Introduction
This document illustrates in detail an analysis of veterans health administration strategic planning and the evaluation of the organization. This will incorporate issues related to overview and assessment of services, demographic served financial and operational outcomes and identification of stakeholders. Additionally, it will also involve a competitive marketing analysis, current and future direction of the organization of choice and competencies and resources being used. Inclusion of a conclusion will entail what has been analyzed, and hence giver the reader the outcome of the paper (Schwartz and Kenneth, 2009).
Additionally, the analysis is meant to show how the veterans’ health administration can improve the quality and accessibility of health care, benefits and memorial services while optimizing value. It is also aimed at raising readiness in order to offer services and protect individuals and assets continuously in the system. It is also designed to improve customer satisfaction with management systems and support services to make veterans as an employee of choice via investing in human capital. Essentially, it will enumerate issues related to veterans’ health administration in a manner that is understood by the reader (General Accounting Office Washington Dc, 2011).
Internal and external assessment
For this part we examined pertinent Veteran Health Administration directives, handbooks, and memoranda and interviewed executives. Recent publications of particular relevance included: veterans health administration office of quality and safety, clinical quality and patient safety programs. Additionally, there was also government accountability. Veterans health care: improved oversight and compliance needed for physician credentialing and privileging processes. Essentially, this entails that we conducted the review in accordance with Quality Standards for inspections published by the president’s council on integrity and efficiency.
Findings
Basing on the assessment, various veterans health administration components are directly involved in processes with the intention of ensuring there is delivery of high quality health care. This is so as reporting directly to the under secretary for health, the Coordinating Committee for Quality and Safety meets monthly and offers and ongoing system wide assessment of the state of the delivery of care and of patient safety. The office of quality and safety oversees and coordinates several offices which are responsible for monitoring clinical quality and safety. The office of patient care services tends to offer policy and program development and oversight from the full continuum of health care. This includes health promotion, palliative care, issues related to rehabilitation and disease prevention (Williamson, 2009).
The nursing outcomes database brings about information for the analysis and management of nurse staffing, for improving nursing clinical processes, and also to improve patient outcome during medication. Essentially, these findings entail that veterans health administration has extensive programs in place for the oversight of medical delivery at its facilities and collaborates with numerous external agencies. Substantial organizational innovations are currently being put into practice with the intention of improving the effectiveness of the assessment. Incorporation of interviews entailed veterans’ health administration can improve the quality and accessibility of health care, benefits and memorial services while optimizing value. It also showed that raising readiness in order to offer services and protect individuals and assets continuously in the system is an appropriate entity (Williamson, 2009). This will improve customer satisfaction with management systems and support services will make veterans an employee of choice via investing in human capital.
Competitive marketing analysis
The VHA services market is more challenging than ever and this is because budgets are ever tightening constraints. Additionally, there are also issues whereby veterans are increasingly favoring lowest price contractors and there is also the issue of private institutions entering the system. Essentially, all these factors make services for veterans’ health administration tougher to predict and plan for any outcomes. They also make the Veteran Health Administration to be in the position of not being able to deliver quality services to their clients effectively. It is perceived that their main agenda in this industry is to counter our efforts and hence be the dominant entries in the market (General Accounting Office Washington Dc, 2011).
It is seen that they tend to incorporate the strategies of team work and use of modernized media promotions in order to counter our strengths. Their strength is that they are working together as a team in order to showcase their ability in the industry. Whereas their weakness is that they lack enough substantial and capital investments to fully reach their set target. Thus, this system requires reliable information on which to undertake growth forecasts and assess competitive challenges. Our ability to have a veteran’s facility site as a storehouse of facility and key staff information within 1728 VA facility is an effective approach.
This is so as it is meant to bring about ease of use and categorizes information for browsing by state and administration. There is also the aspect of partnership between the department of veterans Affairs and the general services administration that tends to improve the acquisition for veterans. Presence of well trained workforce has contributed to a break in potential entities that are being witnessed by the veterans who are served by Veteran Health Administration (Schwartz and Kenneth, 2009). This shows that our strategies are in position to counter our competitors as we aim at being the best in the industry basing on the fact that we have laid our entities in the right direction.
Identification of stakeholders
The Veteran Health Administration is made up of the veterans service organization, the stakeholder enterprise portal, veterans and their loved ones, politicians who are genuinely concerned with vets, veterans department of affairs line workers throughout the system and citizens who support vets. The stakeholders offer access to information that assist in understanding benefits available for veterans and other military service members (General Accounting Office Washington Dc, 2011). Issues related to their enrolment to the department of veterans affairs and data about veterans is instigated. This shows that stakeholders attribute to the system is of positive nature as they enable veterans to have a better consideration while being attended to. Their contribution to the Veteran Health Administration is of positive outcome, and hence ought to be appreciated.
Overview and assessments of services provided
The Veteran Health Administration is made up of Homes which provide long term health care for honorably discharged veterans. These homes tend to offer health and psychosocial services using interdisciplinary teams composed of nursing, rehabilitative therapies, therapeutic activities, medical and administration staff. Thus, health care offered meets the needs of veterans as it is a system that is supported by a large number of stakeholders. Additionally, it operates more than 1,400 sites of care, including hospitals, community clinics and various other departments (Committee on Business Strategies for Public Capital Investment, National Research Council, 2008). The system offers a variety of benefits and services which bring about financial and other forms of assistance towards veterans and survivors. This includes benefits like compensation, pension, survivors’ benefits, employment assistance and life insurance coverage.
There are also burial and memorial benefits that are offered to eligible service members, veterans, National Guard members and eligible family members. There is the Veterans Innovations program which offers emergency financial assistance and grant opportunities for long term financial stability via education and training to veterans returning from current war. Outreach and claims services are provided to veterans and windows in nursing homes and those who are housebound, connecting them with VA health care and financial benefits. Veteran Health Administration has a war trauma re-adjustment program which offers counseling for grief, deployment stress, and war trauma to veterans and family members (Schwartz and Kenneth, 2009). There is also the Operation Military Kids initiative which brings about outreach to school age children and school personnel in order to ensure families are aware of support services.
Therefore, services offered to veterans improve the economic vitality of business and individuals. Additionally, the approach improves the security of vulnerable children and adults as a whole, hence making the systems approach of positive nature. Basing on the entities that are offered by Veterans Health Administration to the veterans and their family members, it can be concluded that what is being undertaken is efficient. This is so as their way of life is being straightened into the right direction and according to the modern lifestyle. Therefore, it is a positive strategy that has recognized their importance in the society and the world as a whole.
Competencies and resource
The common competencies that have been incorporated have offered a firm foundation on which to build an integrated and strategically aligned human resource system. Essentially, the competencies at Veteran Health Administration are employees, technical and leadership. Employees are needed in order to be successful, hence being regarded as the core capability based on the diversity of workforce being represented. Additionally, all employees are meant to have technical competencies associated with their occupation. The competencies make the job of benefits processors differ from that of nurses and pediatricians (United States. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Information Resources Management, 2010)
Thus, this shows that being a successful leader entails presence of critical leadership competencies. Resources available are the provision of policies and guidance with regard to staffing, classification, and performance management and employee benefits. Other resources are presence of peer support and peer leaders, a continuum of supportive services and social workers who undertake their work based on their competencies (United States, Congress, 2008). This assists them to enhance outreach to veterans, increase appropriate referrals, reduce stigma, promote healthy outcomes and offer satisfaction. Thus absence of resources and competencies among the Veteran Health Administration will make it hard for safe, reliable and appropriate health care.
Public entities and regulatory requirements
Here it is perceived that veterans ought to be assured that the health information and assistance they share with veteran health administration will remain confidential. Absence of such a requirement, some might withhold critical information that could affect the quality outcome of care. This is so as the regulations are meant to offer protection for the privacy of certain individually identifiable health data. This also entails balancing the protection of individual health information with the need to protect public health. This regulation tends to preempt state law contrary to the privacy rule except when the state law relates to reporting and public health surveillance (Schwartz and Kenneth, 2009).
It is possible as public health authorities have a long history of protecting and respecting individual dignity to maintaining the quality and integrity of health. Presence of regulations by public entities is a positive approach as it will ensure that their rights are respected and hence quality assistance is offered to them in the best way possible. Thus, public health agencies and others are supposed to understand and interpret their responsibility, especially under the privacy rule. This is so as regulation tend to favor their rights with the intention of satisfying their needs appropriately (General Accounting Office Washington Dc, 2011).
Demographics served
Two segments of the veteran population are growing at high rates; veterans over 85 years and veterans returning from the current war. Veterans over 85 years have been projected to grow by 35%. Therefore, several unique characteristics affect service needs for these veterans tend to increase in number, especially those suffering from dementia. Increase in veterans considered medically indigent. Additionally, veterans returning from war have unique needs and characteristics. Thus, some of the challenges are combat wounds, risk of becoming homeless and issues related to significant family readjustment following active duty (United States. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Information Resources Management, 2010)
Strategic financial planning
The Veteran Health Administration provides and coordinates a range of programs and services that assist the care, treatment and re-establishment in civilian life of eligible veterans. The system offers an income supplement program, disability pensions and three other health care programs. There is also the inclusion of medical and dental care, prescription of drugs and home adaptation. There are a number of risks and challenges that ought to be dealt with over the planning period (Williamson, 2009). This includes things like rapid change in client profile and being responsive in bringing the required changes to our service delivery network. The balance between major client groups will change over the next ten years. Since a vast majority of veterans are in their 80s and 90s respectively, they ought to be taught on how to cope with the increasing serious health issues that need attention.
Investment in quality policy decisions and program will increase performance and foster an atmosphere that is focused on leadership. Furthermore, governance and corporate costs will remain at 4% of the total agency operating budget in order to ensure maximum amount of resources are being invested in services that assist veterans. It is also seen that up to 40% of our health care staff will be eligible to retire in the next five years, and this will be possible due to presence of a model that is agile, flexible and able to adapt quickly to changes in demands and services. Thus, the proposed strategic planning process tends to assess the health care needs of veterans, plans initiatives to accommodate their needs, and ensure compliance with applicable federal and department of veterans’ affairs (General Accounting Office Washington Dc, 2011).
Financial and operational outcomes
In the next few years, the Veterans Health Administration is expected to be fully responsive to the diverse and changing veterans needs. This is so as technology and e-systems will offer the information needed to make informed management decisions and assist effective and accessible multi-channel service delivery. Presence of a remembrance programming will be relevant and have a strong CF veteran and youth involvement. Basing on this and the inclusion of enough financial assistance, we will be able to offer high quality service which honors the sacrifice and achievements of veterans. Furthermore, presence of the Department’s $150.6 billion in budgetary resources will ensure that the operation of veterans benefits administration, national Cemetery Administration and Veterans Health Administration (United States, Congress, 2008). This will be a positive outcome as like other agencies, it is committed to pursuing the important mission while managing its finances efficiently.
Current and future direction of the organization
The organization aims at reducing annual improper payments and has gone to the extent of working with the Federal and state partners with the intention of reducing errors without affecting veteran’s needs. It also aims at incorporating the strategy of team work among all involved parties in order to reduce the negative attributes in the organization. Additionally, veterans are meant to be educated on how to manage their life while at homes as they are delicate individuals who need full support from the programs being offered (Ragland, 2010). These are some of the aspects that are designed to generate positive attributes in the near future.
Conclusion
This document illustrates in detail on veterans health administration and how this project can assist veterans be looked at more effectively. It shows that both old and young veterans need to be looked at as they have played a huge part in securing the country’s sovereignty. Thus, they ought to be offered all the necessary care in order to show them that they are cared for. Stakeholders’ ability to assist and encourage the government to assist is of positive nature as it motivates other people to invest in their well-being (Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, Institute of Medicine, 2010).
The stakeholders offer access to information that assist in understanding benefits available for veterans and other military service members. Presence of regulations by public entities is a positive approach as it will ensure that their rights are respected and hence quality assistance is offered to them in the best way possible. Moreover, Investment in quality policy decisions and program will increase performance and foster an atmosphere that is focused on leadership. Services offered to veterans improve the economic vitality of business and individuals (United States, Congress, 2008). The approach being undertaken by the organization tends to improve customer satisfaction with management systems and support services to make veterans as an employee of choice via investing in human capital.
References
United States. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Information Resources Management (2010) Department of Veterans Affairs Information Resources Management strategic plan, Assistant Secretary for Information Resources Management.
Williamson, R (2009) VA Health Care: Long-Term Care Strategic Planing and Budgeting Need Improvement, DIANE Publishing.
General Accounting Office Washington Dc (2011) Major management challenges and program risks Departments of Defense, State, and Veterans Affairs, DIANE Publishing.
Ragland, S (2010) Department of Veterans Affairs: Improvements Needed in Corrective Action Plans to Remediate Financial Reporting Material Weaknesses, DIANE Publishing.
Schwartz, Richard W and Cohn, Kenneth H (2009) The necessity for physician involvement in strategic planning in healthcare organizations. American journal of surgery, ISSN 0002- 9610, volume 84, Issue 3, pp. 269-278
Committee on Business Strategies for Public Capital Investment, National Research Council (2008) Investments in Federal Facilities: Asset Management Strategies for the 21st Century, National Academies Press
Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, Institute of Medicine (2010) A Summary of the February 2010 Forum on the Future of Nursing: Education. DIANE Publishing.
United States, Congress, (2008) House Departments of Veterans affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independence Agencies appropriations Bill, 2005, DIANE Publishing.
