3. Case Study-Team Project (30% of class grade) Due in Week 11. Your work with Intravalley Health has been well received. In fact, you have gained a reputation for insightful analysis. Given this, the board chair has asked you to assemble a consulting team to assist another healthcare organization on whose board he also serves – and where his mother receives her routine care. The task for your team is to research and analyze the organization and develop a new organizational strategy for the Arroyo Fresco Community Health Center. This strategy will be presented to the Arroyo Fresco board via a written report and a summarizing presentation. The Report (20 of the 30% value of this assignment) Your report should be a brief seven to ten-page paper (excluding tile page, abstract, and reference list), which includes: • • • • Discussion of new strategy, research support for the strategy, knowledge of best practices in reorganization. The strategy should be formulated using the information from the case study (found in the Course Resources tab, eReadings folder) and your research, including an analysis of the results, and should take into account current concerns including health care reform, the political environment in Arizona, the state of the economy, financing, and leadership and management principles learned during this course. Analysis of a new organizational structure or ownership, if needed, supported by research completed along with examples of the pros and cons. Specific goals and recommendations for the future, new and unique ideas or research supported rationale for continuing or changing current practices. Description of how strategy will be executed and measured, including financing, revenue and expense. How will you pay for the changes you recommend? This is a critical part of the exercise. The Presentation (10 of the 30% value of this assignment) You can expect to have approximately 10 minutes to present your findings to the Arroyo Fresco board of directors. The presentation can be in any format that can be viewed in a standalone mode (i.e. without internet service; the Community Health Center has a small technology budget). While PowerPoint is a popular choice, you are encouraged to use any presentation modality that can be viewed on a Microsoft operating system. Place your Report and Presentation in the Assignment folder, using the following naming conventions: • • Report: Team X AF Paper_660 (date) Presentation: Team X AF Presentation (date) Organizational Strategy Introduction Fundamentally, Arroyo Fresco (AF) is a community health center service that is based in Western Arizona; it owns 11 clinics and 4 mobile service vans (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Inherently, it specializes in ambulatory medical and dental services. However, AF also provides hearing and vision screening, X-ray and laboratory services, substance abuse and behavioral health screening, and various pharmacy services. The community health center operates only in three counties namely Mohave, Yuma, and La Paz, which have diverse populations as well as needs (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). The institution’s service delivery network comprises of clinics and the service vans that were mentioned earlier, which make regular scheduled shops ay schools, churches, and community centers six days a week. The main goal of AF in regard to ambulatory care is to ensure that patients in the three counties are able to get all services that are needed in the continuum of care; it has partnered and entered contractual relationships with various physicians, agencies, and hospitals in the local area to meet this goal. All the aforementioned partnerships and relationships are outlined in the hospital’s annual plan as per the requirements of the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Arroyo Fresco (AF) needs to resort to using social media as a strategy for achieving its mission, vision, and values as well solving its current challenges in financial performance, organizational learning, clinical excellence, utilization, and specialization. Mission, Vision, and Values Intrinsically, AF’s mission is to assist all patients despite their ability to pay even in the face of tight fiscal conditions at the local, state, and federal levels. On the other hand, AF’s vision is to help the people of Western Arizona to become the healthiest in the state through its leadership in care design and delivery, community involvement, and education and training. The organization’s values include trust, respect, performance, accountability, and healthy relationships with customers and employees (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Organizational Analysis through the FOCUS Model Notably, the FOCUS model evaluates the financial performance (F), organizational learning (O), clinical excellence (C), utilization (U), and satisfaction (S) elements within an organization (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). The analysis that is facilitated by this model can help managers to come up with the best strategies for improvement and success in their organizations. Inherently, AF uses FOCUS as a framework for measuring performance. Financial Performance Arroyo Fresco is committed to serving all patients even if they are not capable for paying for the health services; it has maintained this condition despite tight fiscal condition at the local, state, and federal levels. One of the challenges that affect AF’s financial performance negatively is the fact that the percentage of uninsured patients in California is increasing despite it being one of the highest in the US. Moreover, cutbacks in the eligibility of Medicaid at the state level as well as the lack of growth in federal grant payments for patients who are uninsured have been financial impediments to AF (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Organizational Learning AF’s main challenge to organizational learning is the presence of workforce gaps; there exist large workforce gaps between the providers of clinical services and staff members who possess various technical skills such as nurses, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacists among others. These gaps impede organizational learning (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Clinical Excellence The main barriers to clinical excellence at AF are a low incidence of screening and prevention in Arizona as well as a relatively high incidence of communicable diseases in the service area. These factors make it difficult for the healthcare center to achieve clinical excellence (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Utilization Intrinsically, the main challenge that AF is acing in regard to utilization is a difficulty in establishing and maintaining systems for providing specialty care as well as service needs that are unmet to patients who are uninsured. This impediment makes it difficult for the center use available resources to meet its goals. Moreover, the population of Western Arizona is growing rapidly, making it difficult for the mobile service vans to make rounds to all people who need ambulatory services (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). The center only has 11 clinics and 4 mobile service vans, which is hardly insufficient to sustain the growth trends of the service area. Satisfaction The center experiences a challenge in regard to staff recruitment and retention especially in populations that are remote. In addition, the patient population in the service area is predominantly needy and vulnerable, which makes it impossible for the center to meet the needs of its publics. The center also faces dissatisfaction arising from a difficulty in maintaining and enhancing relationships with the community, patients, and other external factors (Arroyo Fresco, 2006). Proposed Organizational Strategy The new organizational strategy that would be suitable for improving service and performance at Arroyo Fresco (AF) is increasing the use of social media platforms. Notably, almost everyone in the civilized world is familiar with or can access social networking sites on their mobile handsets or their personal computers (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Ngai et al., 2015). In such a manner, if AF increases its online presence, it will be able to reach more people in Western Arizona. The FOCUS model revealed the challenges that AF is currently facing. Increased use of social media platforms will allow the center to mitigate those challenges significantly. First, the use of social media platforms will allow the center to solve challenges in its financial performance. Mangold and Faulds (2009) explain that social media can provide the perfect mix of fundraising. The center can advertise its cause on social media and seek donations and grants. Social media have wide scopes and can reach well-wishers in various parts of the world. Financial aid will allow the center to sustain providing care services to the increasing population of uninsured individuals in Arizona. Social media will also make it easier for the center to educate the residents of Arizona about the prevention and screening of various diseases, including communicable ones. The main barriers to clinical excellence for AF are a low incidence of prevention and screening and a prevalence of communicable diseases. Social media can raise awareness about these matters and allow the residents to take charge of their health. In regard to utilization, the main problem that AF is currently facing is the fact that the population of Western Arizona is growing rapidly, making it difficult for the mobile service vans to make rounds to all people who need ambulatory services. Social media platforms can facilitate improved communication (Kietzmann et al., 2011). They allow people to send and receive messages across vast geographical distances in real time (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). They can allow the center to communicate with people and help them even if it cannot get to them physically. In such a manner, social media will be good platforms for mitigating the utilization issues that the company is currently facing. According to Agnihotri et al. (2016), social media, if used wisely, might be critical tools for improving customer satisfaction. Social media can also be critical tools for increasing satisfaction levels in regard to the services that AF provides. One of the main challenges that the center currently faces pertains to recruiting and retaining staff from remote areas. Social media can act as suitable platforms for collecting feedback from such regions to learn what can be done to improve the situation. The media can also help the center to maintain relationships with the community, patients, and other external parties. Conclusion Arroyo Fresco (AF) should increase its social media presence to solve its current challenges. Inherently, is a community health center service that provides ambulatory services to the Residents of Western Arizona. It uses the vans to move around the local region six days a week to provide health services to the residents of Western Arizona. An evaluation of the center using the FOCUS model reveals various challenges that AF is currently facing. The center provides health services to all people despite their ability to pay or their insurance status. This approach has been deleterious to the center’s financial performance especially with the rapid increases in population in the region. Moreover, there exist workforce gaps that impede organizational learning. Clinical excellence at AF is impeded by a low incidence of screening and prevention in Arizona as well as a relatively high incidence of communicable diseases. The center also faces barriers to utilization and satisfaction. The company can mitigate the aforementioned problems through an increased use of social media. It can raise awareness on its cause through social media platforms and seek grants and funds to remedy its financial performance. The media can also enhance communication among staff and bridge workforce gaps. In addition, they can allow the center to reach more people in Western Arizona, maximizing utilization and increasing satisfaction levels. Overall, FA is an institution that would benefit significantly from an organizational strategy that exploits social media platforms. References Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., & Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172-180. Arroyo Fresco. (2006). Arroyo Fresco community health center case study. [Course Material]. Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27. Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241-251. Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357-365. Ngai, E. W., Moon, K. L. K., Lam, S. S., Chin, E. S., & Tao, S. S. (2015). Social media models, technologies, and applications: an academic review and case study. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115(5), 7 Running head: HEALTHCARE Goals and Recommendations The ultimate goal for the field of healthcare is to provide high-value care to patients. Innovation projects and health care policy reforms can assist in making the future of healthcare better. There is need to improve the quality of healthcare offered to better the health outcomes without necessarily increasing the costs. The need to improve how health care is delivered is also an important aspect (Evans et al. 2015). 1 HEALTHCARE 2 The major goals for the future include offering the best high-quality health care. This should happen without having extra costs added to the healthcare service provision. Another goal would be to align the key measures in all health sectors quality improvement efforts. This would make the entire health care sector have measurable targets for all the people in the disciplinary of giving care to patients. The next goal would be the ability to merge health records data across various information technology systems. Merging data can make it effective for the doctors and nurses to have more information on the patients that they treat. These goals are reachable some from ensuring dedication to the job and the others through intensive research. The recommendations for the future would be to prioritize performance measures in the implementation of Medicare and federal programs. By evaluating the performance, the report can show the importance or the negative side of the Medicare or the federal programs. The measures for development and implementation especially in ensuring quality measures to promote the consistent use of meaningful, well-understood measures are recommended for the future. Ensuring that the quality measures put in place are being implemented in the right manner is important for the future of healthcare sector. Ideas on Health Care Future Innovating the health sector can help in ensuring continued growth and evolution. Extensive research in collaboration with people in the health sector and people in other fields such as Information Technology can give rise to new and better technology in the medical field. For instance, the 3D teeth printing technology was invented in such an instance. Intensive research can give rise to new and better technology for the use in the medical field. HEALTHCARE 3 For example, a machine that could scan your whole body and give details of what body organs are not in the correct shape or diagnose just by scanning. The healthcare financing systems for a long time has had a lot of issues while in some clinics and hospitals the technology does not exist. There is a need for the implementation of these systems in all the hospitals and clinics to ensure that the work of both patients and finance personnel in the hospital work efficiently on money matters (Lee, 2015). Performance measure goal should be set for each person working in the healthcare sector. By taking this into action, a safe environment for each patient is created and a high level of compassion dictated. The most important aspect of healthcare is being focused on the patient and offering competent health care without causing errors due to reckless mistakes. Being the second-fastest growing sector in the U.S, health care, change in the sector has to occur now and then. The future for the sector is even better when clear goals are set and measures recommended for the goal’s execution. Technology is growing at a fast rate and since it has made most things easier, incorporating technology into health matters can be a great idea to ensure continued growth in the industry. The final and most important goal is ensuring quality care to patients. Reference Evans, J. M., Brown, A., & Baker, G. R. (2015). Intellectual capital in the healthcare sector: a systematic review and critique of the literature. BMC health services research, 15(1), 556. HEALTHCARE Lee, D. (2015). The effect of operational innovation and QM practices on organizational performance in the healthcare sector. International Journal of Quality Innovation, 1(1), 8. 4
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