Readiness Assessment : Community Health Systems

Over the last decades both public and private hospitals have been experiencing severe financial situations (Everhart, Neff, Al-Amin, Nogle, & Weech-Maldonado, 2013). The financial shortage is associated with delay or even lack of governmental sponsorship and competition from their rivals. Enacting the policy will mount financial pressure on these hospitals that are on cost-cutting strategies. The salaries and wages of nurses are dominating the costs of operation in the hospitals and therefore adding more staff to correct the understaffing will be like creating another problem (Goddard, 2003). Contrary, Empirical studies prove that adequate nurse staffing produces better outcomes for both the staffs and the patients (Donaldson & Shapiro, 2010). These do not mean that the financial performance of the health centers will be at stake. Quality is associated with profitability. Understaffing leads to increased workloads, fatigue and job dissatisfaction. These situations that can be corrected on the implementation of proper staffing policies (Everhart, Neff, Al-Amin, Nogle, & Weech-Maldonado, 2013). The policy aims at offering quality service, reasonable patient-doctor ratios, reducing high mortality rates, improving the health of patients through proper examination and disease diagnosis among other

Our healthcare system is in a state of constant change. Just as the industry was adapting to the demands of countless healthcare reforms, the fate of regulations like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and others like it, dangle in the wind. As the country transitions to a newly appointed administration, there is an increasing level of uncertainty among industry leaders. Federal, state, and local mandates continue to drive the need to improve the quality, costs, and outcomes of care which add to an already overburdened and burnout system. These coupled with our highly secular society who is primarily focused on the treating and curing illness through advanced technology, medications, and procedures has resulted in a

The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing

Centura Health had the opportunity for a workshop presentation by Dominique Morgan-Solomon, a population health expert. Dominique Morgan-Solomon, MPH, works as a consultant in health care delivery, device management, and for health care organizations on population health strategies and program implementation. Prior to consulting, Dominique was the Chief Operating Officer of Steward Medical Group and Vice President of Population Health for Steward Health Care from February 2012 until October of 2015. She was responsible for the strategic planning and execution of its quality performance, clinical integration care management, and population health programs. Last year she was awarded “Young Healthcare Executive of the Year” for her leadership in this promising field by the National Association of Health Service Executives (NAHSE). She has exceeded in her career after receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in Biology and Political Science and a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from the University of Michigan.

There are many challenges that are defining the future strategic direction of health care such as information technology advancements, access to health care, maintaining a skilled workforce, proposed health care reform and legislation, and rising costs. I will look at these challenges and how an organization may adapt its direction and strategies in accordance with these challenges.

Throughout this course I have learned about the various challenges that impede productivity and efficiency at today’s hospitals. These issues facing the modern healthcare organization come in varying forms from technological, staffing, and financial to name a few. There are no limits to what hospitals can face in these modern technologically savvy times. Below are the major issues that today’s hospitals are facing, though there are many facets to these topics it will be described as best as possible to meet overall challenges:

As you know Community Health Centers serve a vital role in providing primary care, dental, behavioral, pharmacy, vision and a variety of complementary services to our most vulnerable patients and communities. Health centers generate millions of dollars both in economic impact and overall cost-savings to the health care system.

Peace Memorial Hospital is a 600-bed, independent, not-for-profit, general hospital located on the southern periphery of a major western city. It is one of six general hospitals in the city and twenty in the county. After doing much research, the Board of Directors has decided that they should open an ambulatory location in the downtown area, to be known as the Downtown Health Clinic (DHC). The clinic will have 4 major objectives: “1. To expand the hospital’s referral base, 2. To increase referrals of privately insured patients, 3. To establish a liaison with the business community by addressing employers’ specific health needs, and 4. To become self-supporting three years after opening” (Kerin

In recent years, the healthcare industry has seen a significant decline in the quality of patient care it provides. This has been the result of reduced staffing levels, overworked nurses, and an extremely high nurse to patient ratio. The importance of nurse staffing in hospital settings is an issue of great controversy. Too much staff results in costs that are too great for the facility to bear, but too little staffing results in patient care that is greatly hindered. Moreover, the shaky economy has led to widespread budget cuts; this, combined with the financial pressures associated with Medicare and private insurance companies have forced facilities to make due with fewer

The current and growing shortage of nurses is posing a real threat to the ability of hospitals, long-term care facilities, and others to provide timely access to quality care. Nurse staffing shortages and nurse turn-over contributes to the growing reduction in the number of staffed patient beds available for services, increasing costs, and rising concerns about the quality of care. Health care organizations highly depend on nurse managers and leaders to reverse this trend. This paper discusses the reasons for nursing shortage and turn-over, different approaches to solve this issue, and my personal philosophy about this issue.

Nurses are crucial in providing quality care in the health care industry. It is imperative to maintain the proper staffing ratio to ensure that nurses can maintain high quality care for their patients. Studies have shown that the increasing workload of nurses can be linked to increased patient deaths, medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, longer hospital stays, and many other complications. (National Nurses United n.d. ) Leaders and managers play a vital role in developing

The delivery of healthcare has evolved and changed over the years and with the advances in science and technology, the ability to provide safe, quality care to all patients has been impacted by the changes. With the rising healthcare costs and decrease in reimbursement for care provided, organizations must look for ways of cost containment to maintain viability for the future. Fabre (2005) noted that administrators are struggling to maintain financial stability and retain competent nurses during these difficult

With the expected growth in the allied health sector in the coming years due to increased patient care demands, healthcare organizations in the United State will need to take steps to maintain a high quality of care. These steps will include ways to ensure that well trained staff are hired, adequate new staff on the job training and orientation, continuous review of policies for improvements in safety, care, risk management and quality assurance. In addition to focusing on the integration of the incoming allied health personnel, healthcare organizations are expected to review how care is currently provided, and find new ways to provide care and meet the great increase in demand for care.

Community health assessment is a process of systematic identifying and examining health indicators in a defined population. The purpose of this community health assessment is to gather and analyze information about health status, factors that can have an influence on community members’ health, and needs of the population within the target community. The collected data allow comparing the health status and needs of the residents in the Newmarket Health Centre (NHC) and residents in surrounding neighbourhood with the local health care services and resources available for them, which will help to identify health inequities among community members (Goodman, 2014).The main goal of this community health assessment is the strategic development of solutions to the identified health needs in a community.

The healthcare system has seen significant change over the past decade. This is due to improved technology, healthcare reform, and the economic crisis (Hendren, 2010). With the changes that are occurring,