Developing a Strategic Approach in Healthcare Organisations - Assignment Example

Developing a Strategic Approach Introduction There has been a growing appreciation in healthcare organizations that leadership originates from various levels, including the careers, patients, front-line staff, clinicians, primary care communities, and the voluntary sector (Ginter et al, 2013). As a hospital administrator, there is little doubt that the hospital’s staff is its most valuable resource and asset, especially in continuing the critical role of leading and providing healthcare development and services. Empowering and engaging the staff, while also creating the right environment for the hospital to tap in to the staff’s potential, needs an effective and ambitious strategy that will prioritize learning and development commitment in the future. Expertise and knowledge in organizations today are just as important, if not more, as the organization’s assets. As the main work performance resource, human knowledge is necessary in ensuring that hospital staff is kept up-to-date on changes within the external environment such as policy and regulation changes, as well as enabled to cope with changes to the internal environment such as lower reimbursements and lower margins (Ginter et al, 2013). One strategy that hospital management may use to maintain competitive advantage in light of these internal and external factors is through implementing learning and development. Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals Mission The hospital will effectively, safely, and compassionately provide all patients with the highest quality healthcare regardless of their financial circumstances or where they live. Vision The hospital creates a supportive environment for learning and development so that all staff can achieve patient care excellence, which they can demonstrate via their commitment to collaborative and inter-disciplinary learning that recognizes the individual’s expertise and is meaningful to both the organization and the person. Strategic Goals To provide hospital staff with appropriate learning and development options that appreciates the different requirements and needs of various groups and individuals. To align learning and development with future and current needs of the hospital in order to improve service delivery and patient care, while also integrating L&D activities and policies with broader HR practice and hospital processes. To support workplace application of skills and knowledge, while aspiring to be a learning organization where managers and staff should value and embrace the concept of experiential learning at all levels. Adaptive Strategy to Achieve Strategic Goals An adaptive strategy generally refers to an attempt by organizations to find suitable matches between their internal characteristics and their external environments. With changing policies and regulations at federal and state levels and local market factors influencing the level of reimbursements in the hospital and, in turn, lowering margins and making recruitment of new staff expensive, there is an evident need to improve productivity and performance of present staff (Cavanaugh & Konrad, 2012). This will be achieved by enhancing excellence in learning and development to enable integrated, inter-disciplinary patient care delivery and drive a high performance culture. L&D will be integrated and aligned with the future and current needs of the hospital, in which necessary structures and systems will be put in place to ensure provision of accessible and effective service. Integrated care means that persons both externally and internally learn and work together in streamlining the patient’s experience, where all different strands of expertise and knowledge are combined to enhance patient outcomes (Cavanaugh & Konrad, 2012). In order to become a high performing organization, the hospital will seek to encourage staff to take responsibility for continued professional development and learning, while also committing to continually sharing knowledge and learning. Successful implementation of this adaptive strategy will be evidenced by several outcomes. For example, the staff should acquire leadership attributes as visionary leaders who plan for the future, while also creating a culture that fosters professional growth and staff satisfaction (Wang et al, 2015). In addition, the nursing leader should also be able to maintain high visibility through open communication and responsiveness to staff interests and concerns, while also being supportive to the staff by supporting their involvement in control of patient care issues and decision-making and their continued professional education. Successful application of the strategy will also enhance professional attributes, which will be evidenced by team autonomy and control in their work and collaborative relationships between professional staff and patient (Wang et al, 2015). Finally, the nursing staff should also develop lifelong learning mental habits if the strategy is successfully applied. In this case, they should develop willingness to take risks, self-reflective skills, and ability to solicit opinions, careful listening, and openness to new ideas. Service Delivery and Support Components for achievement of Strategic Goals Service Delivery Components In order to achieve the strategic goals set for the hospital, one of the service delivery components will involve the provision of quality service by continuing to monitor and evaluate the contribution and effectiveness of L&D to the hospital’s overall performance. This component will involve a review of learning and development’s impact on the hospital by using a baseline assessment (Elg et al, 2012). In addition, it also involves continuous exploration of effective assessment tools through engagement with senior hospital executives, heads of department, and service users. Reporting of learning and development efficiency and effectiveness through robust reporting guidelines and processes to the hospital, while also ensuring that the strategy is linked to the plans of the departments and hospital. Finally, learning and development policies will be reviewed and updated to reflect current needs, transparency in service funding, and equality of service access (Elg et al, 2012). Another service delivery component will involve the provision of a comprehensive array of learning and development services particularly aimed at improving the quality of patient care and meeting their needs, specifically by working closely with multi-disciplinary staff and patients group in the hospital (Elg et al, 2012). In this case, learning and development will develop and enhance links with current groups of patients to receive their advice and input on what the hospital’s L&D programs should cover. The hospital should also use L&D methodologies to improve and support patient experience by designing an action learning assessment approach, as well as incorporating patient needs in the development and design of learning and development activities. Moreover, learning and development will support skill development for hospital staff for them to design and deliver high quality health promotion-related programs (Elg et al, 2012). The third service delivery component of this strategy is the nursing leadership role that learning and development will play in collaboration with partners in the community to develop provision of training and education for the community (Elg et al, 2012). Learning and development will collaborate and develop links with community partners like nursing homes and allied health professionals to provide training and education, specifically in order to enhance service delivery. In this case, learning and development will identify department heads with established community links and support further strengthening of these links. Learning and development will also coordinate skill transfer opportunities to the community in order to enhance service delivery, for example through the creation of forums for learning sharing with community health leaders (Elg et al, 2012). Finally, the hospital through support of learning and development, will work to promote inter-disciplinary learning and education for the hospital staff. These service delivery goals are essential in achieving the aforementioned strategic goals because they will ensure that the journey of the patient is effective and streamlined, while also ensuring that the patients are afforded with the highest quality of care (Elg et al, 2012). Moreover, they will also ensure that the patient’s holistic and individual needs are reflected in their journey through the healthcare system. These service delivery components will also help the hospital to support the concept of including patients in the process of decision making in relation to their care. Continuous evaluation of learning and development will ensure that the hospital’s patients and their families are highly satisfied, especially because of the hospital’s enhanced capability to promote high patient care quality and safety standards. In addition, there will be improved workforce understanding and compliance of legislative requirements, including HQA standards and clinical audits (Elg et al, 2012). Support Components Learning and development will be committed in supporting the facility to unleash leadership potential, as well as helping the staff to be more responsive to change. In this case, the hospital should design and implement a leadership development program and leading-edge organizational change together with the executive management team (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). This will be achieved by ensuring that the hospital can get the program accredited at masters and degree level by an academic institution of repute. In addition, cross functional inter and intra-organizational projects will make up an essential part of this program. Learning and development should also seek to identify best practice networks and organizations as appropriate by forming links with relevant education centers and the development of collaborative networks (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). Finally, learning and development will also rely on leadership and management to form an integral part of team and individual development. Another support component in the value chain that will be essential to achieving the strategic goals is the HR department, which will be part of the learning and development program in supporting the hospital by implementing processes to ensure continued staff development in fulfilling future hospital requirements (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). The HR department will work to explore options for the development of customized planning approaches for the hospital. In addition, the department will also support the program through reviews on the feasibility of introducing processes of talent management. It will also be involved in the introduction of a graduate program in collaboration with an educational facility, which would address entry level gaps that would give nursing staff broad experience for various departments across the hospital. Finally, the HR department will be essential in job enrichment for the hospital staff (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). The third support component that will be essential in achieving the strategic goals is the IT infrastructure of the hospital, which has to have the flexibility required to incorporate existing and new learning and development activities (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). In addition, the IT infrastructure will be essential in the creation of innovative approaches to learning that enable hospital staff to learn with minimal service delivery disruption. In this case, a learning management system will be developed to enhance capabilities of learning and development to record and administer compliance with the strategic goals, as well as with international standards and hospital accreditations. A working group that includes the HR and IT departments will also be set up in order to investigate the most important and appropriate systems to achieve the agreed strategy. This support component also involves the provision of a knowledge center where staff can take responsibility for self-development via knowledge and self-assessment tools (Taylor-Ford & Abel, 2015). Maintaining the Adaptive Strategy to Ensure Achievement of Mission and Vision To ensure that the adaptive strategy is maintained and that the organization achieves its vision and mission, an organizational development program will be set up made up of inter-connected change and interventions initiatives. Managers, staff, and clinicians will be heavily engaged in the design and creation of the new mission and vision for the hospital to make it a leading and reputable healthcare provider in an environment that is rapidly changing and, in turn, affecting the internal characteristics of the hospital (Pencheon, 2014). This organizational development program will work together with the IT department, the HR department to provide a flexible and innovative workforce, and increasing patient awareness and knowledge to play a vital role in organic leadership and to set the hospital operation’s context. Internally, the hospital should achieve consensus on the desire to design and implement long-term learning and development change, which should significantly improve patient care quality, as well as the hospital’s overall performance. The organizational development program, therefore, will work through a high-level plan of inter-related change and intervention initiatives in order to enhance excellence in learning and development to enable integrated, inter-disciplinary patient care delivery and drive a high performance culture (Pencheon, 2014). References Cavanaugh, J. T., & Konrad, S. C. (2012). Fostering the development of effective person-centered healthcare communication skills: an inter-professional shared learning model. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, 41(3), 293-301. Elg, M., Engström, J., Witell, L., & Poksinska, B. (2012). Co-creation and learning in health-care service development. Journal of Service Management, 23(3), 328-343 Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2013). Strategic management of health care organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Wiley. Pencheon, D. (2014). Sustainable development in healthcare. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 20(1), 22-25 Taylor-Ford, R. L., & Abel, D. (2015). The Leadership Practice Circle Program: An Evidence-Based Approach to Leadership Development in Healthcare. Nurse Leader, 13(2), 63-68 Wang, L., Kuntz-Melcavage, K., Forrest, C., Lu, Y., Piet, L., Evans, K., & Neale, D. (2015). Development and Applications of an Outcomes Assessment Framework for Care Management Programs in Learning Health Systems. eGEMs (Generating Evidence & Methods to improve patient outcomes), 3(1), 9-18 Read More