Competence Assessment of Tenet Health Center - Case Study Example

Tenet Health Center Introduction to the Organization Tenet Healthcare Corporation is perhaps one of the leading healthcare providing consortia acrossAmerica, operating about fifty general hospitals partly owned by the company’s subsidiaries and other stakeholders. Other specialized facilities run by the consortium include cancer referral centers and critical access facilities that are spread across the US. Its headquarters situated in Dallas have the overall operations direction across the subsidiaries, but some of them operate slightly independently due to the ownership distribution. Due to the challenges facing the healthcare sector in the US, a well-coordinated management and fairly large coverage and distribution enable the organization to tap in one of high opportunity industries in the US. In this presentation, various perspectives are taken on the operations and performance of the organization and its subsidiaries in the healthcare industry. In light of the sensitivity that faces the healthcare sector in the US, the performance of Tenet Healthcare Corporation can be termed as a milestone as illustrated by the many challenges that the corporation has had to bear. On one side, the healthcare policy holds a central position in American politics and public opinion and affects the industry in various ways. Alternatively, the ever-increasing demand healthcare services in the US as well as at the global arena make the successes and the capacity to rise against the odds in the industry an important yardstick for quality amid difficulties. 1. Environmental Assessments Internal Assessment Managing abundance successfully facilitates reorganization to overcome inadequacies for a huge corporation such as Tenet Healthcare, which in 2011 had a total of about 13,500 licensed beds. The figures of the beds can be projected to rise through 2012 due to the spirited efforts at the corporation to expand current capacity and extend services across the country. During the same period, a total of 11 states were covered by the consortium through its subsidiaries distributed widely across the country. Distribution of the facilities and hospitals also cuts across urban and suburban areas, making healthcare services accessible to more people than it would otherwise be possible at the current American need for healthcare. At this capacity and coverage, the corporation has been able to make milestone contributions in its growth based on certain factors. One of the internal strengths of the corporation is its ability to handle employees’ welfare needs from a vantage perspective so as to build motivation and encourage commitment at work. As mentioned above, the healthcare industry has high work pressure and keeping the employees focused and motivated in their work is an important contribution at Tenet. According to DDI (n.d), increasing employee retention by improving relations with the employer has contributed to reduced labor turnover, increased employee satisfaction as well reduced cost-per-hire. This was achieved after the establishment of a partnership with DDI to introduce the Tenet Leaders development forum that enhanced human resource management and incidental issues. Additionally, specification into the provision of acute care through relevant institutions and facilities makes it enjoy the benefit of occupying a special niche hat augurs well with its objectives. From the name of the corporation, Tenet, the driving force of shared values that bring together all stakeholders is enshrined in its objectives. The stakeholders including the employees, practitioners and insurance companies play a vital role in interpreting the corporation’s objectives right from the name of the institution to inclusion of all players. Another internal strength originates from a dedicated customer care center that offers call services to reach patients the entire week on a 24-hour basis. This function of the management of patient’s concerns builds public image on the perception of reception at Tenets outlets. Alternatively, the call functionality enhances the relationship the professionals build with the customers making it a preferred service provider in the healthcare sector. To illustrate the attention and importance with which the management allocates to the call center function, over 700,000 calls have bee reported across the 60 attendant capacities (Impact 360, 2006). From the response given by the callers, the quality of service provision is sufficient to sustain operations for the foreseeable future, at over 90 percent of monthly appraisals. Some of the internal weaknesses recorded at Tenet Corporation include medical billing claims of fraud that greatly affected the public image (McLaughlin, 2008). Internal opportunities include unparalleled growth capacity introduced by technology on all operations levels, thanks to the information and communication innovations. External Assessment In terms of the external environment, Tenet faces a complex healthcare service provision environment just like any other player in the industry. The US Government is under intense pressure to bring reforms every year into the overcrowded industry driven by the insurance policy requirement. The American population is, therefore, sensitive to slight difficulties in the industry as witnessed in the political arena, which becomes an important concept in presidential campaigns. Perhaps one of the success factors for the call center is based on the assurance hungry population, which forces medical services providers to include such concerns in their operations. Tenet Corporation has an opportunity to thrive in the American market due to the increased level of demand for healthcare services if the applicable reorganization enables taking advantage of the opportunity. Among the major threats facing the corporation include, the thriving of specialty clinics with a popular following due to excellent service backed by cutting-edge technology. Despite the internal belief of capacity to offer similar competence at Tenet, the high specialization level at these clinics presents a threat to the respective area of specialization. This implies that the factor of competition to the opportunities available in the market leaves Tenet in a speculative moment. Alternatively, the pressure from government regulation, which affects earnings, also presents uncertainties to the organization. In addition, huge sections of the population that remain uninsured within the healthcare system or underinsured status affect the provision of services in the industry. Within the environment of thriving healthcare business elsewhere, Tenet faces the challenge of sustaining the current workforce without movements out of the corporation in search of better working terms from independent practitioners (Mercer and Shyr, 2010). 2. Overview and Assessments of Services Provided Tenet Healthcare Corporation offers healthcare services on four main portfolio fronts. Firstly, general hospitals constitute a majority of the institutions affiliated to the corporation, offering a wide range of ordinary healthcare service offered at a general hospital. Secondly, acute care hospitals, which constitute a higher specialization level of healthcare, form part of the services institutions that Tenet Healthcare Corporation supports. These institutions support isolated cases of specialized care that may not be available at the general hospital. Apart from increasing quality at the acute care hospitals for special cases that general hospitals support, acting as referral centers also reduces pressure on the general hospital. Alternatively, it is easier to manage the two sets of healthcare needs for each institution when handled separately. Further on this institution distinction, the other two institutions ass to the complexity function of organization for the tasks assigned to the institutions. The third institution is ambulatory surgery centers with higher professional requirement than the previous two institutions. The fourth type includes diagnostic imaging centers dedicated to diagnosis procedures using specialized imaging technologies. These institutions enable the corporation to distribute various patient needs across its affiliated institutions. In terms of the development of the requirements of the corporation, it is possible for each institution to specialize in a different function and enhance quality. It is possible to regulate operations within the institutions through separation of cases reported due to the ease of handling related cases. Some institutions also act as support centers for the main presenting needs. 3. Competencies and Resource As mentioned above, the partnership with DDI in the reorganization of the human resource by equipping it for the various challenging needs of the industry. A competent human resource in such circumstances as those exposed to the healthcare sector require extra measures as observed. Equipping the human resource to face the environmental challenges is a major competence of the company in the modern knowledge organization. Organizing the business platform to include subsidiaries and affiliate healthcare institutions under an umbrella corporation enables sharing and sharpening of competency and resources. Apparently, remaining competitive must be targeted at increasing market presence and edging past competitors, which is possible under the current Tenet arrangement than if only the parent healthcare facility was in existence. Operating a total of about 50 healthcare outlets across the US must have eventually been driven by the benefits of such organization. Indications of increasing coverage and expanding to other services can only be enabled by pulling resources together. Directing the appropriate resources required for the various needs to the correct departments such as the call center demonstrates the coherence with which business is conducted at Tenet. In an interview with a senior employee at the corporation, there are indications that continued accuracy in resource allocation for the various needs will further reduce the costs of operation and increase revenues accordingly (Humphrey, personal communication, March 10, 2012). 4. Public Entities and Regulatory Requirements As depicted from the beginning, Tenet is a consortium of healthcare institutions operating as subsidiaries across the US. Apart from the basic ownership structure involving the corporation’s ownership of about 45 hospitals, there are private owners contributing a number of hospitals for integration into the consortium for purposes of sharing resources under the brand name. The corporation’s ownership is exercised through subsidiary control of the group of corporations (Deshmukh, 2011). This facilitates extension of ownership and capital base for the corporation. Among the main government controls affecting the performance of the corporation is the insurance coverage of the population, which constitutes Medicare at about 26 percent and Medicaid at about 8.5 percent. Regulations on the government policy of reimbursement will, therefore, affect over a third of the revenue generation, which is significant to the projections on performance. Public cover services have been chaotic as mentioned above due to politicking the sensitive matter of national healthcare policy, making the US one of the worst spenders in terms of healthcare provision. According to the interview with Tenet official, it would be important to adopt polices that favor private sector initiative in the industry instead of antagonizing it (Humphrey, personal communication, March 10, 2012). Cases of fraud at the corporation can be traced back to lack of goodwill between the government and the private sector in running funds for the service (McLaughlin, 2008). Apparently, the most devastating impact would arise from government’s measures such as the introduction of cuts across these insurance coverage programs, which would in turn directly affect revenues and operations at Tenet. It is difficult for the corporation to avoid these regulations in the number of patients admitted at Tenet since hefty fines accompany deliberate avoidance of such government regulations. As an illustration, Tenet has been on record settling $900 million for navigating around the government regulation of patient coverage. It is, therefore, not possible for the corporation to wholly and entirely choose to target particular sections of populations due to the regulation laid down by the government. According the organization’s management, regarding the measures taken to facilitate compliance while at the same remaining competent and productive in the competitive yet volatile market, balancing can only be achieved through expansion (Humphrey, personal communication, March 10, 2012). To this end, Tenet has embraced an expansionary approach for the current facilities while also aiming at increasing the number of subsidiaries. 5. Current and Future Direction of the Organization Within the backdrop of continued demand for healthcare services in the US, the future looks bright in terms of business for Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Volatile economic forces and unstable government policy that seem to change as politics allow perhaps pose the greatest threat to the realization of the benefits that this opportunity would otherwise bring forth. Continued competition in the industry backed by cutting-edge technological advancements act as icing on the cake, but turbulence in economic and political environments present imminent threat to the industry (Humphrey, personal communication, March 10, 2012, March 10, 2012). Whereas several other forces of the market may dictate investment in the sector, providing competitive health care services such as the one designed by Tenet may act as a subsidy against uncertainties in the sector. A wide area of specialization in service provision in the future demands will facilitate further research and development activities in the corporation thereby supporting sustainability and a positive market presence. References DDI (n.d.). “Tenet Realized It,” Retrieved from: http://www.ddiworld.com/DDIWorld/media/client-successes/tenet_cs_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf Deshmukh, T. (2011) “Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC)- Financial and Strategic SWOT Analysis Review,” Retrieved from: http://www.artipot.com/articles/1043081/tenet-healthcare-corporation-thc-financial-and-strategic-swot-analysis-review.htm Impact 360 (2006) “Impact 360 Success Story: Tenet Healthcare,” Retrieved from: http://www.witness.com/content/success%20stories/Tenet%20Healthcare.pdf McLaughlin, E. J. (2008). “Medical Billing Fraud at Tenet Healthcare Corporation,” Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting, 3(1):306-319 Mercer, J., & Shyr, T. (2010). “Tenet Healthcare-THC,” Retrieved from: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Tenet_Healthcare_%28THC%29 Read More