One of the major challenges facing healthcare administration is the problem of diversified care. The modern world and all the technological improvements that are found in medicine mean that levels of care are better than ever, but this is not without challenges for administrators. An increasing number of specializations in medicine, for example, mean that administrators must prepare for an increasing number of units and specialists, which in turn leads to problems with funding and human resources. There are also issues associated with the fact that patients are generally more aware of technological advances in medicine, and may be more vocal about the type of treatment that they are seeking. Specializing also means that traditional hospitals are increasingly competing with smaller units that offer these specialized treatments and care options, which also provides a challenge to hospital administrators attempting to financially improve their organization (Deravaj et al., 2013).
General Problem Statement
The aim of this proposed capstone is to assess the impact of specialized care and diversification in medicine on hospital administration. It will focus on the changes in healthcare over the last decade, to highlight the importance of providing specialized care and liaising with a variety of different staff members with different skills to provide well-rounded care to patients. It has been suggested that this diversification of care has a financial impact on organizations in a number of ways (Deravaj et al., 2013). The financial impacts of hiring well-qualified, specialist staff will be investigated, as well as the impact of smaller competing organizations that offer one or two treatment options that hospitals generally cannot (Mosser & Begun, 2014). The purpose of the research is investigate the problem of the diversification of healthcare options and the impact that this has on hospital administration in particular.
Specific Problem Statement
The research will focus on the ways in which hospital administration can help to avoid these problems. It is important to assess the process in which administration teams can recognize the needs of the community with respect to diversified healthcare, and then apply them to their own organization. To do this, a review of the current literature about the processes with which administrators have attempted to solve the problem will be conducted. It is expected that this will give insight into the best ways of approaching the problem, which will in turn highlight how best to ensure that the organization changes with the changing technology. It is expected that there will be many different approaches to dealing with the diversification of healthcare, and the merits and demerits of each of these approaches will be considered with reference to a theoretical framework for making change in the healthcare organization. The problem here is understanding the best way that healthcare administrators can deal with the changes in the delivery of healthcare services.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this research is to highlight the challenges of diversification in healthcare and to understand the different approaches to dealing with the issue.
Research Questions
What are the different challenges that are facing healthcare administrators with respect to the changing nature of care?
Are administrators under pressure to provide more services? If so, how has this affected the organization?
What are the different approaches to providing diversified healthcare, and what are the most effective?
References
Devaraj, S., Ow, T. T., & Kohli, R. (2013). Examining the impact of information technology and patient flow on healthcare performance: A Theory of Swift and Even Flow (TSEF) perspective. Journal of Operations Management, 31(4), 181–192.
Mosser, G., & Begun, J. W. (2014). Understanding teamwork in health care. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from http://www.accp.com/bookstore/product.aspx?pc=LA_01UTHC
