Management in a health organization
Health care organizations are similar to other business enterprises formed with an aim to reduce costs and achieve profitability in its operations. A quality management plan in a given healthcare setting encompasses the monetary escalation and validation of the health care organization. The health care diligence achieves success through an effective management plan that ensures full utilization of resources, accomplishment of objectives, and counteracting competition from similar organization. The effective management plan can be measured for the amount of profit accrued annually and to the most basic concept of lives saved and the number of deaths witnessed in the organization. Among the major aspects overseen by the management plan is the creation of, affordable quality, health amenities and financial viability. The intention of this desertion is to identify the aspects of a quality management plan in a healthcare organization. The paper concentrates mostly on the American Public Health Association.
SWOT Analysis of the American Public Health Association (APHA)
A wide-ranging analysis of the company main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is crucial in the formulation of an effective health management plan in the health administration section. Beginning with the strengths of the company, APHA is the oldest and largest health organization of public health in terms of structure and professionalism, therefore; giving it a strong well laid foundation for future development. Also, APHA brings researchers, health examination supplier, proprietors, teachers, and other health personnel together in an exceptional, multidisciplinary setting of professionalism. The strength of the company is also eminent in the implementation of its philosophy, which outlines that, the aim of APHA department of health administration is to guarantee the utmost superiority of public health perform by recognizing matters in public health and looking for solutions which enhance the health of the people by providing sustenance, guidance, and information to public health proprietors of all sectors, and by openly supporting superior quality of public health practice centered on reasonable administrative and scientific principles.
However, due to the size of APHA the company experiences some weaknesses in certain areas with regard to the health administration department. The company experiences some difficulties in the allocation of resources to the department. The department is almost interrelated to every section of the company making it difficult to manage workers and allocate them specific tasks. Moreover, the APHA restriction on expenditures serves as a barrier to some of the section work. Despite these weaknesses, the health has eminent opportunities such as collaborating with other sections or health organizations, adopting a diverse toolkit directed towards an increase in administrative knowledge, availability of educational content that could add value to the section, and also the company has the opportunity to acquire professionals in line with the current development in the administrative section. Some of the threats facing the company include lack of resources for professional training to handle such a complex and massive health organization, downsizing of all the governmental public health workforces, and decrease in membership, in the administrative department.
Among the weaknesses outlined by the SWOT analysis, managing the administration sector to full satisfy members and financial funding of the sector emerges as the principal center of focus. Therefore, the rest of the paper will concentrate on providing a management plan to solve such occurrences as financial budget and management of employee in the sector.
A Quality Management Plan to Improve the Health Administration Sector in APHA
Creation of a quality management plan requires several vital steps. These steps include identification of various aspects of an effective management plan, applying various processes and tools to enhance the quality in a healthcare setting, outline a comprehensive work flow, stipulates the parameters of a quality management plan, evaluating the management plan, and the last stage includes mapping the clinical process. The above steps are well explained in the subtopic below respectively.
Aspects of a Quality Management Plan
A quality management plan principally has well outlined objectives and goals. The administration sector is designed to monitor the quality of health care provided by APHA plan operation members such as doctors, nurses, and consultants. Moreover, the system in place is meant to speculate the health operation in the company and ensure they agree or exceed the anticipations and standards of the federal state. A comprehensive management plan should form a well thought evaluation strategy to evaluate the performance of the health company and facilitate changes and review of current goals. The system should also provide a means by which members can utter their complaints, grievances, and appeals internally on an ongoing practice that requires improvement.
The health administration sector should develop programs and interventions to improve health outcomes of members. Such programs should promote preventive services and early detection of diseases, self management of chronic diseases, and monitoring of health outcomes of patients. The quality management program mainly monitors four areas; utilization of services, members' satisfaction, clinical services, and administrative services. These four aspects form the basis of an inclusive health administrative management plan.
The Processes and Tools Used to Enhance Quality a Management Plan in APHA
Implementation or achievement of the numerous set objectives and aspects requires a number of tools and processes. The process used to monitor utilization of services mainly check for under or over utilization of services. This is usually achieved through the medical management committee with the aid of utilization committee selected by the health administrators. The member’s satisfaction process involves monitoring of the various patient reactions of the outlined plan or delivered services. These reactions can be monitored by external bodies such as Customer Assessment of Health Providers & Systems Surveys (CAHPS). Other tools that can be used in the process are review of member’s appeals, complaints, and grievances.
The clinical service aspects require an ample cram of the ailment management, member well-being edification, and the quality development of the projects. The medical management team is responsible for establishing programs aimed at humanizing the performance of the corporation in the situation of a chronic disease through member education to provide the prevention guideline. The last aspect of member health education includes providing cultural awareness and health literacy among varied people served by APHA. Member’s education is achieved through the release of quarterly member health newsletter, personal health mailings, targeted health mailings and verbally through case management and referral to a group or individual classes. The function of the health administrative sector is to monitor the process and procedures that the above operations and provide the necessary capital either in the form of human resource or financially to support the above processes.
Workflow in APHA
A quality management plan requires a well set workflow system which involves several methodologies and philosophy. First is to establish a systematic thinking strategy all around APHA system. This means that the each hospital, department, and individuals are part of the incorporated system of services meant to provide care to the members through linking their needs to the process of problem solving or a new process.
For an inclusive workflow, there is a need for enhancement of teamwork among the stuffs involved in the process improvement or designing of a new process. Then the company ought to listen to the customer expectations and equate them to the new or improved system. After reviewing customer awareness, the administrative sector can now make fact centered decisions using the warranted and reliable data collected from members. Then the decisions are to be used to form a quality plan that meets the federal regulations and customer’s expectations. The last stage of work-flow is the quality control which monitors the implementation of the plan to ensure achievement the set objectives and goals in the plan and also focus on improvement of high risks and care of acute and chronic conditions.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Management Plan
The quality management committee is responsible for the valuation of the implementation of the plan. Normally, evaluation is done annually. Various aspects are considered during the evaluation process. The team usually compares the financial validity of the current period to the previous period and determines whether the health organization is making a profit as a result of an improved or new management plan. Among other aspects inspected are the number of complaints or grievances received from members. Reduction in grievances and complaints from members means that the plan was actually a success in customer satisfaction. Another aspect that may show an achievement of the plan is a reduced number of cases of preventable diseases because it means that the members received the education program appropriately.
The Clinical Mapping of the Work Flow Process
Various departments’ members’ expectations
Member’s needs
New or improved Customer Priorities
Process
Valid and reliable
Monitoring the system measuring achievement of targets
Achievement of health objectives
Conclusion
Though the American Public Health Organization has been successful in its operations, there is a dire need to provide a comprehensive quality management plan in the health administrative sector. The quality management plan is an assurance that members of the health organization are satisfied with the medical approach of the company. The APHA management plan aims at maintaining or exceeding the federal requirements, issuance of appropriate health care, and improve health outcomes among members. The management plan exerts its efforts on improvement of three key areas which are utilization of services, member’s satisfaction, clinical services, and various administrative services. These aspects require certain procedures and processes which mainly use tools such as medical management team, Customer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & System Survey, and releasing of quarterly health newsletters. The administrative health sector is answerable for the delivery of financial assistance and professionals who will assist in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of an effective management program. This process also requires a broad implementation of workflow to outline how exactly the association will be organized in achieving the certain set financial targets and customer satisfaction.
References
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