Transformational Changes in Healthcare: Two Case Studies
Patrick Chapman
MHA 601
Professor Sherrie Lu
November 29, 2010
Transformational Changes in Healthcare: Two Case Studies
The economic downturn has led healthcare organizations to think big changes. We understand that all organizations experience micro changes in their normal adjustments to operating; however, occasionally a unique climate comes together to force new ways of thinking. This new way of thinking is usually a whole novel vision and an entire new direction which “transforms” the organization. When successful, these organizations become a learning experience for other organizations that perhaps need to make similar changes. This paper discusses two
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According to its website, Henry Ford Health System now manages six major hospitals with 102,000 inpatient admissions, over 80,000 surgeries, and 3.1 million patient contacts including outpatient (“Henry Ford Health Systems,” 2010). Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastopol, California near Santa Rosa opened in 1941 with 15 inpatient beds and later made expansions in 1974 and 1991 to reach the current licensure for 37 beds. The small community governed non-profit hospital is supported by tax revenues and serves a community of about 8,000 people (“Palm Drive Hospital,” 2010).
Both of these hospitals had community leaders who cared about their future and were willing to invest community resources for a transformational change. During Valade’s tenure as Chairman of the Board at Henry Ford Health Systems, the Board of Directors invested over $1 billion dollars in new innovated projects and expansions of their hospitals. “Despite the poor economy, it maintained its Standard and Poor’s A rating and Moody’s A1 rating, increased its market share by 37 percent since 2005” (Welch, 2009). Dan Smith, a community leader, was the director of strategic planning in the community of Sebastopol, California. He noted that the hospital was on the brink of total collapse being unable to pay its bills. His bank stepped in and guaranteed a loan of $600,000 to the hospital (Hixon, 2008).
The issues that surface during the transformation change at Henry Ford Health Systems were
Implementing change among all organizations is necessary to achieve success; within the health care industry change is constant and it is the role of management teams to assess, plan, implement and evaluate change to ensure satisfaction. Considering this among the other aspects of running a successful organization it is essential to ensure that there is minimal resistance and familiarity to change. Demands of the consumers and staff as well as regulations are continuously changing. The responsibility of managers is to successfully lead these inevitable changes.
changes in the nature of running a healthcare business. Lastly, they were able to realize the
The healthcare system in America started as a predominantly volunteer system where patients were required to pay little to nothing for treatment. Since it began, the healthcare industry has seen tremendous changes that have transformed it into a business entity which has operations like financial management, strategic planning and functional specialties to keep the industry viable. The industry is one of the largest in the country employing 15 million people with a projected increase of jobs with 3 million jobs annually. As the healthcare industry continues growing, services and personnel are changing, and various dynamics are coming into play to accommodate changes (Smith, Saunders, Stuckhardt, & McGinnis, 2013).
In the healthcare field, there are forces that drive practice and develop change within an organization. There are both internal and external forces in which not one organization is immune to (Kotter, 1996). By establishing a vision of the company, a sense of purpose and direction is created, working towards change within the forces (Huyer, 2014). When people participate in a vision, they work towards a common goal and identify what needs to be changed in order to reach that vision. In this paper, a presentation of Banner Health will be discussed, along with its mission and stakeholders, driving forces, viability, as well as an analysis of forces, a response to change, a vision for change, and an evaluation of change.
Do you know leaders in healthcare have a new style of managing? Healthcare field is one of the fields that changes occur frequently. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought a lot of changes in every aspect of healthcare delivery, from reimbursement to quality control to elimination of wasteful and inefficient practices and having huge impact on the U.S. healthcare delivery system, with many more changes to come. When leaders in healthcare organizations are asked, “what’s the one word that best characterizes the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the U.S. healthcare delivery system,” most will answer “change”. These changes also brought new managing styles to healthcare leaders. I would be writing in my own discourse community, which is Health Systems Management. To give guide lines for a neighbor who is thinking of jointing this discourse community, how we operate and to be successful in this filed.
In the ever-changing healthcare field, organizations must be willing to adapt and make changes when necessary. Patient-centered care is of utmost importance in today?s healthcare landscape. Therefore, management must not view change as a threat, but as a challenge to do something new and innovative (Marquis, B., & Huston, C., 2015).
Participation of all employees in a healthcare organization is needed within a transformational organization. Change is probably never popular, but is necessary for the transformation and restructuring of the healthcare industry. There are several models in the scope of transformational changes and learning organizations. The capacity to change is embraced by organizational transformation and initiatives sustained are representative of learning organizations (Johnson, 2009).
Every profession embraces change. Whether it is small, like a simple word addition to the important Patient Information document, or large, like a staff shift, the medical field is constantly changing. To fully understand the scope of what it means to change, I have been challenged to ask “Why?” The answers have helped me grow at Eastside Medical Center.
An article entitled, Leading Innovation in a Risk-Averse Healthcare Environment, by Michael O’Brien describes how decisions in healthcare innovation are being decided by hospital CFOs because budget plays such a large role in the ability to make health care advancements. Innovation is present on all levels, practitioners are creating new innovative medications and techniques that can boost research funding, CFOs are looking at innovative ways to restructure budgets to meet the rising cost demands and nurses and/or therapists are looking for innovative therapy applications to improve patient outcome and support successful healing once discharged from the hospital. Disruptive innovation is constantly present in medicine since this science is only a practice and is constantly evolving in the presence of new research. As a healthcare leader I encourage my peers to constantly be trying to find innovations in their practice. When a practice becomes stagnant there is limited chance for growth and an individual's motivation can be stunted. “Innovation requires that organizations let go of old work and take on new” (O’Brien, p.113)
Quality improvement, patient safety, and cost containment are some of the key focuses of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010. Therefore, many Healthcare Organizations (HCOs) were confronted with the challenge of changing their organization behavior, so that they can deliver a safe care without compromising on qualities and increasing on expenditures with each care delivery (KPMG Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Institute, 2011). The purpose of the paper is to discuss a HCO’s transformation challenge, its subsystem within a larger system, its culture and climate, its leadership style, its assessment based on Collin’s Good to Great, and its readiness for change in today’s complex environment.
changes that have taken place in the company. Devising a strategy within health care can be local
For several decades health care has been tied to the economy and with the current downturn we see continued efforts to control and reduce over-head costs. Health care organizations in their effort to become more efficient and address changes in the industry have altered their strategic business plans. Lee & Alexander (1999) researched organizational change in hospitals and their survival, in this paper I hope to discuss their findings and add other examples to validate their conclusions.
1990). On the other hand, resistance is any conduct that tries to keep the status quo, i.e.,
These health care organizations have two types of planning to follow, and they are tactical and strategic planning. When tactical planning takes place, there is a short term goal in mind (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The course of action for a tactical plan is to achieve a goal within a year or less time period (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). A tactical plan has a smaller scope and shorter time span than a strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). It takes several tactical plans to achieve the strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Strategic planning differs from tactical planning, because in strategic plan, the course of action is to achieve goals for the long term (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Strategic planning goals are usually wanted to be completed with five years (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The organization’s mission statement purpose and direction are reflected upon strategic planning (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Top management must view reports on operations, external environments and finances when looking to develop a strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The development of tactical plans are influenced by strategic plans (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102).
Fixing problems that face health care in many health facilities demand a system wide set of solutions. The systems used in these facilities must be assessed and redesigned to identify factors that will aid in the achievement of the set goals. The enormous task of achieving the goals should be undertaken collaboratively by all the key stakeholders, who include, health care professionals, planners and policy makers, administrators, payers, and patients and their families. These partnerships must begin with a common understanding of the problems together with a shared commitment to cooperate and work together to eliminate the problems. With this knowledge, therefore, an action plan for redesigning the health care system can be developed and later implemented. For a successful health care service to be realized, there are various factors which should be employed and which are not found in the traditional business setting. These include unique economic processes, proper regulatory requirements and the perfect quality indicators. This creates a need for every leader within the healthcare industry to create or develop unique skill sets that will harmonize both organizational leadership and the inter-professional team development. It is, therefore, important to understand the comprehensive approach to the management of patient care and also how the concepts of team development and organizational leadership support healthcare leaders in creation of a patient-centric