Strategic Management Plan: A Key to Healthcare Organization Success - Research Paper

Introduction

The financial and operational success of any health care organization depends on a proper strategic management plan. The executive members of the Hillsboro County Home Health Agency should have good knowledge of the components of the plan. They should also know how the plan works and be able to measure its efficiency in providing success. Besides, the plan should be reviewed from time to time to ensure that it produces the desired outcomes. The desired results should achieve the goals and objectives of the organization following the mission and vision of the health care facility.

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Mission Statement

"The mission of HCHHA is to serve individuals in their natural environments and is concerned with well people as well as people with illness or disabilities". "We strive to prevent disease or to retard its progress and to reduce the ill effects of unavoidable disease". "We provide quality nursing and therapeutic care to the non-institutionalized sick and disabled". "We also provide information and encouragement to individuals and families, special groups, and the community as a whole for the promotion of health."

Vision Statement

To provide quality medical care to well, sick, and disabled individuals.

Core Values

The cultural belief and core values of HCHHA help in driving it towards achieving its mission. Through these core values, the staff has guidance on how to perform their roles and responsibilities.

Teamwork and Collaboration

The decision-making process is through teamwork. The board of directors must approve any decision that has a significant impact on the welfare of the health agency. The meeting between the executive committee and the executive director to solve particular issues is also, through teamwork. The agency, though divided into divisions, work as a unit towards achieving the mission of the health agency. All the divisions strive to provide the best services to the client as a team.

Good Leadership

Good leadership is another core value of the Hillsboro County Home Health Agency. It is ranging from the executive committee, the board of directors, and heads of different divisions and departments. The excellent leadership equips the physicians, nurses, and other staff confidence and motivation to perform their responsibilities. The leadership also makes tough decisions that ensure the progress of the agency.

Building Professionalism

HCHHA has got professionals in different sections to ensure that the services it offers to its clients are of high quality. They allow their staff to further their education levels while working for the organization. Upon completion of such studies, they get promoted to higher job levels. The agency plays a role in developing their staff into better professionals. This development help build professionalism in their conduct while serving clients.

Provision of Patient-Centered Care

HCHHA provides their health care centered on the patients. This value emphasizes the importance of patients' well-being. The patients' satisfaction is the most important to the existence of the agency. This core value is found in the mission statement and vision of the home health agency. All this is to help promote the health of the clients in the area.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis plays a significant role in the building process of a good strategic management plan (Rothaermel, 2017). An internal analysis can identify the strengths and opportunities of an organization as well as weaknesses and threats that affect its overall performance. The analysis for Hillsboro County Home Health Agency provided the following insights on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Strengths

The healthcare facility prides itself on the quality of its physicians, nurses, and other staff who have a lot of experience in the health care field. The health agency has in place registered nurses in the home care division. The nurses asses and monitor all patients and are responsible for treatment planning, administering medication, and other nursing services. Together with the other Hillsboro County Home Health Agency staff, they ensure that the services offered are of the anticipated quality standards. Through them, the health agency has maintained its position as a preferred facility for the area population.

Hillsboro County Home Health Agency also has exceptional leadership. The leadership of Martha Washington has improved the operations of the health agency. As the organization's executive director, she reorganized the agency into three divisions. She also opened up an additional office in Jasper to support all programs upon approval of the board. Her leadership has enabled the agency to expand existing services and incorporate new ones. Her leadership style of delegating responsibilities also brings better results. The people under her perform their responsibilities better because of the trust she instills in them. Besides the executive director, the agency has the required governance from the other board of directors. The periodical meetings of the executive committee with the executive director to solve particular issues are essential to the existence and success of the agency. The meetings offer solutions to problems and a direction the agency should operate towards attaining its mission.

Hillsboro County Home Health Agency is the only Medicare-certified home health agency in Hillsboro County. The certification gives the health agency a regional recognition that acts to its advantage. The area's population has faith in the services offered by the facility more than the rest due to the regional attention. The Medicare certification acts as a publicity tool to the public of the excellent image that the agency has. This certification gives the organization a competitive edge against its rivals in the market in the region. The company can use it as an advertising tool in marketing the services they provide.

Weaknesses

The presence of politics in management is a weakness experienced by the agency. The management team has different views on how the agency should operate. For example, Catherine Newfields, the division manager, has a different opinion. She wanted her division to be given more priority than others. This kind of parallel opinion would create rifts in the agency, making it hard for it to achieve its mission.

The presence of one hospital system is another weakness of HCHHA. The agency overlooked the opportunity of merging with the local hospice to offer the locals beneficial services. If it had agreed to the merger, then it would have grown stronger, and the number of patients would have increased. From such growth, the agency can get more revenue.

Lack of income diversification is a major weakness of the agency. The agency only targets one business model but does not consider other health services. For instance, the organization fails to consider other insurances in providing health services.

Opportunities

In one of the two-week management team meetings, the executive director, Washington, expressed her feeling about market expansion. She said that she had a feeling that the long-term care program offered by the Home Care Division faced an expanding market. The health agency should use this opportunity to improve its ailing financial performance. By expanding the program, the organization will be able to earn more revenue. This revenue can then be directed towards improving other sectors of the health facility that require more funds.

The introduction of a more advanced information technology system is another opportunity that health care can use to its advantage. The new system should integrate information about Medicare reimbursement. Alerts should be created for payment periods in time to avoid delays. The data would help physicians to review the requirements enabling the signing of the physician certificate. The timely signing of the certificate will ensure that there are no delays in the qualification of Medicare. Having payment details into the system would make it easy to trace the flow of income.

Threats

Decreasing reimbursement threatens the operation of the home health agency. The funds released by Medicare for a 60-day service period is below the amount needed by the home health agency. The impact of reimbursement changes had forced several agencies to consolidate and going out of business. If nothing were done, the Hillsboro County Home Health Agency would be caught up in the same situation.

The productivity issues spelled out by the executive director about some of the older employees are another threat to the organization achieving its goals and objectives. By becoming less productive, the older employees make it hard to achieve desirable outcomes. Low productivity levels of the employees result in customer dissatisfaction, which eventually paints a poor image of the health care facility. A quick solution should be found to ensure that the health agency's productivity levels are back to normal.

The interest by UnicareHomeco, into the Jasper market, is another threat to the Hillsboro County Home Health Agency. As a national for-profit home care corporation, it will reduce the HCHHA's market share. This reduction in market share would mean fewer customers and reduced revenue. Besides, HCHHA would require more funds for marketing, which might paralyze some of its operations.

Long Term Strategies or Priorities

HCHHA must formulate long term strategies for its improvement in its operational and financial performances. The strategy should be inclined towards improving its overall performance and profitability. From proper strategy, the organization can increase its market share and ensure its existence in the future even when changes happen in the market. The agency should consider the following issues in its long term priorities.

Increase in Child Health Programs Initiatives

HCHHA should increase child health program initiatives into its patient care strategies. At the moment, their strategy has focused more on adult patients and employees leaving out child health programs. The maternity nurses should take their responsibilities about child health more seriously. This new avenue will earn the health agency more revenue to support other programs and heal the decline in financial performance.

Improvement of Financial Performances

The dependence on Medicare and Medicaid to provide finances to the health agency has not been sufficient. This insufficiency in funds is a cause of the decline in the overall financial performance of the agency. There is thus a need to improve financial performance. HCHHA should look for new methods of getting more financial support to improve its financial performance. The best way is through pushing to establish contracts with managed care organizations. These contracts will curb the problem of financial constraints due to changes in reimbursement.

Quality for Medical Care Reimbursement

The quality of medical care reimbursement needs improvement. The internal assessment of the agency indicates that it sometimes delays in qualifying for Medicare reimbursement. The agency should manage the connection between the clinical personnel and business offices to avoid such delays.

Continue Using the Electronic Health Record System

The increase in clients leads to a large amount of data that needs proper management (Bhadani, & Jothimani, 2016). The health agency should continue using the electronic health record system to manage its data. Through this system, it will be easy to store patients' data and retrieve them when needed. The system will also guarantee the safety of patients' information. Only authorized personnel will have access to such data when they are required.

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