case study starts by presenting the environment, which Markey experienced in her first days in the Business Services Office. She was confused about the best action to take as the executive director due to her low morale and tensed atmosphere in the organization. Additionally, the case study discussed a major software conversion that Huntington Hospital was preparing to implement (Soule & Drabkin, 2015). Markey knew that the HH would be negatively impacted by the software from the experience. Therefore, all the current processes had to be cleaned up. Besides, the efficiency of AR days had to be enhanced as much as possible to reduce the upcoming increase. Two consultants were brought to the medical centre to do so.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Approach
Based on its mission and vision statements the organization’s approach to strategic planning seems to be effective. The hospital's mission involves focusing on high-quality, patient-centred care. The long-term plan entailed evaluating the hospital's revenue cycle and all the processes thus enabling HH to be ranked as a stronger performer in the industry. Therefore, the strategies that Markey implemented were suitable in achieving both the mission and vision of HH. These approaches would enable the organization to improve the services offered to the patients, which is the primary goal of any healthcare facility (Perera & Peiró, 2012). For example, focusing on the Accounts Receivable (AR) would lower the operational expenses significantly thus improving the overall performance of the healthcare facility. Secondly, eliminating all the barriers would be an effective approach towards improving healthcare services offered to the patients and improve the performance of all business departments in the organization. Finally, cleaning the existing processes in the hospital and AR days was an effective strategy. This would enable her to achieve better results since the hospital had not emerged as a strong performer despite those processes being in place for some time.
Issue
The prevailing issue in the selected case study is about ineffective business processes and strategies in the medical facility, which were acting as roadblocks to moving forward. In particular, Accounts Receivable (AR), which is a major billing metric was relatively high. Additionally, the adopted revenue cycle was ineffective. Consequently, Noble hired Markey to focus on these two major areas of business operation as a way of improving the overall performance of the organization. Another issue experienced in the case study was the adoption of the software. From her experience, Markey knew that the implementation of software would not work but rather it would harm the AR days of HH.
Concern
I think the overall strategic planning concerns for the healthcare organization concerning this issue is coming up with strategies that will address the current issues. In particular, the executive director needs to implement a measure that will address issues relating to Accounts Receivable (AR) and the revenue cycle. Additionally, Markey needs to suggest a software that will be effective for the operations of HH rather than implementing software that was likely to affect AR days negatively.
Role
I feel that the healthcare manager plays a significant role in terms of strategic planning around this issue. The manager is charged with the responsibility of making the final decision regarding the proposed strategies in the medical facility. Markey might suggest the strategies that she believes are effective in addressing the current issues. However, these approaches cannot be implemented in the healthcare facility without the approval of the manager. For instance, the manager has the responsibility of approving the implementation of new business process and software in the healthcare centre.
Stakeholders
The issue addressed in the case study affect several stakeholders. First, the issue affects the manager since she is concerned with the overall performance of the organization (Parand et al 2014). Therefore, the manager is blamed for any failure in the organization. The manager serves the role of approving the suggested approaches in strategic planning within the organization. Other stakeholders can propose effective measures but they cannot be implemented without the approval of the manager. Additionally, the staffs working in the accounting department are affected by the issue. They are charged with the responsibility of keeping all financial records of the organization. They are responsible for suggesting the most effective measures in the strategic planning within the organization. Finally, the patients are affected by the issue. Ineffective operations in the organization interfere with the quality of healthcare services offered to the patients in the facility.
References
Perera, F. D. P. R., & Peiró, M. (2012). Strategic planning in healthcare organizations. Revista Española de Cardiología (English Edition) , 65 (8), 749-754.
Parand, A., Dopson, S., Renz, A., & Vincent, C. (2014). The role of hospital managers in quality and patient safety: a systematic review. BMJ open , 4 (9), e005055.
Soule, S & Drabkin, D. (2015). Huntington Hospital (A): Empowering Staff . Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/USER/Downloads/HCM%20415%20Case%2013%20Huntington%20Hospital.pdf
