Chamnongnuj Vorasiangsuk
Strayer University
HSA 599: Health Services Administration Capstone
Healthcare Conducting an Environmental Analysis
July 26, 2015
Dr. Kelechi Mezu-Nnabue
Introduction
In this paper, assuming that I am the administrator of
Zonal Health Hospital, which is a fictitious hospital facing the challenges of
declining reimbursements from insurance providers and increasing demands for
patient services due to dramatic changes in the external environment, an
environmental analysis is conducted. Many of the environment elements affect
health. These may include sanitation, sunlight, population density, violence,
pollution, employment opportunities, etc. Environment had the most powerful
impact on health system.
Consider for example, a change in policy of health care
by the government, like Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which has
been enacted by government for increasing affordability and quality of health
insurance has affected the health care by reducing cost and expenses on health
care by expanding private and public insurance coverage (Democrats Senate Gov/Reform, n.d.). Such
factors always affect the health care either externally or internally.
Forces
impacting the External Environment
There is a reason
for starting with the external environmental analysis. This helps in exploring
implications for the change and development of the organization as well as
involve the leaders form all the functional areas of an organization to
cooperate in making adjustments according to external environment.
Zonal Health Hospital is a private hospital providing
health care facilities and treatment to about hundreds of people daily. There
is a well-organized hospital staff to take care of the patients and providing
quality services. The management is good and the hospital is having a good
reputation for giving best health facilities in the town. However, recent
changes in the external environment have impacted the hospital policies to a
greater extend. There had been governmental reforms in the field of health
insurance which have impacted the cost of health care.
The two specific forces in the external environment
impacting Zonal Health Hospital to the most are the following:
1.
Government Laws
These include laws and regulations in the
health care system passed by the government and the services of the government
at local, state and federal levels (Pfeffer &
Salancik, 2003). For example the recent government policy in the area of
health insurance has affected the hospital by declining reimbursements from
insurance providers and increasing demands for patient services. These reforms
have demanded improved services for the patients at lower costs challenging the
hospital’s administration.
2.
Economic conditions
These forces include rates and levels of
employment, investment, growth, inflation or other economic conditions.The
economic status of the patient and his family affects the hospital management.
By inflation, growth, investment levels and employment levels, patients are
able to alter the cost of their health care to a larger extend (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).However, Zonal
Health Hospital continues to provide best quality services at minimum costs,
still the conditions like inflation and growth can cause a drastic change in
the monetary policies of the hospital.
These two factors or forces are affecting the financial
system of the Zonal Health Hospital and the health services cannot be provided
well if the hospital is not able to manage its finances properly. Thus, they
are important external environment forces impacting the overall functionality
of the Zonal Health Hospital.
Internal
Factors that are needed to be considered
The internal factors are important for an organization
to be considered because analyzing the past success helps in achieving success
in the future and internal analysis helps in identifying the capabilities of
the organization which are necessary to succeed in the future. To find out the
internal factors which could help in preparing the future of the hospital it is
necessary to evaluate the capacity of the hospital by identifying the program
operations and the management potential (Davies,
Nutley& Mannion, 2000).
Secondly, evaluating the resources available with the
hospital including the facilities, money, technology, information and people
are important. Thirdly, it would be required to review the future needs and the
current capacities of the hospital and finally, forming a list of weaknesses
and strengths influencing the hospital’s ability to capitalize on opportunities
(Davies, Nutley& Mannion, 2000).
After determining these four areas the specific internal
factors that are needed to be considered for preparing for the future of the
health care and the future of Zonal Health Hospital are identified. These are:
1.
Human Resources
The human resource includes staff of the
hospital, both the working staff as well as the management staff. The staff of
an organization can determine a lot of things as they are the real force behind
the progress of the organization. The staff at Zonal Health Hospital is
dedicated towards their services for the patients (Duncan, 1972). However, if the future of the health care and that
of the hospital is to be determined, the staff can be modified and those
employees who do not perform sincerely can be removed from the hospital. This
is an important factor as if there is no good staff in the hospital, and then
the progress is not possible so the leaders of the hospital need to consider
this factor.
2.
Technology Sector
The technology sector plays an important
role in current era. As there is no sector which is left unaffected by
technology today, so is the health care. The health care today involves
technological advancement to treat and cure numerous diseases and provide quality
services to the patients(Duncan, 1972).The
functioning of Zonal Health Hospital is affected to a greater extend if the
required machines and equipment are lacking in the organization.
The above two internal factors determine the success of
the health care and that of the hospital to a greater extend. The staff and the
technology have become the key factors for providing quality services to the
patients in a hospital. If the leaders of the hospital fail to evaluate these
factors for bringing change in the service then no other factor will be so
sufficient to make a successful culture in the hospital (Duncan, 1972).Therefore, it is very necessary
for the leaders of the organization to consider the human resource and
technology sector to prepare for the future of the Zonal Health Hospital.
Impact
of the Internal and External forces
External Forces
The government laws despite of being complicated and
inefficient in nature have made the health care system flourish over the years.
Rather than hindering the progress of the organization, the laws have served to
nurture and support the overall enterprise. The confidence of the public in a
particular organization increases on finding that all the working physicians
have proper license for their work.
They also feel safe towards prescribed drugs when they
find that these medicines have gone through FDA approval process. Thus, the
governmental laws greatly enhance the overall respect for the main elements of
the health care system and also expand market for the organization which
provides the approved goods and services to public. This provides a competitive
edge to the organization (Davies, Nutley&
Mannion, 2000).
Under the economic conditions, health insurance
premiums, lost benefits and layoffs have left public wondering what health care
reforms means in a tough economy. A recession immediately leads to loss of
coverage for many people (Davies, Nutley&
Mannion, 2000). The employees in low wages job are more likely to be
uninsured after losing their job in a health care system. The change in economy
also causes change in the demand for the health care services.
Internal Forces
The human resource of any
health care organization affects its equity, efficiency and quality objective.
It improves efficiency by outsourcing the services. This method has been used
to convert fixed labor expenditure into variable cost to improve efficiency. It
promotes equity by introducing financial protection mechanism, re- deployment
of services and by targeting specific needs of public and groups. Human
resource also improves patient satisfaction and quality of service in the health
care department. Hence, human resource is a major factor that should be
considered while forming competitive strategy (Duncan,
1972).
Technology sector is also a
major force as for any organization this is the only factor that is responsible
for providing breakthroughs in research, information gathering, treatments, and
various communications tools have provided new means to work with and fresh
ways to practice health care services and medicine. It is responsible for
providing tremendous improvement in the health care organization (Duncan, 1972).
Strategic
Recommendation
The managers of Zonal Health Hospital would be able to
involve themselves in implementing and maintaining the momentum of the
strategic plan by the “Elimination of
Energy Drains and Recharging the hospital” (Swayne,
Duncan& Ginter, 2012).
After going through the external and internal factors
affecting the functioning of the Zonal Health Hospital it would be easy to
identify the energy drains, which are the factors responsible for dragging the
hospital down. In case the hospital is dragged down, implies that the planning
process has not been implemented properly. Thus, ways and means need to be
found for recharging the organization. The hospital management would have to
analyze similar cases occurred in past and then identify what steps were taken
for them. This will recharge them and they will be able to recharge the
hospital (Swayne, Duncan& Ginter, 2012).
By eliminating the energy drain from the hospital, the
factors affecting the performance of the hospital negatively would be
eliminated and those new strategies could be found which would help in
refreshing the hospital’s culture, finances and services for the patients.
Elimination will reduce the stress from the hospital’s environment and the
management of the hospital will find more spring in their steps and will focus
more clearly on the actions which will help the Zonal Health Hospital to meet
its strategic priorities (Swayne, Duncan&
Ginter, 2012).
Conclusion
Research into the impact of the
healthcare environment on healthcare outcomes has been growing rapidly in
recent years. Many scientific studies have collected empirical evidence
demonstrating connections between the environmental design of healthcare
facilities and outcomes that are important for patients, families, healthcare
staff, and healthcare organizations (Ulrich et al., 2008). As a result, there
is a growing understanding that an appropriately designed built environment can
help to improve patient outcomes; create a safe, nurturing, and positive work
environment for caregivers; and help achieve organizational and business
objectives.
References
Davies, H. T., Nutley, S. M., & Mannion, R. (2000). Organisational
culture and quality of health care. Quality in Health Care, 9(2), 111-119.
Democrats Senate Gov/Reform, (n.d.). The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act. Retrieved July 24, 2015 fromhttp://www.dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill04.pdf
Duncan, R. B. (1972). Characteristics of organizational environments and
perceived environmental uncertainty. Administrative science quarterly, 313-327.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The external control of
organizations: A resource dependence perspective. Stanford University Press.
Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J., & Ginter, P. M. (2012). Strategic
management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
