Description of Healthcare Organization
The discussion in this paper will center on Banner Health, a U.S. healthcare system that provides a wide range of services, including family clinics, home care, and a nursing registry. It remains one of the largest not-for-profit organizations with its main headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. It currently has about 50,000 employees across seven states (Banner Health, n.d.).
Hospitals in the healthcare system offer specialized services, including organ transplants, rehabilitation, behavioral therapies, and maternity care. (Banner Health, n.d.). Banner Health also offers several programs, including cardiac care, diagnostic imaging, and pediatric and obstetric services. As one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Banner Health strives to ensure that people, especially at the community level, can easily access healthcare services. The organization, founded in 1999, aims to provide healthcare services to residents of target states rather than to generate profits. This implies that the money the organization generates is reinvested in various programs to improve the quality of care.
The Organization’s Overall Readiness
The organization has been slowly shifting towards adopting value-based payment models over several years, in preparation for meeting the growing needs of its target population across the seven states. The aim is to shift a specific proportion of both financial and clinical risks from payers to providers to enhance service delivery value. These reimbursement models are more focused on controlling member engagement and quality while also improving efficiency.
As explicated in da Silva Etges et al. (2020) ‘s study, health systems across the U.S. are investing significant resources to ensure a successful transition from volume to value. This is informed by the need to provide individualized patient care. In fact, healthcare systems such as Banner Health must pay close attention to value-based care. This is critical, as it strives to minimize costs associated with delivering care while continuously maintaining high-quality, safe care.
The organization is concerned about resolving Medicare expenses, especially now that the cost of care for those seeking inpatient services has been on an upward trajectory for the past 10 years. This explains why Banner Health has invested heavily in research to determine the best approaches for delivering high-quality, safe, and timely care. As further elucidated by da Silva Etges et al. (2020), the organization should focus more on providing optimal care for its patients, rather than pursuing a profit-making strategy that generates extra dollars for every service delivered. To achieve this, the organization is considering adopting several Imaginariums to initiate a shift from volume to value. The different Imaginariums will significantly assist in providing individualized care.
Strategic Plan
The strategic planning process for Banner Health is designed to address issues related to expansion, patient satisfaction, nurse employment, and resource management. Regarding growth, Banner Health’s primary objective is to establish new healthcare facilities that address the dynamic nature of patient needs. This is also necessary to address current, emerging, and future healthcare needs. The organization’s plan should be to establish several medical centers across the seven states and to provide affordable, easily accessible care to all. As its regions of operation continue to expand, Banner Health must allocate its resources to meet the healthcare needs of its patients.
Regarding nurse staffing, the organization has implemented a strategic staffing approach designed to enhance flexibility in healthcare delivery. The Board of Directors of Banner Health understands the importance of having sufficient staff to care for patients. According to Amiri and Solankallio-Vahteri (2019), nurse staffing plays a critical role in the overall performance of care facilities and patient outcomes. Nurses are directly involved in patient care – they spend most of their time with patients and, as such, are capable of providing exceptional care. This explains why Banner Health is continually seeking new ways to improve the patient-to-nurse ratio and mitigate burnout.
The most preferable plan for patient satisfaction is one that aims to ensure hospitals have sufficient care providers. This, coupled with the adoption of the latest technologies such as telemedicine, is intended to improve the interaction between patients and providers. These technologies, which aim to improve interpersonal communication, have proven effective in terms of patient satisfaction. Lastly, the organization’s resource management focuses primarily on providing affordable patient care. Banner Health understands that effective management of population health and resources within the organization will enable it to offer high-quality services at lower costs.
Potential Issues within Organizational Culture
Banner Health is one of the largest not-for-profit organizations in the U.S., with a mission to make healthcare services more accessible and affordable. However, the organizational culture is exclusive – the staff is often excluded from the decision-making process. Ultimately, this affects the process of implementing the strategic plan. It is essential to note that organizational culture significantly impacts staff performance, as staff are expected to adhere to the organization’s specific beliefs and values.
Cultures have a significant impact on how organizations operate, as well as influencing “what is unacceptable or acceptable in the company depending on the operating environment of the organization”(Okpala, 2020, p.199). It therefore follows that Banner Health must ensure all employees are involved in the entire implementation of the strategic plan – the staff must feel they are part of the process. In other words, having a crucial organizational culture in place to implement the strategic plan is vital, and excluding employees from the process can lead to unfavorable, unintended consequences.
Model to Support the Implementation of the Strategic Plan
The most suitable model to support Banner Health’s strategic plan is a goals-focused approach. This model, as observed by Elwyn and Vermunt, “works from the future to the present” (2020, p. 688). In doing so, it can address the challenges and opportunities within the organization.
The team implementing the strategic plan reevaluates the organization’s mission, vision, and core values. In doing so, the team will unravel both the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This is possible because the goal-based strategic model allows the team to develop clear goals for the organization. This is then followed by the adoption of evidence-based measures to meet the objectives. Overall, the goal-based strategic planning model will ensure that the Banner Health team identifies measurable goals and the strategies needed to achieve them.
References
Amiri, A., & Solankallio-Vahteri, T. (2019). Nurse-staffing level and quality of acute care services: Evidence from cross-national panel data analysis in OECD countries. International journal of nursing sciences, 6(1), 6-16.
Banner Health. (n.d.). About Banner Health.
da Silva Etges, A. P. B., Ruschel, K. B., Polanczyk, C. A., & Urman, R. D. (2020). Advances in value-based healthcare by the application of time-driven activity-based costing for inpatient management: A systematic review. Value in Health, 23(6), 812-823.
Elwyn, G., & Vermunt, N. P. C. A. (2020). Goal-based shared decision-making: Developing an integrated model. Journal of patient experience, 7(5), 688-696.
Okpala, P. (2020). Nurses’ perspectives on the impact of management approaches on the blame culture in health-care organizations. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 13(sup1), 199-205.