Reference no: EM132923743

Scenario: Saving a Failing Healthcare Organization

Over the last decade, the Mucho County Hospital System has been facing significant challenges, which have resulted in a loss of brand value. Some of the challenges were centered on the following:

• Patient dissatisfaction with services
• Poor provider-patient relationships
• Poor communication
• Lack of effective leadership
• Unsafe practices
• Poor physical environments

Mucho County Hospital has not been able to provide the necessary services for patients in the community that it is serving. A merger between the Mucho County Hospital System and a sister hospital might be beneficial, enabling it to tap into the services provided by this sister hospital.

Mucho County Hospital recently secured a merger with another hospital system, United Medical Hospital, which is a private, nonprofit hospital. This merger resulted in a complete overhaul of services and leadership at Mucho County Hospital. The new hospital system introduced its management philosophy-"Patients first"-a patient-centered philosophy that means that patients are treated with dignity and respect. A new strategic directional plan was designed and introduced to meet organizational objectives, including compliance with all federal and state regulations. Strict disciplinary and accountability protocols were also put in place. All staff members were held accountable for their actions, including management staff. This new directional plan did not assume that patients knew everything about their health conditions and instead assumed that patients wanted to learn more about their health conditions. As a result, the need for patient education was among their key priorities. In a few months, things started to improve at the Mucho County Hospital facilities, and patient satisfaction scores on exit surveys increased dramatically. Patients now have a sense of consumerism, where they are empowered to make decisions regarding their healthcare services.

Based on this scenario, answer the following questions:

1. Successful healthcare organizations, such as United Medical, follow the dynamic nature of the industry, including forming mergers and alliances to meet patient needs. How has the leadership team at Mucho County Hospital been able to turn things around in the hospital?
2. The concept of consumerism is generally understood to mean that people are empowered to make better informed decisions about their healthcare options in the broadest sense, both within and outside of the clinical setting. What does the concept of consumerism applied to the scenario deal with?
3. The goal of a healthcare provider is to provide quality patient care, create good patient outcomes, and meet patient expectations. Mucho County's facilities failed to meet those expectations, resulting in poor patient outcomes, patient dissatisfaction, and reduced revenue. Generally, who should be held accountable for this failure?
4. One overarching benefit of strategic planning is that it contributes to the improvement of organizational performance. This was true for Mucho County's facilities, which were plagued with poor patient outcomes and increased patient dissatisfaction rates. How should Mucho County's leadership proceed to remedy the situation?
5. One of the biggest challenges of the Mucho County Hospital was poor provider-patient relationships. There was a significant amount of patient dissatisfaction, resulting in distrust, lack of good interpersonal communication, and poor relationships between the providers and patients. What philosophy or practice did United Medical use as part of its strategy to resolve this problem?
6. The United Medical Hospital leadership team was successful in turning this failing hospital around by simply doing what?
7. A patient satisfaction survey was conducted 6 months after the merger, and the results are displayed in the given chart. What patient satisfaction measure ranked highest among the quality parameters?
8. A patient satisfaction survey was conducted 6 months after the merger, and the results are displayed in the given chart. What patient satisfaction measure ranked highest among the quality parameters?
9. Regarding quality patient care, many experts are of the belief that second-guessing can be more detrimental because it may result in fatal mistakes. However, the management staff members of United Medical used second-guessing to help their cause. What assumption did they make in relation to the patients?
10. Within the plan-do-check-act model, understanding the importance of the evaluation process is critical. This evaluation process documents the steps involved in developing and implementing the program. It also identifies key successes, challenges, and lessons learned. This is done through data collection, which monitors performance and informs evaluation activities for identifying areas for continuous quality improvement. In carrying out this process, what should United Medical staff advise Mucho County staff to avoid?
11. Healthcare organizations that desire to have a strong impact on a community must also have a strong mission statement. This is important because it articulates what the organization is doing or aiming to achieve. What components of a mission statement would attract patients to the new Mucho County Hospital?
12. Why do you think patient exit surveys were so important to the transformation process of Mucho County Hospital?