Banner health is a non-profit health organization in the U.S with its headquarters based in Phoenix in Arizona. This organization is currently operating in seven states in the country, that include Arizona, California, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The organization is operating 25 acute-care facilities and several other special facilities. Banner health organization is also operating clinics, hospital care, emergency care, hospice, ambulatory surgery centers, rehabilitation services, long-term care, home health agencies, clinical laboratories and primary care (Banner Health, 2013). This organization has made itself unique as a healthcare institution in the sense that it’s committed to delivering optimal health care services that are mostly valued by its clients. They have been able to provide wellness services and coordinate effective health services to the people they are serving. The organization is having a high tolerance for ambiguity and high passion for complexity. This organization is not only seeking for new territory but for new knowledge. Their health care transformation systems are driven by increasing expectations for quality care, greater transparency, greater risk, health care reform, decreasing government reimbursement and value which it has made it be their daily routine.
Banner health organization has maintained forward movement ever and they are aiming not to move backward ever. As one of the measures to do so, they have designed health care facility in such a way that it is not only managing the health of populations but also encouraging individuals to stay well as one of their true continuum care. This has poised Banner to build a strong foundation and one-way road to the future via its clinical improvement work. Clinical improvement work has enabled the organization to move forward that is the reason which has made to be recognized by the national quality rating organizations, for example, Truven Health Analytics which has categorized Banner among the top five big hospitals organizations in clinical quality for a number of years. This is because a decade ago, Banner had begun with a dozen functional teams, but currently it has risen up to more than 50 teams. Initially, the functional teams were started with a focused on utilization management, data analysis, patient safety and care management improvement that have evolved over years to include teams for rapid innovation (TRIaDs)and design and clinical consensus groups (CCGs) (Banner Health, 2013). In order to improve clinical work, the health care teams are focusing on evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence so as to define, design and implement clinical policies, standing orders and practices that aim at improving patient care. The CCGs is consisting of multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians and other physicians who are in charge of examining the emerging issues and development prospects in a precise clinical area. In five years ago, CCGs were five but currently they are 17 and there is high potential to increase in future in line with the increasing number of clients to be served.
On the other hand, TRIaDs is focusing on accountability of leadership which is intending to improve patient outcome across the system. In order to achieve this goal, each team is composed of dedicated a clinical director, a process engineering director and a medical director. Currently, the number of TRIaDs is six namely: Women’s Health, Hospital Medicine, Critical Care, Perioperative, Ambulatory and Emergency (Banner Health, 2013). These teams with other 30 disciplinary teams bring leaders together in order to standardize and improve operational performance by addressing service delivery, standards of patient care, workflow, and standards of professional practice, information and technology. These two main teams, TRIads and CCGs has taken the organization forward and in order to make the organization continue to move forward in future, the earlier functional teams have been disbanded thus paving way for an additional TRIaDs and CCGs to engage into deeper process improvement.
This organization is on its journey to improve the quality of health delivery. To achieve it, they have initiated an innovative approach which is aiming at reducing the lag time of 17 years between identification of an evidence-based clinical practice and time it will be accepted and put into practice. In order to progress faster, they are in transition of moving away from strategic approach to execution approach. Execution is gaining momentum as a core competence in this organization (Banner Health, 2013). Execution is accomplished via a 3-step process which include: defining clinical practice by the use of clinical experts who study and determine outstanding practices which will significantly boost care throughout the organization; designing how it will be performed by incorporating communication and education on how to implement the practice; and implementation of the clinical practice by use of project management techniques and tools. Once this has been done, clinical practices will be adopted and used to guide a spectrum of care required to be delivered to a particular group of patients with an explicit medical condition.
Furthermore, an organization is ready to further categorize clinical practices outline earlier as expected based on the potency of the evidence gathered and on clinicians’ judgments. This will be done every time the evidence-based clinical practices have been analyzed and conclusions derived. Additionally, in order to enhance the quality of health care delivery, the organization has established a Care Management Council who meets on quarterly basis together with other clinical and administrative leaders to approve new clinical policies, standing orders and practices. The Care Management Council also monitors the progress being made by other care management teams towards achieving clinical excellence. Once the decisions have been arrived at by the council it will be first addressed to a senior management team and then to the Quality Committees of Board of directors. The Board will then provide guidance for tracking the progress of the work done by the Care Management Council. In every move the Board will take is guided by the Banner’s mission of making a difference in peoples’ lives through excellent patient care (Banner Health, 2013).
The Banner is continuously stretching its targets as one of the strategic plans to improve and expand their services as well as to satisfy the patient. The organization is working on the new clinical strategic initiatives establish in 2013 by making sure they fulfill the organization’s driving strategy of applying evidence-based and science principles to every client they served. To ensure this is adhered to, members of the senior care management meet annually to analysis improvement alternatives recommended by the Board of Directors (Banner Health, 2013). This is one of the measures that are used to weigh how well the organization is executing their long-term strategies and its supportive objectives. This approach is serving as a key action that has been put in place to achieve objectives or reduce the gap between measures of targets and performance.
Nevertheless, information technology and medical records is another critical area which Banner had embraced to guide a health care organization in the direction of achieving patient safety, clinical excellence and operating efficiency. Banner health organization has developed electronic medical record (EMR) fully that entails spectrum of care right from the office of physician to the hospital and to the home care (Banner Health, 2013). Banner has crafted strategic initiatives known as Care Transformation whose work is to implement comprehensive electronic medical records that cut across all Banner facilities and another separate EMR interface across all employed physicians (Banner Health, 2013). The care Transformation involved a combination of elements of work redesign and critical cultural changes on top of incorporating evidence-based clinical practices. The Banner’s Care Management division under its leadership has created the vision of improving the safety and quality of patient care through the full embracing of computerized physician order entry and documentations as well as the anonymous adoption of evidence-based clinical practices supported by technology.
Banner has created Banner Simulation Medical Center as one of the important key area that ensures its clinicians master competencies in patient care (Banner Health, 2013). This gives health professionals to have the opportunity to practice at low-frequency but high risky events thus, enhancing the skills of the personnel. This is one of the largest centers in the world that is transforming medical education efforts to the best levels.
Banner has established an icare which is providing a peace of mind to families and care providers. The icare is using a two-way audiovisual communication channel that gives an opportunity staff to speak with the patient and see directly the patient in the room (Banner Health, 2013). On the other hand, the patient can hear and see the health professional on a monitor put across their bed. The icare system, information technologies and a two-way audiovisual linked up intensive care physicians, back-up nurses and other caregivers to intensive care units that help to monitor the information of the patients all the time. With this system, intensive care physicians are capable to virtually monitor bedsides of many numbers of patients in ICUs medical centers and Banner hospitals.
References
Banner Health. (2013). New Territory, The Journey Continues. Retrieved from https://www.bannerhealth.com/NR/rdonlyres/EDB7233F-227B-4A5C-A9D0-F569E0A4E877/69305/ClinicalPerformanceReport2013.pdf
