The Health Care Scene: Contemporary Trends

As health care leaders, it is important to understand that health care is quite a dynamic field. Its constant changes are a result of continuing trends in regulation, policy, patient and provider advocacy efforts, as well as increasingly sophisticated technology and industry benchmarking guidelines.

For your assignment you review the possible topics for your Senior Project located in Week Five of your online course or in the "Components of Course Evaluation" section of this guide, and select the topic your training program will address. If you choose not to select a topic from the approved topic list, you must have your original topic approved by your instructor prior to submitting this assignment.

For this assignment, focus on a specific contemporary trend in health care and be sure to include all of the following influences:

Changes in client characteristics

Regulation of the health care industry

Reimbursement patterns and mandates

Restructuring of health care organizations

Impact of technology

Ongoing social and ethical factors

Address the information above as it pertains to your selected topic, in an eight to ten slide (excluding title and reference slides) PowerPoint presentation.

Your presentation should conclude with a summary describing the following concerns:

Overall, why should health care managers be aware of this change and trend?

What impact does this trend have on the stakeholder groups involved (e.g., patients, providers, administrators, third-party payers, legislators, etc.) for a specific organization specified (e.g., for profit, nonprofit, hospital, outpatient clinic, nursing home, etc.).

The information in this presentation will later be used as part of your Senior Project to set the context for the audience you select for a training program on the contemporary trend identified here.

Your presentation must include detailed speaker's notes (i.e., at least 150 words) for each slide as well as a minimum of one to two scholarly sources from theAshford University and one to two current, scholarly web sources.

Your presentation, and any citations used, must be in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Examples of scholarly web sources are available in this week's recommended websites. These sources will also count toward the required sources for your Senior Project. Your presentation must be engaging and relevant to your audience. Lines of text on a slide will not be sufficient for this assignment. It should contain images, graphics, and/or multimedia that communicate your training program clearly to your audience. For tips on creating an excellent presentation, read this overview.

This will be the topics to pick from. Pick only one and we will use at the end of the five weeks for the last project

Approved Topics:

Examine how participative leadership functions in today's modern health care organization and compare it to other types of leadership styles. Evaluate how each type of leadership style may impact organizational culture, employee performance, and how it may help or hinder the legitimacy of authority.

As an administrator, address the challenges of employee recruitment and retention of health care professionals. Additional subtopics may include trends in the nursing workforce, shortage of primary care physicians, staff turnover, retention, and staffing patterns.
Analyze the dual role of a manager and healthcare professional.

Examine challenges that the health professional compared to those of a non-health professional, may face in terms of leadership style, and the impact these challenges have on organizational culture. The benefits of a health professional manager as an organizational resource may also be included.

Explore the career trends of health professionals in organizational leadership positions, such as the types of health professional training that leaders tend to have in common, and the typical demographic background of health professional managers.

The health care industry must anticipate and monitor trends that could possibly affect its overall survival. Analyze how regulation of the health care industry impacts a health care organization. Explore some of the possible survival organizational strategies such as, but not limited to, mergers, and affiliations, achieving accreditation status, professional licensure.

Analyze the impact of technology on how health care services are delivered. The impact of technology on employee performance, organizational structure, and management planning may also be considered.

Analyze the impact of any recent social and/or ethical trends on the health care industry. Discuss at least two issues.

After identifying your topic, choose a health care organization in your area. This organization may be small or large and may provide single inpatient health service or multiple outpatient services; it is your choice.

Consider your topic in light of the leadership of this organization and research the challenges and successes it has faced in managing operational effectiveness. You are welcome to use as many research methods as possible to obtain information for your organization and its managers (e.g., web-based resources, electronic articles, or personal interviews). The more informed you are, the better prepared you will be to complete your project.