Session Long Project: Hartford Hospital (Essay Sample)

Session Long Project: Hartford Hospital
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Session Long Project: Hartford Hospital
Module 1: financial perspective
The chosen organization is Hartford Hospital located in Hartford, Connecticut. This hospital has a total of 798 beds and serves the New England region (Markowitz, 2014). The overall Strategic Plan of Hartford Hospital includes its Values, Vision, and Mission in a framework which serves as the hospital’s most essential guide to decision-making. Its vision of leadership and excellence is driven by the hospital’s values shared by every member of Hartford HealthCare. Hartford Hospital’s Vision: to be trusted very much for personalized coordinated care and to be respected countrywide for excellence in terms of patient care. Mission: to improve the healing and health of communities and people that the hospital serves. Values: these include integrity, safety, caring, and excellence (Hartford Hospital, 2014).
Objectives
The objectives for improving the financial position of Hartford Hospital include the following: (i) to maintain financial stability; (ii) to reduce office overhead costs and administrative expenses within a period of 2 years; (iii) to increase income and revenues; and (iv) to increase the number of donors who give cash to the hospital in the next 3 years. The identified objectives and the performance measures, target, and new action that has to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the hospital’s strategy are illustrated in the table below.
Table 1: Improving financial position for Hartford Hospital
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
1
To maintain financial stability in the next 5 years
Bad debt, gross to net ratio, days of cash on hand, working capital, days in accounts receivables, net operating margin
Reduce bad debts by at least 60% in the next 5 years, increase working capital by 20% in the next 3 years
Put in place measures to curb occurrence of bad debts in the next 5 years
2
To decrease office overhead costs and administrative expenses to ensure budgetary savings in the next 2 years
Administrative expense
Reduce administrative expenses and office overhead costs by at least 35% in the next 2 years
Identify opportunities for savings related to space utilization and office supplies in the next 2 years
Analyze impacts of the proposed savings
3
To grow net revenues in the next 5 years
Receivables, current ratio, total margin, income from investments
Increase net revenue by 15%-25% over the next 5 years
Introduce new services such as pediatric and mental health services in the next 3 years,
Increase investment is other areas by purchasing plant, property and equipment. This would help increase revenue
4
To increase the number of donors who give cash to the hospital in the next 3 years
Donor gifts which include cash and other assets
Increase the number of donors by at least 33% in the next 3 years
Seek more donors by holding seminars and conferences to encourage more people to support the hospital financially
The identified objectives and actions will enable Hartford Hospital to have sufficient finances that will facilitate successful implementation of its strategy. They will allow Hartford Hospital to provide excellent patient care and improve healing and health of people and communities in New England since the finances would allow it to employ the most qualified and experienced staff, and purchase the best equipment for providing excellent, high-quality care and improve patient safety.
Module 2: customer service perspective
This perspective basically looks at the metrics/measures that pertain to physicians and patients (Zelman, Pink & Matthias, 2003). The customer perspective will answer the question: how the patients see Hartford Hospital? The objectives in the customer service perspective are as follows: (i) to reduce emergency department (ED) wait time; (ii) to improve the control of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) or nosocomial infections; (iii) to improve inpatient satisfactions; and (iv) to reduce patient complaints. These are shown table 2 below. The aforementioned objectives relate to Hartford Hospital’s mission, vision and overall strategy in that if these objectives are attained, they will make the hospital to be recognized nationwide for superiority and fineness in patient care and be highly trusted for personalized coordinated care. Equally important, attaining these objectives would enable Hartford Hospital to improve the healthiness as well as healing of those served by the hospital.
Table 2: Hartford Hospital’s customer perspective
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
1.
To reduce Emergency Department (ED) wait time
ED satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, inpatient satisfaction
Reduce ED wait time by 60% in the next 3 years
Increase ED staff by 35% in the next 2 years; improve the ED by using new, advanced equipment and technology
2
Complaints
Total reported complaints
Reduce the number of reported complaints by 67% within 3 years
Enhance communication for instance by distributing to patients information handouts on procedures that are regularly performed given that a lot of patients have difficulty understanding or absorbing the information that is presented to them. Practice cultural competence since cultural backgrounds of patients affect how patients process information or relate to healthcare providers; explain all fees and charges upfront; ensure informed consent. If things go awry, a compassionate apology and an explanation is offered to the patient and how the hospital would prevent such as incident from occurring again in future.
3
Hospital report patient satisfaction
Inpatient satisfaction
Increase inpatient satisfaction by 77% over the next 3 years
Providing better hospital food including some nutritious, healthy and delicious options. Being clear about wait times. Rather than the patient to see his/her doctor at a random time in the day, hospital bedside rounding would be conducted at defined times comprising the full care team including at least the physician and the floor nurse. Keeping the frequently needed supplies inside the rooms of patients and restocking regularly.
4
Improve rating of patient care
Overall rating of care for emergency patients, overall rating of care for surgical and medical inpatients
Improve rating of patient care by 80% in the next 3 years
Reduce incidents of medical errors, improve hygiene, and reduce incidents of hospital acquired infections. Provide better food to patients.
Relationships to other objectives
Relates to Module 1’s objectives of maintaining financial stability and growing revenue. Reductions in patient complaints, medical errors, readmission rates, patient falls, nosocomial infection rates, and in wait times would help to reduce hospital costs and improve Hartford Hospital’s bottom line
Module 3: Internal business processes
For a key performance indicator to be included in the BSC, it should help in answering the question: what must Hartford Hospital excel at? The objectives for improving Hartford Hospital’s internal business processes are illustrated in Table 3 below. These identified objectives relate to Hartford Hospital’s mission, vision and strategy in that if these objectives are met, they would lead to a considerable improvement in patient care and this would make Hartford Hospital to be well-respected all over the U.S. for excellence in patient care and to be very much trusted for personalized coordinated care. Moreover, achieving the objectives will enable Hartford Hospital to improve the healing as well as health of those that it serves in the New England region.
Table 3: improving Hartford Hospital’s internal business processes
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
1
To reduce harm events and medication incidents
Total medication incident or medication errors per 1000 doses, adverse/harm events
Reduce medication errors by 80% within 4 years, improve patient safety by 95% over the next 3 years
Enhance communication skills and better interactions amongst Hartford Hospital’s healthcare team and the patient; improve written and oral communication since a lot of errors happen due to poor written or oral communication; and replace sloppy handwritten prescriptions by computerized physician order entry
2
To reduce readmission rates
Patient re-admission within seven days/patients re-admitted within 8-28 days
Reduce patient re-admission rates by 80% within 3 years
Improve transition processes from the healthcare facility. Improve care coordination and transitions at the interfaces between care settings. Enhance support, education and coaching for patient self-management.
3
To reduce patient incidents (falls, trips and slips)
Patient falls per 1000 resident days; patient slips or trips per 1000 resident days
Reduce patient falls per 1000 resident days by 75% within 3 years
Understand the circumstances and causes of earlier accidents; identify and assess patients who are vulnerable; implement various interventions
4
To reduce the average length of hospital stay
Average length of stay
Reduce the average patient length of stay by 90 percent within 5 years
Give emphasis to correct placement following the 5 Rs: right service, right time period, right level of care, right bed, and right nursing unit. Track progress of patient everyday so that ancillary tasks like patient assessments and teaching can be completed on time. Discharge patient from hospital as quickly as possible. Use case management to streamline communications between hospital personnel and patient...