St. John Hospital and Medical Center SWOT Analysis

The St. John Hospital is a distinguished medical institution situated in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to educating the community, the institution provides a wide range of medical services. Such services include oncology, neurosurgery, cardiology pediatrics, minimally invasive and robotic surgery as well as women services. The institution also offers specialized treatment for health issues such as heart failure, chest pains and cancer. This essay documents the performance improvement plan for St. John Hospital and Medical Center, which describes the new program initiative, its benefits and market served, resources needed and the parameters for measuring its success.

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Key Elements of SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis that was carried out in the institution revealed the institutions strength in its highly qualified staff, which is supported by the highly developed medical technologies and equipment. Opportunities of acquiring newer technologies are also available to the institution as other institutions are willing to collaborate with them in facilitating such equipment. Nevertheless, certain weaknesses were revealed in the management of the institutions staff, its communication channels, patient monitoring and inter-unit communication. In addition, the threats to the institution were related to its unsuitable channels for communicating the new compliance policies in the medical practice to its staff.

New Program Initiative Opportunity

Description of New Quality Improvement Initiative

The quality improvement initiative will involve the installation of a hospital Unified Communication system (UC system). An example of a suitable UC system is the Vocera. Such a system would create efficiencies by offering easy and seamless collaboration among the facilitys staff and between the various units of the institution (Ernst, Weiss & Reitsema 2013). This is due to its ability to offer real-time communications on the devices provided by the institution such as laptops, mobile devices and the Vocera hands-free gadgets. It also facilitates easy transmission of clinical data such as critical alarms, waveforms and other alerts (Richardson & Ash 2010).

Justification for Need

St. John Hospital and Medical Center is in dire need of a suitable and effective hospital communication systems, which will ultimately improve patient outcomes. This system will enable an easy and secure flow of communication and clinical data sharing, which will aid in eliminating its weaknesses. In addition, such a system can be integrated with the electronic health record system to facilitate swift clinical workflows and operational efficiencies (Yang & Rivera 2015).

Benefits and Market Served

Benefits of This New Initiative

If this new system is adopted, the institution will be able to manage its staff effectively, improve its communication systems and effectuate patient monitoring. The flow of communication between the staff members as well as between the various units within the institutions will also be improved (Wu et al., 2012). In addition, the institution will be able to regularly communicate new policies conveniently through the system.

Key Stakeholders

The key stakeholders in this improvement plan will include the institutions management, the clinical staff as well as the patients who visit the institution.

Resources Needed

Human

The human resource required will include the technical experts who will undertake the installation and education of the nurses on how to use the system.

Financial

The financial resource includes the funds that will be used to purchase the software and hardware for the communication system and the cost of its installation and training of the staff.

Material/Environmental

A secure location where the servers for the new communication systems will be stored within the hospital will be required.

Technology (Information Systems and Outcome Data)

An operational hospital unified communication system advanced through the latest technology known as Vocera will also be acquired.

Parameters Used to Monitor and Measure Success

Information such as staff log-ins and monitoring updates will regularly be uploaded onto the communication systems servers. This data may be used to check the efficiency of operation within the hospital. Overall, an improvement in operation in the staff assignment and patient outcomes will serve as an indication of the success of the new communication system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the St. John Hospital and Medical Center has weaknesses in managing its staff, monitoring its patients and communication between the hospital units. With the adoption of the Vocera unified communication system, new secure channels of communication will be available. It will also aid in improving clinical workflows and efficiencies in operation. As such, patient outcomes will be improved and risks to patients will be eliminated.

References

Ernst, Amy A., Steven J. Weiss, and Jeffrey A. Reitsema. (2013). "Does The Addition of Vocera Hands-Free Communication Device Improve Interruptions in an Academic Emergency Department?". Southern Medical Journal 106 (3): 189-195. doi: 10.1097/smj.0b013e318287faee.

Richardson, J. E and J. S Ash. (2010). "The Effects of Hands-Free Communication Device Systems: Communication Changes in Hospital Organizations". Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 17 (1): 91-98. doi:10.1197/jamia.m3307.

Yang, Yushi and A. Joy Rivera. (2015). "An Observational Study of Hands-Free Communication Devices Mediated Interruption Dynamics in A Nursing Work System". Health Policy and Technology 4 (4): 378-386. doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2015.08.003.

Wu, Robert C, Vivian Lo, Peter Rossos, Craig Kuziemsky, Kevin J OLeary, Joseph A Cafazzo, Scott Reeves, Brian M Wong, and Dante Morra. 2012. "Improving Hospital Care and Collaborative Communications for The 21St Century: Key Recommendations for General Internal Medicine". Interactive Journal of Medical Research 1 (2): e9. doi:10.2196/ijmr.2022.