Introduction
Banner Health is a nonprofit network of hospitals across the United States of America which was established in 1999. It is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and boasts of over 39,000 employees who work in twenty-eight acute care hospitals and healthcare centers in seven states. Also, it has a growing network of clinics and health centers. The services provided by the organization include physician services, home care, hospice, and hospital care. Banner Health was ranked among the top five healthcare systems in the US. Also, it has excellent services. For instance, it offers a state of the art 55-bed simulation medical center to enhance care and training and twenty-one of the organization’s hospitals have electronic medical records of the highest level (Fine, 2016). Banner Health is faced with the challenges of enhancing care delivery and reducing operational costs. Therefore, the following is an analysis of the organization to assess its readiness in meeting the health needs of citizens in the next decade.
Strategic Plan
Banner Health plays an integral role in the delivery of care in the various regions it operates. For example, it has a high significance for the western communities in urban areas such as Phoenix, AZ, and in remote locations such as Fallon, NV, and Fairbanks, AK. Despite its expansion, Banner Health has faced some challenges in staffing, maintaining its network growth, resource management, and ensuring the satisfaction of patients. As a result, the system has continually been looking at and implementing effective strategies to ensure it remains true to the care delivery service. The organization’s strategic plan is based on a standard approach that is applied across all the sectors.
Network Growth
Banner Health has been expanding its network due to the increasing demand for health care. As a result, the organization has been expanding its network to reach many people in the seven states. The network growth is mainly in projects in Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska. For example, Banner Health partnered with the University of Arizona Health Network to form Banner University Medicine, which is based in Tucson and Phoenix and has enabled the residents of Arizona to access quality health care. In Colorado, Banner Health established Banner Fort Collins Medical Center, which opened in 2015. The facility has a 24-bed in-patient unit, provides lab services, medical imaging, delivery rooms, and surgical services.
Besides, Banner Health has also enhanced its capability to serve many people through the expansion of the East Morgan County Hospital. The health care services have also been extended to Gold Canyon and Apache Junction communities, where Goldfield Medical Center was opened in 2013. In Nebraska, it expanded the Ogallala Community Hospital which was completed in 2014. Banner Health Clinics have continued to open in new locations. The clinics are designed to take care of the primary health needs of various communities. In the United States of America, the need for healthcare has been on the increase. The demand is projected to keep on growing. Therefore, the network growth and expansion of some health facilities put Banner Health in a strategic position to provide quality care to many people in the next decade.
Nurse Staffing
Professional nursing practice plays a critical role in the provision of excellent healthcare to patients in a safe environment (Frith, Anderson, Tseng & Fong, 2012). To ensure continued excellent services in the future, Banner Health has realized the strategic roles played by employees. Specifically, Banner Health understands the roles of the professional practice of nursing. The nurses at Banner Health are trained to ensure dedication in care delivery. Nurses working in Banner Health are highly valued and respected due to the dedication they have exemplified in partnering with families, patients, and other members of the healthcare team. Across the continuum of care, the nurses cherish the spirit of enhancing healing environments and care. Staffing of qualified nurses will continue placing the organization in a strategic position to serve people in the next decade. However, this should be based on employing qualified nurses who are dedicated to the profession.
Resource Management
Banner Health has focused on the reduction of operational costs and ensuring that the quality delivery of care to the patients is maintained. To sustain its network growth, Banner Health came up with a strategy to reevaluate the freight program (FDSI Logistics, 2015). Therefore, it partnered with FDSI. This was to help Banner Health in the management of the freight program. Before the partnership between the FDSI and Banner Health, another freight management provider was in charge of the program. The provider implemented 395 vendors by 2011. However, under the FDSI, additional 716 vendors have been identified. Also, the strategic management of FDSI has resulted in the provision of true freight cost visibility. For instance, FDSI found that the expenditure for the freight program in 2010 was $ 6.2 million. However, after analysis of the expenditure, FDSI discovered that 8% of the cost was not freighted; instead, it was unidentified fees for suppliers. Therefore, in expanding its network, Banner Health has come up with a strategy to negotiate contracts with suppliers and hence eliminate the unidentified extra costs.
The partnership with FDSI led to the realization of saving of about $1.4 million in 2011. The savings have been on an increase. For example, in 2012 and 2013 they increased to $1.78 million and $1.96 million respectively (FDSI Logistics, 2015). Through the management of FDSI, Banner Health has realized a total of $5.55 million in savings that are used to enhance care delivery and in growing its network.
Patient Satisfaction
In modern society, the satisfaction of patients is a critical component of any successful health system (Farley et al., 2014). Based on this understanding, Banner Health uses integrative healing modalities to provide excellent care to the patients. This relies on understanding that care for patients includes healing the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the body. Therefore, to ensure that the patients are satisfied, the integrative healing modality has led to the incorporation of spiritual care staff mandated to provide spiritual and emotional nourishment. This supplements the physical health care.
Conclusion
Good planning, resource management processes, patient satisfaction, and the right staffing contribute to the success of any health organization. To ensure the fulfillment of its mandate of quality care provision, Banner Health should improve the standard approach for efficient management of its operations. The standard approach will ensure that systematic challenges across the system such as the resource management experienced with the freight program in the past are identified and solutions devised. This will also ensure that the needs of the patients are met within the set budget. Therefore, the application of an integrated approach remains to be very important in strengthening the ability of the organization to realize growth and reduce the operational costs as illustrated in the case study.
References
Farley, H., Enguidanos, E. R., Coletti, C. M., Honigman, L., Mazzeo, A., Pinson, T. B.,… & Wiler, J. L. (2014). Patient satisfaction surveys and quality of care: an information paper. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 64(4), 351-357.
FDSI Logistics. (2015). Banner Health. Web.
Fine, P. (2016). About Banner Health. Web.
Frith, K. H., Anderson, E. F., Tseng, F., & Fong, E. A. (2012). Nurse staffing is an important strategy to prevent medication errors in community hospitals. Nursing Economics, 30(5), 288-291.