Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital - Research Paper Example

Executive Summary: Advocate Good Samaritan is an hospital located in Illinois, and it is one of the best hospitals in United States. This organization has some of the best medical facilities, and highly skilled doctors and medical practitioners working for it. This medical organization was founded on the biblical principles of taking care of your neighbor, and it is managed by religious organizations. Introduction: Advocate Good Samaritan is a medical organization that is found in Downers Grove, a location in Illinois. This organization was opened in 1976, and since then, it has transformed itself into a national health care leader, managing to be listed as a top 100 hospitals for four times. This paper addresses the mission of the organization, its organizational structure, its SWOT analysis, sources of funding, its management information system, and the nature of the hospital. Mission and Goals of the Organization: Advocate health care is a hospital which has about 12 acute care facilities, with more than 250 outpatient locations. The mission of the organization is to offer home health care services, corporate health services, hospice and occupational health services. The company aims to achieve this mission by employing highly skilled medical personnel who have a dedication to research, education and patient care delivery. These skilled medical personnel will also be involved in the development of policies that the organization needs to pursue. The policy under consideration must be one that reflects the mission of the organization that is providing high quality services in health care (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). The hospitals core values of excellence, compassion, stewardship and partnership provides the foundation upon which the patient and his or her family are the nucleus of the organization. On this basis, the policies that the hospital formulates are centered on the needs of the patient. In regard to this, the mission of the organization is to formulate and pursue policies aimed at taking care of the needs of the patients. By taking care of these needs, the organization believes that patients will be able to recover quickly from the various diseases and medical problems that they encounter. The organization does not only seek to carter for the needs of patients (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). It also seeks to ensure that its employees get an opportunity to advance their career, and succeed. This is by training its medical personnel on the better medical and nursing practices. It also seeks to achieve this objective through research and development aimed at developing better medical practices that its employees need to use and adapt. In conclusion Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital values human beings as people created by God, and on this basis, it seeks to carter for their health needs based on the knowledge that people are creatures of God (Montalvo and Dunton, 2007). Organization Structure and Corporate Culture of the Hospital: For any organization to succeed, it must have an organizational structure that helps employees to know who their leaders are, and how they should relate to one another. Advocate Health Care has a top to down organizational structure whereby orders come from the top, and are channeled to the various officers down the ladder. This is for purposes of implementing the policy under consideration. The following is the organizational structure of Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital from the top, to the junior managerial staff. The President, who also acts as the Chief Executive Officer. The Executive Vice President who also acts as the Chief Operating Officer. The Executive Vice President who also acts as the Chief Medical Officer. The Senior Vice President who takes up the roles of the Chief Human Resources Officer. President of Advocate Medical Care Group. President of the Ambulatory and Physicians services. Senior Vice President who acts as the Chief Marketing Officer. Senior Vice President who acts as the Treasurer. Senior Vice President who is in charge of strategic planning. Senior Vice President who is in charge of Spiritual Care. Senior Vice President who is in charge of information. Advocate Good Samaritan also has an organizational culture, and it is diversity. The employees of the organization came from different backgrounds, cultures and racial origins. These people help in bringing about their experiences, personalities, and talents into the business organization. This is one of the main reasons as to why the organization managed to achieve success in the provision of health care, making it a top 100 hospital in United States of America. The organization does not only encourage diversity in its work force, but also focuses on meeting the various diverse needs of its customers. SWOT Analysis of the Organization: The following are the strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the organization (Truven Health Analysis, 2013); Strengths: It is the biggest integrated health care system in the US. It operates the largest emergency trauma network in the state of Illinois. The organization treats the highest number of pediatric patients in Illinois. The organization diagnoses and treats the highest number of cancer patients in the state of Illinois. It has more than 250 health care sites and this includes 10 hospitals that offer acute care, and a children’s hospital, which has two campuses. It has a high number of human resource personnel, and this includes approximately 30,000 associates, 9000 nurses, and about 6000 physicians. The hospital has teaching and academic affiliations with major universities that are located at the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The organization also has teaching hospitals namely Lutheran General Hospital, Christ Medical Centre, and Masonic Medical Centre. These institutions are responsible for training health care workers on primary health care systems. Weaknesses: Due to the large size of the organization, policy formulation always takes a long process. The top to down management policy makes it impossible for junior officers to participate in the process of policy formulation. The organization spends so much money on paying salaries and wages, at the expense of providing other services such as research and development of new medical practices/ techniques. Opportunities: The opportunity to earn more customers and referrals because of the high quality of its services, and the availability of resources to handle any type of medical condition/diseases. Opportunity to form more partnerships with learning institutions and health care providers for purposes of carrying out a research on the various medical problems that affect the society. The opportunity to attract highly skilled and talented medical practitioners because of the organizations attractive salary package and benefits. Threats: Financial uncertainty is one threat that faces the organization. This arises because of high levels of unemployment, and the state of the American economy, which is only coming out of recession. The health care reforms initiated by the Obama administration, and specifically the affordable care act, popularly referred to as the Obama Care laws. These laws area aimed at changing the structure of the health care system in the United States, creating uncertainties on how the hospital will work with other stakeholders for purposes of providing better health care services. Sources of Funding: Advocate Good Samaritan is a not for profit hospital, and it gets most of its funding from donors. The organization runs a program referred to as Giving, which aims at raising money for its various activities/ programs. People are encouraged to make a donation through a secure online payment system, or through a cheque payable through the internet. The office responsible for receiving these funds is Advocate Charitable Foundation (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014). The following are the programs initiated by Advocate Good Samaritan for purposes of raising funds. Thee first program is referred to as Matching Gift Program. Under this program, the organization encourages companies to prevail upon their employees to contribute some amount of money to the organization. It also encourages the employees of these companies to offer some volunteering services to the company. The company also accepts bonds or stocks offered by donors (Truven Health Analysis, 2013). This is also advantageous to the donor because he or she will receive a tax break, or pay less taxes incase his or her stocks increase in value. The organization also encourages co-operation organizations to give under the co-operate giving program. This program aims at providing information to cooperate organizations on the various programs and activities of the company, and hence the need of supporting the activities under consideration. To raise funds also, the organization has created the Presidents Health Society Association. People of all walks of life are encouraged to become members, but they have to pay an annual membership fee of $ 1000. (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014) Finally, the organization has an endowment policy, which is a long term financing program for the activities of the organization. Under this strategy, an individual finds an activity that he or she wants to support. The same individual must make a commitment that he or she plans to support the program over a long period of time. The Nature of the Hospital: The hospital is a teaching and referral hospital. It has approximately three hospital units that are responsible for teaching and training medical practitioners, and this includes nurses and doctors. These teaching centers are, Lutheran General Hospital, Christ Medical Centre, and Masonic Medical Centre (Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, 2014). The organization is also a referral hospital, and this is because of the facilities and resources it has. The organization has an up-to date cancer care centers, making it the leading center for cancer diagnoses and treatment in the state of Illinois. Management Information System: The organization uses technology for purposes of communicating with its employees, and patients. For example, the organization has developed computerized software referred to as Active FAX. This software helps the organization to store all the information concerning patients, and members of staff, electronically. This information management system aims to reduce the usage of files for purposes of keeping information (Truven Health Analysis, 2013) . The main advantage of this type of information management system is that information is readily available to the concerned party, at the click of a button. The organization advocates and uses the CPOE. As of 2009, it was the target of Advocate hospital that 55% of all patients must make an order, using the physician computerized order entry. Conclusion: In conclusion, Advocate Good Samaritan is one of the best hospital organizations in the United States. The hospital enjoys a good public image and reputation, partly because of the quality of services it offers, and its philosophy of putting the needs of patients at the fore-front. The hospital is not a profit making organization, and it mostly depends on donors and financial grants for purposes of carrying out its various programs and activities. This paper therefore manages to highlight virtually all aspects of the hospital. This includes its mission and goals, organizational stricter, its swot analysis, its management information system, and the kind of services it offers. References: Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. (n.d.). Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://www.advocatehealth.com/gsam/ Montalvo, I., & Dunton, N. (2007). Transforming nursing data into quality care: profiles of quality improvement in U.S. healthcare facilities. Silver Spring, Md.: Nursesbooks.org, American Nurses Association. Truven Health Analysis. (2013). 100 top hospitals: study overview. (20TH ed.). Ann Arbor: Truven Healt Analytics. Read More