Description
Imagine that a group of physicians who are planning to open a single-specialty group practice has hired you as a consultant. Your job is to advise the physicians in creating a business plan that includes management strategies that will help ensure their success. The physicians have stipulated that the plan must promote medical excellence and limit their exposure to risks associated with the practice of medicine and the operational functions of the practice. In addition, they are aware that a public health emergency or natural disaster could have had a significant impact on their practice, and want to include a strategy for emergency preparedness as part of their plan so that they will be able to manage their patients and help serve the community as needed.
Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:
- Compare and contrast the two (2) main levels (i.e., internal comparison and external comparison) of financial benchmarking. Next, analyze the strategic purpose of each level of benchmarking and specify the overall importance of benchmarking as a financial planning tool for a medical practice.
- Recommend a Health Information Technology (HIT) system that includes an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for the new practice to implement. Support your recommendation by determining three (3) main benefits of having this type of system for the practice.
- According to the text (page 368), some of the main areas of risk exposure for a group practice include: property (general liability and safety), technology, and financial practices. Determine one (1) specific hazard associated with one (1) of these risk categories and propose a strategy to mitigate the impact this risk could have on the practice. Support your analysis with a real-life example.
- Determine the main functions of the practice that will need to remain operational before, during, and / or after a natural disaster or public health emergency. Next, suggest a strategy that the practice should take to maintain communication with employees and patients, secure patient and financial records, and ensure that resources will available to care for patients during a disaster or emergency. Provide a rationale for your response.
- Use at least three (3) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia does not qualify as an academic resource.
- Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
- Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
- Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
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Running head: OPERATIONS PLANNING
Operations Planning
Student’s name:
Course:
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OPERATIONS PLANNING
Internal versus External Levels of Benchmarking
Benchmarking is considered one of the best practices and a powerful tool that helps
organizations gain a competitive advantage. This is because it provides views of the performance
of products and the lifecycle of an organization based on evidence. In other words, benchmarking
enables the implementation of insights learned during the process that propels an organization
towards the achievement of its goals (Meslin et al, 2015). Hence, benchmarking will be a good
starting point for the single-specialty group practice that the physicians are about to open.
Benchmarking consists of two primary levels; internal and external benchmarking. When
organizations benchmark against their own projects, it is referred to as an internal level of
benchmarking. External benchmarking, on the other hand, is when companies compare the projects
of other companies that offer the same service or product.
External benchmarks are the most recommended because they enable a wide array of
comparative analysis to the respective organization that is doing the benchmarking. Internal
benchmarks are more common in cases where external benchmarks are unavailable (Meslin et al,
2015). However, for the case of single-specialty group practice, external benchmarks will be the
preferred option since it is not an organization yet.
External benchmarking will be the most logical type of benchmarking for the singlespecialty group practice. The benchmarking will consist of a comparative analysis of the financial
performance of other companies offering the same services as that which the group of physicians
is about to begin (Chiasera et al, 2018). The primary role of the benchmarking process will be to
evaluate the operations of simila...
