Emergency Department Operated by the Childrens National Medical Center - Essay Example

SWOT Analysis of the Emergency Department Introduction Children’s National Medical Center, previously known as DC Children’s Hospital, is the only extensive pediatric care provider in the Washington DC. The institution has been serving the country’s children for the last 140 years. Children’s National is prominent for its innovativeness in new treatment developments for childhood illness and injury. It is the largest pediatric care provider in the District of Columbia and is repeatedly ranked among top leading pediatric hospitals in America. Emergency Department is one of the most key services offered by the Children’s National. This paper will perform a SWOT analysis of the Emergency Department operated by the Children’s National. SWOT analysis Strengths Undoubtedly, level 1 trauma center is one of the most notable strengths of the Emergency Department. This trauma center would assist the department to provide trauma patients with highest level of surgical care. According to Stanford University Medical Center (2008), this facility would greatly benefit the Emergency Department to improve a severely injured patient’s survival probability by nearly 20-25%. In other words, the level 1 trauma center significantly enhances patient safety, which is the ultimate goal of every patient care. In addition, it is a teaching hospital that offers clinical education and training to pediatric residents, fellows, and other graduate trainees each year. This departmental division plays a notable role in developing qualified pediatric professionals who can promote child safety. Well trained medical staff is another competitive strength of the Emergency Department (Children’s National, n. d.). This strength assists the department to eliminate the chances of clinical errors to a great extent and thereby provide patients with quality care services. Furthermore, well trained medical staff can promote the overall productivity of the organization and address the needs of more number of children. The Emergency Department has developed a set of efficient processes in child care delivery. Therefore, it can avoid unnecessary delays associated with patient treatment and contribute to the fast patient recovery. Weaknesses Referring to Robinson and Pinkerton (2004), while analyzing the operational efficiency of the Emergency Department, staff shortage appears to be the most severe problem affecting the patient safety. Reports indicate that staff shortage may lead to a series of other issues including worksite stress, medical errors, low quality care, and unhealthy interpersonal relations. In an understaffed worksite environment, nurses are compelled to work under tough schedules and this situation in turn adversely affects nurse-patient relation, which is highly essential in case of child care. Staff shortage will certainly reduce the overall productivity of the organization. In addition, this issue would always raise potential challenges to the hospital administration also. Rapid turnover of management and nurses is another major weakness causing troubles to the Emergency Department. Termination of nurses and other clinical practitioners would noticeably increase the Emergency Department’s operating expenses because high rate of staff turnover would lead to an increase in recruitment as well as training expenses. In addition, the time delay involved between the voluntary employee termination and new employee recruitment would cause to reduce the quality of the patient care. Loss of experienced staff due to increased employee turnover is an untreatable problem as experienced staff can enhance patient safety more effectively as compared to a fresher. High level staff/executives turnover also leads to a frequent change in the management structure of the Emergency Department; naturally, this situation would end up in inefficient care delivery. Opportunities Since the hospital maintains an education wing, it is possible for the Emergency Department to develop qualified professionals who can easily adjust with the department’s organizational culture. Therefore, unlike other pediatric care settings, new staff recruitment and training may not be troublesome for the Emergency Department of the Children’s National. In addition, this facility would contribute to the satellite clinic expansion efforts of the organization. As Darte and Dammeyer (2010) report, the hospital has achieved the Magnet designation recently and therefore the institution can establish new satellite clinics effortlessly; and the pediatric research projects of the Children’s National are greatly supported and funded by the Federal government. As Diamond-Raab, Joshi, Lewin & Shambaugh point out, the Federal funding assists the organization to carry out its research activities efficiently and to develop new hopeful research initiatives. The pediatric research activities performed by the organization would notably add value to its public stature and professional reputation. Since the Children’s National is a well established institution, it may not find any difficulty in promoting its overall expansion. To illustrate, the organization can offer attractive payment schemes to its clients and hence it is easy for the organization to develop a large group of loyal clients. Arguably, the organization can motivate its employees with attractive payment packages and other kinds of incentives so as to retain productive employees and to recruit new qualified professionals. Threats Loss of doctors or nurses due to retirement or voluntary termination is identified to be one of the greatest threats to the Emergency Department. It is clear that service experience is of priceless value in this department as it is assigned with the responsibility of delivering the most intensive care to children. Similarly, growing competition among pediatric centers is turning out to be a potential challenge to this institution. Since people are likely to depend on pediatric centers that offer high quality treatments at affordable rates, innovations in the child care sector would threaten the Emergency Department. In other words, the organization cannot sustain its industry dominance unless it maintains innovativeness and operational efficiency. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the strengths and opportunities of the Emergency Department outweigh its weaknesses and threats. The level 1 trauma center, education wing, well trained medical staff, and process efficiency are the major strengths of the department whereas staff shortage, rapid staff turnover, and frequent change in the management structure constitute the potential weaknesses of the institution. Likewise, federal funded research projects and expansion of satellite clinics can provide the organization with fruitful growth opportunities. Retirement or voluntary termination of experienced professionals is the major threat to the department. In short, the Emergency Department can achieve a prosperous future if the organization improves its competencies on a continuous basis. References Children’s National Medical Center. (n. d.). Ophthalmology Fellowship. Retrieved from http://www.childrensnational.org/ForDoctors/gme/prospective-residents-fellows/ophthalmology/faculty-and-staff.aspx Darte, P & Dammeyer, E. (2010). Children's National Medical Center Achieves Magnet® Designation. PRWeb. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3765004.htm Diamond-Raab, L., Joshi, P. T., Lewin, S. M & Shambaugh, S. G. (2010). Hands-on approaches to helping children heal from traumatic events. Children’s National Medical Center. Retrieved from http://www.childrensnational.org/files/PDF/DepartmentsandPrograms/ichoc/Pages_for_web_HandsOn.pdf Robinson, N. C & Pinkerton, S. (2004). The Children's National Medical Center story: nursing shortage to employer of choice. Nurse Econ, Mar-Apr; 22(2):91-3. Stanford University Medical Center Releases Community Benefits Summary. (2008). Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Retrieved from http://www.lpch.org/aboutus/news/releases/2008/sumcBenefits.html Read More