Introduction
Vitas Hospice is a leading organization in the United States, specializing in offering nursing care to patients with life-limiting diseases such as cancer and HIV/AIDS (Vitas, 2013). Started in 1978, the leader and pioneer in providing end-of-life care is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and operates over 51 other sister stations spread across the United States (in over 17 states and the District of Columbia) (Vitas, 2013). The well-established hospice care facility employs over 8,000 nursing professionals, who care for terminally ill patients either at residential facilities, nursing homes, inpatient hospice and homes (Anonymous, 2013). After shadowing for six weeks with a team manager for the nursing home team in the organization, I did a SWOT Analysis of the organization, as detailed in this write-up. It is noteworthy that the nursing home team in the Miami-Dade program is has one of the highest census (patients), implying that its absence could have far-reaching impacts on the agency, since it would not be able to offer quality nursing home services. This could lead to financial losses and lack of good reputation and competitive advantage that the hospice has today.
Strengths
The most important strength for Vitas is perhaps its strong organizational culture which is founded on strong values and mission (Fernandez, 2012). The organizational values include prioritization of its patient’s welfare, taking care of each other’s wellbeing, offering the best hospice services, striving to improve their care delivery each passing day and taking pride in helping their patients and making a difference (Vitas, 2013).
The foregoing values have gone a long way towards the realization of the hospice’s mission to offer the best, high quality human services, and deliver patient-centered, evidence-based case management for terminally-ill patients (Ann-Marie et al., 2013), besides other appropriate patients. The hospice has top quality facilities and equipment, and its human services are tailored to confer measurable positive results to all the concerned parties (patient and their families, employees, the community and stakeholders). Lastly, the organization has a good reputation for delivering excellent end-of-life and other appropriate nursing care (Fernandez, 2012). This is strength in itself.
Weaknesses
Vitas hospice still uses paper-based documentation. This is time-consuming, since nurses’ spend up to 25% of their workday documenting their care using paperwork (Laerum, Karlsen and Faxvaag, 2003). This time could be used to offer direct patient care. In the organization, nurses perceive some of this documentation as unnecessary and redundant, and feel that an electronic medical records system would be more convenient and efficient (Laerum et al., 2003). The hospice is lagging behind other hospice care and general healthcare facilities which have integrated electronic health records in their operations, a development which has gone a long way in bolstering efficiency, easing healthcare personnel’s work and, ultimately, optimizing patients’ health outcomes and employee productivity and job satisfaction.
Opportunities
Vitas hospice is a large corporation and has been in the nursing care industry for quite some time. With the advancement in medical technologies, especially the adoption of electronic documentation (Laerum et al, 2003), Vitas has a good opportunity to capitalize on this advancement. Doing so would enable the firm to enhance efficiency its nursing care delivery process (Laerum et al., 2003). Electronic documentation not only save time, it also cuts costs. By adopting electronic documentation of patient information, it would be easier to track patient treatment progress, store and retrieve client data, share patient information with nursing team members and improve decisions making (Laerum et al., 2003).
Threats
One of the most important threats to Vitas Hospice is competition. Many other health organizations are coming up to offer similar services. To this end, Odyssey Hospice, Heartland Hospice Services, Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, Hospice by the Sea and the Catholic Hospice among others are offering end-of-life services to terminally-ill patients, posing a threat to Vitas Hospice’s existence. The threat is exaggerated by the fact that most of the organization’s competitors are not only offering quality services, but are adopting electronic documentation in its core operations, including management of patient data (Ajami and Bagheri-Tadi, 2013). Another threat is the increasing society demands and expectations in terms of quality and corporate responsibility. Moreover, the government demand of new strategies in offering nursing care, such as implementation of affordable care policies is a threat to Vitas Hospice (Fernandez et al, 2012). Lastly, the hospice’s a threat in maintaining its high standards of nursing care amid changes in staff and growth of the organization (Fernandez et al, 2012).
Recommendation
Based on the foregoing analysis, it is recommended that Vitas Hospice develops a strategy to adopt electronic documentation. The organization should encourage the electronic system to customize the design to achieve an effective system which decreases documentation redundancy and saves nurses’ time (Ajami et al., 2013). Moreover, in integrating electronic documentation, it is suggested that the firm includes research evidence and patient care documentation principles, and engage healthcare personnel with experience in electronic documentation, or carry out relevant education and training programs to acquaint the nursing personnel with the electronic system (Ajami et al., 2013).
In addition, Vitas management should convene forums where team managers, nurses, social workers and the chaplain discuss the issues highlighted, particularly electronic documentation with a view to identify the best practices that will enhance efficiency in the patient care documentation process (Laerum et al., 2003; Ajami et al., 2013). Lastly, to ensure that the electronic system implemented is suitable and avoid resistance to change, the organization should consider engaging patient care administrators, direct care nurses and other relevant personnel in the formulation, selection, planning and implementation of the electronic patient care record system (Ajami et al., 2013).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Vitas Hospice has a strong organizational culture, excellent reputation and quality facility, which it can exploit to overcome its weaknesses, such as their reliance on paper-based documentation (Laerum et al, 2003; Ajami et al, 2013). The health organization can achieve more success and suppress its weaknesses and threats by implementing electronic documentation systems to enhance efficiency and streamline the patient data management process.
References
Ajami, S., & Bagheri-Tadi, T. (2013). Barriers for Adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
Anne-Marie, B., Ann, R., Jens, P. G. & Lars, W. (2013). Factors Associated with Evidence-
Based Practice among Registered Nurses in Sweden: a National Cross-sectional Study. BMC Health Services Resource, 13: 165.
Anonymous. (2013). Hospice in California. Retrieved 27 October, 2013 from http://www.vitas.com/Aboutus/Locations/California/tabid/183/Default.aspx
Fernandez, R., Braun, K., Ozawa, J., Compton, M., Guzman, C., & Somogy-Zalud, E. (2012). Home –base Palliative Care Services for Underserved Populations. Journal Of Palliative Medicine, 13(4): 413-419.
Laerum, H., Karlsen, T. H., & Faxvaag, A. (2003). Effects of Scanning and Eliminating Paper-
Based Medical Records on Hospital Physicians' Clinical Work Practice. Journal of American Medical Information Association, 10 (6): 588-595.
Vitas. (2013). About Vitas. Retrieved 27 November, 2013 from
http://www.vitas.com/Aboutus.aspx
