Interview with Tianda Childs
AAdvantage inc (Arc Human Services), Beaverfalls, pa,
HMR and developmentally retardation disabled
Who, what, when, where the interviews were conducted
A telephonic interview is one of the best secondary research methods to assess and obtain information for scientific research. A telephonic interview was scheduled with Ms. Tianda Childs. She has been working as a Health Administrator at AADvantage Inc. which is a human employment services agency. The office is based in Beaverfalls, PA. The interview was conducted on 24 July 2016 at 7:00 pm. The questionnaire was prepared prior to the interview and a primary research was conducted in order to shortlist the people to be interviewed for the research. Based on the objectives of the assignment, a long-term administrator or nurse had to be interviewed. Since most administrators are busy with overall managerial work and assignments, a telephonic interview after office hours was conducted in order for the process to flow smoothly
Describe the interviewee and what was learned from the interview
Based on the interview that lasted for over 35 minutes, the interviewee was found to be obsessive about her achievement. Her tone and voice seemed to sound like a compulsive woman known to have been successful in her career which was thought to be beyond measures. Her nature sounded to be that of a loving and caring individual. She was also found to be a good listener and showed great interest to what the other person in talking. Her nature was polite and she seemed to be a dedicated employee to her organization. She was a hard worker who achieved success at an early age but yet had the motivation to grow professionally. Based on the interview, I learnt to be a dedicated hard worker who had defined goals and objectives in life (Capezuti, E., et al. 2012).
Describe how the healthcare administrator and staff in this facility could improve the quality of life for the resident.
Patients in the mentally and disabled ill require special care and interaction. Nurses and healthcare professionals play a key role in the care, treatment, and management of such residents. It is the role of the administrator to overlook all the faculty members and staff who would cater to the needs of the special needs residents at AAdvantage Inc. Based on current evidence, nurses play a key role in the development and care of special needs (disabled) patients. One of the major advantages of a healthcare administrator and nurse is that both could cordially organize and restructure the needs of the resident patients. The administrator could arrange for organizational facilities and equipment while the nurse could cater to the emotional, physical, and psychological well-being of the patient (Capezuti, E., et al. 2012). The nurse could also report to the administrator for infrastructure-based requirements of the facility. The other allied healthcare professionals could also help in clinical and non-clinical assessment of the residents. Lastly, the healthcare administrator would also support the facility for infrastructure, finance, and patient-based requirement in the facility. Based on the interview with Childs, the sole objective was to treat and care for the residents without treating them differently and more like family members (Capezuti, E., et al. 2012).
What is your greatest management challenge on a daily basis?
Healthcare administrators play multitude roles and most of the organizational requirements are entirely based on their feedback and instructions. As per the interview with Ms. Childs, her greatest management challenge based on her daily routine was staffing requirements and the ability to cater to need for staff and patient ratio. It is important for a facility to have adequate number of staff in order for proper and organized functioning of the system. This is the greatest management challenge that Ms. Childs mentioned over the phone.
How do you manage the dual operation of the state payment system for Medicaid clients with the federal payment system for Medicare clients?
Healthcare administrators play a key role in the financial management of the organization or facility. In Ms. Child’s case, she has a structured and organized manner in order to facilitate and differentiate varying payment methods by different clients. In the case of the state-based payment system which caters to Medicaid clients, she prefers the clients to have specific waivers prior to payment. For example, clients from Medicaid are notified prior to admission or arrival at the counter to provide specific waivers (if any) to avoid discrepancies at final payments. In a few cases, wherein the client would receive financial support from the Federal-based healthcare services termed as the Medicare, she prefers a consolidated waiver from the client. It is ideal to have clients who disclose the financial status and Medicaid requirements in order to facilitate healthcare services accordingly. Thus, Ms. Childs can manage to control on dual operations with both state and federal-based payment and services from different clients (Hunt, S. R., Corazzini, K., & Anderson, R. A. 2014).
Can you describe your annual quality improvement process? What outcomes are you measuring and why? A key organizational strength is the staff working for and with the key stakeholders. Based on the interview, Ms. Childs’ experience towards annual quality improvement process is to focus on the staff quality work and also the longevity. Comfortable and well-paid staff would have a high turnover and comfort level. Based on her experience in the healthcare industry, staff retrieval and management are key pointers to quality improvement within the organization. The health outcome and patient satisfaction are key outcome measures that would be assessed by Ms. Childs’ on a regular basis. Patient satisfaction would help in understanding a sense of comfort and bonding that each patient feels while the health outcome would assess the medical and scientific relevance to her assessment (Brownson, R.C., Allen, P., Duggan, K., Stamatakis, K. A., & Erwin, P. C. 2012).
References
Brownson, R. C., Allen, P., Duggan, K., Stamatakis, K. A., & Erwin, P. C. (2012). Fostering More-Effective Public Health by Identifying Administrative Evidence-Based Practices: A Review of the Literature. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43(3), 309–319.
Capezuti, E., Boltz, M., Cline, D., Dickson, V. V., Rosenberg, M.-C., Wagner, L., Nigolian, C. (2012). Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders – a model for optimising the geriatric nursing practice environment. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(21-22),
Hunt, S. R., Corazzini, K., & Anderson, R. A. (2014). Top Nurse-Management Staffing Collapse and Care Quality in Nursing Homes. Journal of Applied Gerontology : The Official Journal of the Southern Gerontological Society, 33(1), 51–74.
