Executive Summary
Description of Organization
The Wexner Medical Center is run by Ohio State University. It was formerly known as the Ohio State University Medical Center. Although it has a number of branches, the main headquarters is located in Columbus, Ohio at the main campus of the Ohio State University. The institution boasts of a progressive performance that has seen it rank among the top healthcare providers in the United States of America. The institution offers a wide range of healthcare services through its multidimensional approach to healthcare. It is imperative to note that the institution also suffices for the teaching and training of medical students into the medical fraternity other than just offering healthcare services to the citizens of the United States of America. The list of healthcare services is intended to address all specialities and sub-specialities in the medical profession. As the institution reports, they handle thousands of healthcare seekers. The following are some of the healthcare services available at Ohio State Hospital: Alcohol and Drug Addiction, Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Lung Disorders, Mental Health and Psychiatry, Blood Disorders, Heart Disorders, Breast Health, Surgical Care, Liver, Biliary and Pancreatic Disorders, Pregnancy and Child Birth, Cancer, Gynaecological Health, among other services.
The Ohio Medical Center runs from several locations that enjoy some element of autonomy. However, the larger management is centralised and a board of directors is charged with managerial concerns of the institution. The Center has the following hospitals under its umbrella: The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, OSU Harding Hospital, Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, The University Hospital and the University Hospital East. In addition, the hospital also runs primary cares for the patients who can access their services through the primary cares, these are: After Hour Martha Morehouse Medical Plaza, CarePoints, Clinical Laboratories, Dodd Hall Inpatient Rehabilitation, McCampbell Hall, Fast Care Clinics, among other services outlets. It should be appreciated from the onset that the Medical Center is hence a large institution that runs numerous services and delivers to thousands of patients on a daily basis. In summary, Ohio Medical Center boasts of the following constitution; a College of Medicine, six hospitals, a unified physician practise system, several research centers and institutes, twenty core laboratories and an impressive network of primary and speciality care practices. In addition to this set of physical infrastructure, Ohio has a great philosophical infrastructure that is predicated on the following values: excellence, openness and trust, leadership, empathy and compassion, diversity in a people and ideas, collaboration and simplicity in delivery of work.
Ohio has two impressive features that are worth mentioning. This relates to the integration of the information technology and their patient and visitor information system. For the former, the institution has fully embraced information technology in its functioning and management. This has two phases, the external consumers like patients, research organizations, academic consumers, among others and the internal consumers such as the personnel, the management, the inpatients, the donor community, the financiers, among others. For the latter, the information system is protected using the intranet which allows only authorised persons access to information relevant to their needs. In this vein, Ohio has integrated it systems to come up with a comprehensive database that avails to authorised persons information relevant for the discharge of their functions. In relation to the external consumers, the Ohio institution has fully availed what would be needed in the internet. This facilitates transparency, accountability and order while at the same time promotes a knowledge based economy that facilitates enjoyment of the benefits of information to the citizenry. Secondly and perhaps more relevant to this paper, is the comprehensive system that Ohio has integrated for the patient and visitor information. The institution has a victor guide system both online and physically present in all institutional premises giving the patient or the visitor financial information, hospital information, insurance data and analysis, lodging options for patients or relations to patients who would like to put up around the hospital as the medication is ongoing, retail services in support of the hospital services and the visiting hours, among other issues. This has facilitated order, efficiency and congruence in service delivery and effectively reduced the expectation gap of the patients and clients as the service information is availed beforehand thereby preparing the recipient for what to expect.
In the latest count of the staff levels, the institution reported to have over seventeen thousand personnel in all the six hospitals and related institutions. It also boasts of having around one thousand plus nursing students, another similar margin pursuing medical courses and in the latest Best Doctors in America edition, five hundred and fifty five doctors were affiliated to The Ohio States Medical Center. Ohio continues to offer career opportunities to thousands of personnel in the medical fraternity. It equally offers medical professionals with the opportunity to continue learning through the continuing medical education programs. Its research opportunities also offer a wide array of growth opportunities for career medical practitioners. To be more precise, the following is an account of the Financial Year ended 2012 statistics: number of admitted patients were 56,170, number of births successfully delivered were 4,054, number of outpatient visits were 1,270,499 patients, number of emergencies addressed were 122,499, number of inpatient surgeries were 16,248 and the number of outpatient surgeries were 21,452. In addition, the institution provided around 168 million dollars to community services in respect of charity cares, outreach efforts and support services.
Needs Assessment
While the overall service delivery is good and has placed Ohio Medical Center ahead of others in the pack, there is indeed reason to support further the course in terms of delivery of cancer services. This is justified by a number of reasons that the paper shall briefly canvass. First, it should be appreciated that the wave of cancer is fast growing and consuming the lives of several citizens of America and others in the whole world. There has been a demonstrated need to address the cancer concerns and tackle the issues accompanying it. Tackling cancer has a twofold approach for the medical profession. First approach envisions curative and remedial medical attention. To this extent, the medical professionals need to help in curing or containing cancer among its victims. The other approach envisions a preventive medical attention. In that regard, professionals need to conduct research on cancer and seek to advance preventive courses for the populace. Ohio Medical Center sits right at the center of this medical melee. Its position is primarily central in two spheres, that is, its role in research which shall shortly be illustrated and its role in provision of medical service, cancer falling under the domain of medical services.
Ohio Medical Center has often ranked fairly in matters in relation to research. In fact, it has rapidly grown into a powerhouse in the national level in research. The mandates of research dictate that the institution donates its resources and time for research in pursuit of a national problem. Cancer has surpassed being just a national problem. It is a global problem that affects the entire world. In light of these concerns, Ohio Medical Center needs to bridge the gap, fill its deficiencies and play its role in tackling cancer through research. As it stands now, Ohio Medical Center ranks well in research matters. The National Science Foundation ranked Ohio position ten in the category of research expenditures among private and public universities and second in the industry sponsored and guided research. This shows that Ohio Medical Center plays an essential role in medical research. It is equally leading in research and patient care and was consequently included in the founding membership of the P4 Committee. The institution continues to offer customized care, prevent and target diseases and offer a better service in terms of medical care to its patients. However, even in light of these progresses, it remains essential that the institution undertakes an intervention in reducing the expectation gap among cancer patients. Due to the limitations in infrastructure, knowledge and the financial constraints apparent, cancer patients still fail to get the service they so much desire.
In addition, the remedy provided at Ohio is much more palliative in nature rather than preventive. The cancer scourge since it lacks a cure should be approached in a preventive perspective for the sake of saving the current and future generations from the prevalence that is death. The performance of The Ohio Medical Center has been attributed to the low funding which cannot meet the demands of research. In 2012, Ohio Medical Center handled a total of one hundred and eighty five million dollars in both external and internal research funding. In addition, its research excellence has seen it continue receive support from donor institutions. In 2011 Financial Year, it received a total of one hundred and thirteen million from the NHI. It also made it to become one of the forty one National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer centers nationally. It also received in 2012, a sum total of 76.7 million dollars from Third Frontier research grants in Ohio. While the information on the spending of the funds is scanty and remains inaccessible for the public in relation to the material spending, one would want to believe that the same was utilised in consonance with the core values and overriding objects of the institution. In addition, it is essential at this point to appreciate the role of stakeholders in addressing the financial constraints in preparation and overall attempts to bridge the expectation gap and provide medical service to the citizenry in need.
In analysis of this gap, it is essential to take note of the current institutional mechanism in application towards addressing the issues. Ohio Medical Center has embarked on a program to expand its cancer research initiatives. In This line of action, it has dedicated a whole hospital for the treatment, prevention mechanisms development, monitoring, evaluation and overall research on cancer. The hospital dedicated for this service is the Arthur G. James Cancer Center and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. The New James Cancer Hospital and Critical Care Center has the following features: it has a bed capacity of 276; this is expected to increase with the passage of time, and it also has an oncology floor. It at the same time has an expanded care unit with 144 private rooms dedicated to the provision of services such as Intensive Care Units, burns and surgery services. The hospital yet to be completed in 2014 will also receive certification for its use of sustainable and ecologically friendly construction materials from the Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System. It equally entertains the availability of green spaces for patients, staff and visitors. However, even with the resources dedicated to it, the dedication of a whole hospital to cancer treatment, a lot still needs to be entertained for the reduction of the expectation gap.
Proposed Intervention
Given the needs of cancer patients, the paper proposes an intervention that would be executed in two limbs. This would be necessitated by the requirement to address the cancer patients’ needs that the institution is yet to fully tackle. It is the paper’s proposal that the institution embarks on establishing an autonomous cancer college. This college shall be singularly tasked with the responsibility of research on cancer. It would administer this responsibility through a dual approach. First, it would be institution based, that is, cancer patients shall be admitted into the institution and given remedial medication even as research is spearheaded using the patients as a control check on the effectiveness of research outcomes. Secondly, the college shall also roll out a program that facilitates the research personnel going out to the homes, streets and workplaces of the citizenry with a view to carry out research on cancer. This will involve going past Ohio, to the larger United States of America and even if need be to the entire world. This approach, it is believed will tackle cancer more effectively, target the citizens who fail to come out for medical attention even after contacting cancer.
In addition, the approach would provide a realistic opportunity for research on cancer as the researchers would be able to relate the environments in which they find the cancer cases to the disease. This envisions cases such as poor work conditions that expose workers to reactive substances, research on whether cancer is hereditary, research on whether certain societal segments are immune to cancer, among other opportunities.
Justification for Intervention
The intervention shall be duly funded and supported by the funding institutions keen to see it that the American citizens receive the best healthcare service in relation to the scourge that is cancer. This intervention is, however, predicated on the managed care approach. This is essentially because in consonance with the President’s Healthcare Act, the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, the citizens of America by 2014 would all be under an insurance cover. This would see to it that all cancer patients receive some form of coverage and insurance would be able to offset much of the costs in relation to the up-keep and maintenance of the patients in the hospital purposely put forth as the hospital bills. However, even with that approach in mind, healthcare stakeholders keen to finance the project would still be able to chip in and enable the forward progress on the same. Part of financial sponsors expected to contribute to this scheme include: the Federal Government of America, the State Government of Ohio, The National Institute of Health, donor organizations, the institutional endowment fund, among other well-wishers. In addition, patients would also be required to contribute an amount from their savings towards the realisation of better healthcare. Not to forget contributions from philanthropists in and out of Ohio.
Implementation Plan
The establishment of the cancer college unit would necessitate a total of close to one billion dollars. Indeed, the list of financiers has been given in the section above. The roll out plan is expected to begin with identification of the best site for the location of the facility. It is this paper’s proposal that the facility be established next to the already constructed Arthur James Cancer Center. This is essentially because among other things, the facility would be managed and operated in association and collectively by the management at Arthur James Center. It is also proposed that the two facilities share staff and technologies in a bid to bridge any technological or personnel gaps given the financial constraints. It would in addition to the shared staff from Arthur James Center, require another total of five hundred staff with various competencies, two hundred being staffed with speciality in cancer medication. It should also be clearly stated that the college shall serve as a postgraduate college thereby admitting only masters and doctorate students interested in the area of cancer. The plan also incorporates the services and regulation of health regulatory institutions at the national level and would welcome any advice, consultation and assistance. Finally, this plan also entertains the contribution and support of the United Nations through the auspices of its relevant agency the World Health Organization. The latter’s involvement is premised on the fact that the institution’s research outcomes shall not be limited to Ohio but shall be availed for consumption by the entire world with restricted requirements as to patents, copyrights, and other relevant legalities.
Communication Plan
This paper envisions the need to approach the implementation process transparently and with a lot of accountability. In that light, the paper proposes a deliberate and comprehensive communication plan to the stakeholders. The implementation shall be fully documented step by step from the initial plans to the final conclusion. This documentation, progress and feedback reports shall be availed through an office specifically charged with the mandate of overseeing the implementation. The office shall see to it that all stakeholders are continually informed and up to speed information would always be within their reach. Every stakeholder would be allowed free access to the office documents and statements at any time during office operations. In addition, there shall be a meeting between stakeholders and the implementation office every two months where the progress reports shall be comprehensively discussed. This is expected to continue until the final completion of the implementation. Post that, communication shall be handled by the internal audit department with the assistance of the management which shall furnish all stakeholders with annual reports or in special cases, intermediate reports upon demand by a stakeholder.
Measurement of the Intervention’s effectiveness
The effectiveness of the intervention shall be measured through two approaches. First, reports shall be generated based on the patients’ feedback and secondly, the stakeholders shall be facilitated with programs where they give out their reports on efficiencies based on their own parameters. The second approach is predicated on the premise that many times, stakeholders often support a system with the promise that some guidelines as dictated by them shall be observed. Indicators of success or effectiveness will, therefore, include the observation of these parameters and the positive feedback collected from the patients.
References
Bloom , N., & Reenen, J. V. (2010). Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 203-224.
Gates, S. (2006). "Incorporating Strategic Risk into Enterprise Risk Management: A Survey of Current Corporate Practice". Geneva: Conférence Internationale de Management Stratégique, Annecy. Retrieved from http://www.strategie-aims.com/events/conferences/8-xveme-conference-de-l-aims/communications/2175-incorporating-strategic-risk-into-enterprise-risk-management/download
Graham, J. (2011). Financial Management. Financial Management Association International, 40(4), 821-1022.
Jacobs, R. F., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Mankiw, G. N. (2011). Principles of Economics. New York: Cengage Learning.
Steiner, G. A. (2010). Strategic Planning. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Wexner Medical Center. (2012, February 12). Hospitals and Locations . Retrieved March 26, 2013, from The Ohio State University : http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/hospitals_locations/Pages/Hospitals-and-Locations.aspx
Wexner Medical Center. (2013, February 3). About Us. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from The Ohio State University: http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/aboutus/Pages/index.aspx
Wexner Medical Center. (2013, March 12). Healthcare Services . Retrieved March 26, 2013, from The Ohio State University : http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/Pages/index.aspx
Wexner Medical Center. (2013, January 3). Points of Pride . Retrieved March 26, 2013, from The Ohio State University : http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/aboutus/points_of_pride/Pages/index.aspx
