Directions for the Healthcare Company: Southcentral Foundation - Capstone Project Example

Southcentral Foundation Southcentral Foundation A brief of the Southcentral Foundation Southcentral Foundation (SCF) is a healthcare organization founded by Cook Inlet Region in 1982. The organization was established with intent to empower Alaska Natives in terms of health and social conditions, cultural uplift, and living standards. Since the foundation of SCF, Alaska Natives have been playing a crucial role in managing, directing, and driving the organization. The innovative leadership of President and CEO Katherine Gottlieb has assisted the SFC to become one of the largest and federally documented tribal health organizations in Alaska. Currently, the organization works to meet the needs of Alaska Natives living in geographical area of 107,413 square miles. The organization is well known for its unique ‘relationship-based healthcare delivery system’ named ‘Nuka System of Care’ (NIST: Baldrige Performance Excellence Program). The SFC offers a wide variety of medical as well as human services to Alaska Natives and American Indians residing in the Municipality of Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough. SFC’s mission is “working together with the Native Community to achieve wellness through health and related services” whereas the organization’s vision statement is “a Native Community that enjoys physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness” (Southcentral Foundation). The major feature of this organization is that its strategies and processes work in partnership with Alaska Natives in order to achieve the long term objectives stated in its vision. SFC has a strong commitment to quality and family wellness. Therefore, the organization employs fully qualified staff in its all key areas of work. In 1998, SFC played a key role in managing the primary care program designed by the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC). In the following year, the organization began to take part in the management and operation of ANMC jointly with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The effective operations of SFC greatly assisted Alaska to become the first state in the United States having all its healthcare facilities for native citizens operated by native organizations. In 2011, SFC was elected for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Implementation of HSA principles and practices The major reason of the Baldrige National Quality Award to Southcentral Foundation is that the organization had implemented the HSA principles and practices in a way that greatly influenced patients, employees, organizations, and society. The SCF’s HSA principles and practices greatly focused on staff management based on the concept that employees form the culture of a health care environment. HSA principles specifically mention the role of senior staff in decision making process. According to these principles, it is necessary to ensure employee participation in decision making so as to obtain balanced and informed points of view (The Nature of Strategic Management. Chapter 1). SCF recruits and trains native staff so as to address the growing issue of staff shortage. This strategy in turn improves the care quality as well. The effective staff management has assisted the organization to maintain a diverse workforce population (approximately 1400 employees) (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Application). In addition, the organization could reduce its overall staff turnover from 37% in 2008 to 17% in 2011 (NIST:Baldrige Performance Excellence Program). In the words of Swayne, Duncan, and Ginter (2012, p. 350), electronic medical records (EMR) would assist health service organization to improve operational efficiency and reduce the rate of medical errors. SCF has developed IT infrastructures to support EMR systems, which in turn benefit the organization to reduce clinical errors. In addition, recruitment and selection of qualified staff for all key areas of work have also benefited SCF to mitigate the issue of medical errors. Development of a comprehensive medical error reporting system and error evaluation process is also helpful for the organization to address this issue. Authors like Swayne, Duncan, and Ginter (2012, pp. 84-85) particularly point out the importance of patient safety. The SCF’s senior management follows a comprehensive approach to patient safety. Those approaches include focusing on National Patient Safety Goals, an automated patient tracer data tool, safety responsibilities for the QA Committee, a confidential compliance hotline, and deployment of resources for process improvement; and in addition, the organization operates the Safety Committee, which is assigned with the responsibility of ensuring standardized clinical practices, safe worksite environment, and other improved facilities (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Application). Financial planning and performance measurement Although a health service organization is a not-for-profit firm, it has also huge financial requirements to meet day to day operations. Hence, financial soundness of health service organizations like SFC must be ensured so as to promote their long term sustainability. Those organisations generate revenues for the purpose of increasing the quality of their facilities and services. In order to achieve this objective, the personnel concerned must possess a minimum level of skills that are essential to administer financial planning and to measure financial performance within the health service organization. Many of the health organizations are of the view that annual budgeting process is the only way to deal with organizational financial planning. In fact, the scope of financial planning is beyond the annual budgeting process. A process named strategic financial planning is vital to improve the financial health of a health organization. This process is characterized with “careful and methodical planning, implementation, and monitoring in a variety of areas” (WIPFLI). Setting up thoughtful short-, mid-, and long-term targets is a crucial tactic needed to promote financial planning and performance measurement in a health service organization. While setting targets, financial executives may use assumptions and generalizations because a department by department buildup of the financial statement is often a difficult task. However, it must be noted that the executives must be experienced and competent enough to make such assumptions and generalizations. In addition, it is necessary to compare the organization’s present financial results with past financial performances and industry benchmarks. This practice would assist the organization to identify potential areas of improvements and its major strengths. Based on past financial performances and expected future financial outcomes, the organization needs to develop potential action plans and initiatives that would benefit firm to meet key financial targets and other operational objectives. In addition, the organization’s financial executives must be skilful in order to make potential decisions regarding capital plan and investment policies. In the context of recovering global economy, a comprehensive study is essential before making investments in a project. Efficiency in financial operations While evaluating the financial affairs of SCF, it seems that the organization focuses more on long-term financial plans. “Long-term financial planning at SCF includes evaluating levels of service which can be supported based on funding projections” (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Application). It is also identified that the organization’s financial performance is better than the national average. At SCF, departments are responsible for planning their annual budgets. Departmental heads are provided with budget education and training to plan their financial needs for the year. This financial leadership program has greatly assisted the organization to improve its financial performance over the years. Although the SCF has developed a comprehensive set of procedures to plan its financial needs and to evaluate financial performance, it seems that the organization is yet to achieve the expected benefits of the financial planning. It is observed that organization fails to identify key financial management areas that are underperformed at a given period of time. This situation significantly affects the operational efficiency and resource allocation process of the organization. In short, SCF’s financial management has to improve its operations in order to achieve the maximum benefits of financial planning. Ethical consideration There are several ethical considerations that are relevant to health care service establishments. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, health care is a human right (Amnesty International). Hence, ethics of health care service organization is a very sensitive issue. As health care is a human right, every person has the right to obtain equal access to health care services regardless of their ethnicity, religion, politics, sex, or any other factor. In short, discriminatory health service is major ethical consideration limiting the efficiency of health service organizations. Health discrimination becomes a major problem in areas where cultural diversity is more apparent. In those areas, health organizations usually try to meet the needs of native communities only because they (organizations) are not so conversant with the customs and practices of immigrant population. Although the concept of culturally competent care has limited the potential of this issue, healthcare discrimination still appears to be a main problem challenging the ethics of health service organizations. Service quality and patient safety are other two ethical considerations relevant to health service organizations. It is clear that patient safety is the ultimate objective of every healthcare facility. Today, nurse shortage is an alarming issue in the health care environment due to several reasons including low remuneration and family obligations. Evidently, staff shortage adversely affects the service quality and patient safety. Although health service organizations try to address this issue by employing part-time staff, this strategy does not improve the situation because those part-time staff may be often inexperienced and unskilled. Medical practitioners suggest that an under-staffed health care environment is extremely vulnerable to issues like medical errors, which would dreadfully affect patient safety. Hence, problems including staff shortage, medical errors, and declined patient safety raise a set of potential ethical challenges to health service institutions. Reportedly, health service institutions do not often pay much attention to patient rights listed in the patients’ bill of rights. To illustrate, sometimes health service organizations do not reveal entire treatment plan/information to patients due to several reasons. Undoubtedly, such issues raise some ethical challenges to health sector as a whole. Challenges in healthcare organizations Researchers have identified some potential challenges in health care organizations with regard to collecting, sharing, and protecting patient information. Today, patient data and information are collected, stored, and shared electronically as this practice adds to convenience, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of health care operations. With the development of mobile computing technology, patients can monitor their vital signs from home without the assistance of a physician. They upload the observations to clinical server of the healthcare provider and obtain the physician’s suggestions through electronic means. There are some potential security threats related to collecting, sharing, and protecting patient information. The security of electronic patient records are often compromised as a result of malware attacks, network breakdowns, and computer hacking. Evidently, each patient’s medical records are their own personal property and hence patient records should not be accessed by anyone other than those permitted to do so. In other words, health service organizations have an ethical obligation to ensure the confidentiality of those records. However, often they fail to guarantee the security of patient data due to the growing threat of online fraud like phishing, vishing, smishing, and cloning. As compared to these threats, insider attacks are more difficult to prevent because such attacks are initiated by the organization’s employees who have legitimate access to information systems. According to some scholars, “major initiatives in EHR (Electronic Health Records) adoption and increased sharing of health information raise significant challenges for protecting the privacy of patients’ health information” (Smith, Austin, Brown, King, Lankford, Meneely & Williams, n.d.). Currently, the United States is developing the National Health Information Network (NHIN) with intent to share EHR of American people between competing healthcare providers. Experts point out that security of this network may be questioned if EHR systems on the NHIN are not capable of protecting patients’ information adequately. If the security of NHIN is compromised, it would end up in the loss of huge volume of patient data. Significance of effective communication Effective communication is particularly essential to improve health service organizations’ ability to persuade, manage conflict, and share information. In the United States, patients have many rights with regard to health care. The major rights include right to obtain medical records, right to make a treatment choice, right to informed consent, and right to refuse treatment. Although these rights are provided so as to improve care quality and patient safety, sometimes individuals thoughtlessly use patient rights. To illustrate, physicians may advice a ‘cancer-affected’ patient for leg amputation in order to prevent the spread of the disease to other parts of the body. Here, the patient may refuse to accept this treatment choice on the belief that the disease can be cured by taking medication. Evidently, the use of right to make treatment choice would ultimately end up in the death of the patient. Under such circumstances, the physician can convince the patient regarding the inevitability of leg amputation and thereby persuade him to accept that choice if he/she has adequate communication skills. Similarly, effective communication is vital for conflict management. Since conflicts in healthcare environment would negatively impact patient safety, it is essential to resolve all conflicts as early as possible. According to American Health Lawyers Association, an administrator or leader must possess effective communication skills to practice various negotiation techniques that are potential to resolve conflicts successfully in a healthcare environment; and it is vital to note that open communication is one of the foundational principles essential to support conflict management. Effective communication would assist the leader to clearly identify the actual needs of the parties involved and to address their concerns in an effective manner. Finally, better information flow is vital to improve the operational efficiency of a health service organization. Based on evidences, healthcare practitioners suggest that effective information sharing would enhance the quality of care and ultimately patient safety. In order to quickly share information at crucial times, communication skill is particularly important. HSA policy recommendation There is a potential clients group named elder adults who are still kept away from the mainstream services of SCF. Even though SCF promotes programs like home visits and email and telephone visits, the region’s elder adults often do not obtain full benefits of healthcare. As an individual, an elder person has the right to obtain access to all possible health care facilities. Therefore, SCF is legally as well as ethically responsible to let this population meet their needs properly. In order to improve this group’s accessibility to SCF services, the organization must pay particular attention to home-based as well as community-based care services. While implementing this strategy, the organization must try to ensure the involvement of community leaders and other socially respected individuals. Furthermore, it is better for the organization to create a list of beneficiaries under this plan. While analyzing the demographics of Alaska, it seems that the state includes various ancestry groups. Therefore, the region is culturally diverse and consequently the needs and requirements of the Alaska population may vary notably. In order to address this situation, the SCF should give specific consideration to the concept of culturally competent care. This concept may assist the organization to accurately identify the needs of various ethnic and ancestral groups and hence to improve the quality of care delivered. For this, SCF must develop special training packages for its workforce because the way of operation determines the success of this concept’s implementation. Similarly, it is recommendable for the organization to maintain a unique research and development department so as to promote innovations in medical field and to develop advanced mechanisms that would improve health care delivery. Although the SCF currently operates a research department, it focuses only on preventive healthcare and disease treatment. This situation may reduce the scope of the firm’s operations. However, a comprehensive research and development department may assist the organization to identify unintended impacts of new technologies in the area of health care. In addition, it would benefit SCF to check for complications and side-effects of newly developed drugs. In short, such a department would aid the organization to provide its clients with most advanced and safest health care services. Finally, the organization must give specific focus to the security of patient information or EMR. Since patient records are the private property of patients, those records should only be accessed by the assigned faculty. Today, IT based fraud like phishing, vishing, smishing, and cloning are drastically prevalent. In addition, other issues like malware attacks and insider attacks raise great concerns over the security of patient data. Hence, SCF should make additional investments in the development of strong IT features that would reduce the threat of patient information hacking. It is also advisable for the organization to purchase technically advanced and functionally improved third party software to enhance the safety of patient data. References American Health Lawyers Association. Conflict management toolkit. Retrieved from http://www.healthlawyers.org/hlresources/ADR/Documents/ADRToolkit.pdf Amnesty International. Healthcare in the US. Retrieved from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/poverty-and-human-rights/health-care-in-the-us Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Application. Southcentral Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/2011_Southcentral_Foundation_Award_Application_Summary.pdf NIST. Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. 2011 Award Recipient, Health Care Category. Retrieved from http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/award_recipients/southcentral_profile.cfm The Nature of Strategic Management. Chapter 1. Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J. & Ginter, P. M. (2012). Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations. US: John Wiley & Sons. Southcentral Foundation. Official website. Retrieved from https://www.southcentralfoundation.com/about/index.ak Smith, B. Austin, A. Brown, et al. (n.d.). Challenges for Protecting the Privacy of Health Information: Required Certification Can Leave Common Vulnerabilities Undetected. Retrieved from http://bensmith.s3.amazonaws.com/website/papers/spimacs2010.pdf WIPFLI Healthcare perspective. (2008). Strategic Financial Planning for Health Care Organizations. Retrieved from http://www.wipfli.com/resources/images/328.pdf Read More