1. Review the scenario below.
ABC Hospital is a small, privately owned community hospital. It has been struggling to survive financially, as reimbursement rates have declined and consumers are being drawn to the larger state-of-the-art hospital facilities in urban areas that are perceived to have better quality. ABC Hospital was built in 1960 and has been operating in the same manner for decades. The hospital meets legal and regulatory requirements but has not kept pace with some of the newer technologies and patient conveniences becoming more prevalent in the health care industry.
Write a 50-100 word response to each of the following questions:
Mandatory Question: What strategies can the organization take to survive, improve its performance, and compete with other hospitals over the next 5 years?
Mandatory Question: What are some advantages or disadvantages of these strategies? Provide specific examples to support your answers.
2. XYZ Health Department provides services to county residents. Budget cuts have forced the department to cut back on some services and lay off staff, increasing the workload of the remaining staff. Morale among staff has declined, and county residents have complained that they are not treated with dignity and respect and are not receiving high quality care and service.
Write a 50-100 word response to each of the following questions:
Mandatory Question: What strategies can XYZ Health Department implement to provide high quality care and services to the county residents and to help increase customer satisfaction?
Mandatory Question: How can these strategies help minimize risk and improve quality? Provide specific examples to support your answers.
3. RMF: What approach and tactics may organizations use to stay abreast of the rapid changes occurring in the health care industry?
4. SUMMARY
This week, you focused on strategies organizations may use for ongoing performance improvement in the changing health care industry and current and future trends in risk and quality management in health care. By implementing a strong performance-management system that incorporates risk management and quality management, organizations will be better equipped to comply with regulatory and accreditation requirements and better positioned to address the many challenges that lie ahead: improving patient safety, delivery of care and services, health outcomes, communication, employee morale, customer satisfaction and decreasing errors, negative events, and litigation. With the attention of the health care reform movement and the millions of people who receive health care services, these challenges require extraordinary focus and commitment from all stakeholders.
What are some of the challenges organizations encounter in determining and agreeing on which strategies to use to improve performance?
How can organizations communicate, educate, and train staff on the changes that have a direct effect on their daily operations?