The Organization Overview
Banner Healthcare is one of the largest non-profit health organizations in the USA, headquartered in Phoenix. The organization operates twenty-eight acute care hospitals, three academic medical institutions, several outpatient surgeries, and long-term care centers, the Banner Medical Group and Banner Health Network, and a great number of other services such as a nursing registry, hospice services, and home care, and family clinics. The network of Banner Health expands on seven states, namely, Arizona, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Alaska, Nebraska, and Colorado. The system was founded in 1999 as a result of a merger between Samaritan Health System and Lutheran Health Systems, based in Phoenix and North Dakota, respectively (Kutscher, 2016). Currently, more than 50,000 employees are working at Banner Healthcare.
Banner Healthcare Strategy
In general, Banner Healthcare main strategy is the commitment to change people’s lives for the better by means of providing excellent patient care. They apply this approach to the management of their expenses as well in order to expand their healthcare services. The organization has a long history of clinical experience, places a major focus on the provision of the best patient care, and is considered to be an innovation-oriented institution; that is why it has a high level of employee commitment, which has a direct impact on the quality of healthcare.
Banner Healthcare always tries to keep up with the latest technological advancements and keep all its medical records in an electronic form, which allows retrieving any report or medical notes at any time (“Patient experience case study,” 2016). Certainly, this method has had a great influence on the time of recovery and even on the mortality rates, as the acceleration of the process has resulted in more timely treatment.
In addition, Banner Healthcare uses eICU, which is an electronic system that manages patient care in the ICU. The patient rooms are equipped with surveillance cameras, microphones, and speakers, thereby making a considerable improvement in communication between patients and caregivers. This system helps healthcare professionals have constant control over the patients’ health (Kutscher, 2016). One small disadvantage of this system is that due to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws, it is not permitted to record conversations between doctors and patients, which would help in solving certain technical and communication problems. Regarding nurse staffing, the current proportion of nurses to patients is one to three and in the ICU – one to one, respectively (“Patient experience case study,” 2016). Due to eICU system, nurses get more professional help from physicians and other members of healthcare staff. In addition, the Banner simulator system helps nurses be updated with all the innovations implemented in the clinic.
Furthermore, Banner Healthcare places major stress on primary prevention. To achieve this goal, the hospital has made several staffing changes, particularly, a couple of significant transformations in nursing practice were necessary to increase primary care. Therefore, the organization introduced a program called Care Management, which focuses on a continuous provision of improvements in the process of caregiving. In doing so, the organization increases the quality of healthcare and takes into account the environmental issues (“Patient experience case study,” 2016). Each facility has a special recycling system that processes all the materials used by the clinic.
Banner Healthcare Challenges and Opportunities
Today, Banner Healthcare faces many challenges. However, it has many more opportunities for growth than it had before. The organization has finally managed to stabilize its performance after the losses of $1 billion resulted from the acquisition of the University of Arizona Health Network (UAHN) at the beginning of 2015. Some of those challenges are still in effect; however, the outpatient volume is rapidly increasing at the legacy hospitals of the organization (“Banner Health services,” 2017). Moreover, its operating excess has increased by 40%.
In terms of inpatients admissions, they have decreased by 4% for the last year. However, surgical operations increased by 3% and emergency room visits increased by 5% for the last fiscal year. In addition, outpatient visits have risen by 13% on a same-store basis (Kutscher, 2016). Overall, the organization reported an operating excess of more than one hundred million dollars on two billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2016.
Reportedly, the losses of the organization in 2015 were the largest, primarily because of several acquisitions. Thus, apart from UAHN, Banner Healthcare acquired several hospitals in Payson, Arizona, and Fort Collins, Colorado, which produced the additional loss of thirty-three million dollars. In order to minimize other costs, Banner Healthcare tried to implement a more standardized and leaner model of UAHN’s operations (“Banner Health services,” 2017). It also invested a considerable sum of money into the new technological upgrades for its facilities, especially for UAHN’s Tucson campus.
However, acquisitions were not the only challenge for Banner Healthcare. Membership in the organization’s shared- and the full-risk product had risen by 20% by the end of 2015. In addition to the acquisition losses, the organization also spent fifteen million dollars in the first quarter of 2016. Most of this money was spent on the Medicare Advantage plan, or Blue Advantage, which the organization owns together with Blue Shield of Arizona and Blue Cross (“Banner Health services,” 2017). Another significant part of this money was spent on the organization’s commercial insurance plan or the Blue Alliance product. Additionally, Banner Healthcare claimed that high pharmacy costs are the main reason for the bad performance of the Medicare Advantage plan. Eventually, the organization managed to alleviate the impact of this challenge.
Nevertheless, despite all these losses that the organization had to deal with in 2015 and 2016, overall, its acquisitions provided Banner Healthcare with many opportunities for future expansion (Loria, 2016). Moreover, currently, the impact made by those losses has almost disappeared, and the organization is ready for the realization of its future plans.
Banner Healthcare Future Plans
At the end of 2016, Banner Healthcare announced its merger with Aetna, an American healthcare company that sells traditional, consumer-oriented healthcare insurance plans and provides medical services including disability plans, long-term care, and behavioral, dental, and pharmaceutical health (Loria, 2016). The first step of their fusion will be the provision of health coverage to employees and employers in Pinal and Maricopa counties, with the subsequent expansion in other counties and states.
In general, the plan of this joint venture is to focus on the consumer experience by means of the combination of the fully integrated healthcare teams, administrative services, and health insurance. This will also help minimize healthcare redundancies and eliminate administrative obstacles (“Banner Health services,” 2017). Overall, both companies are planning to make their partnership nationally recognized healthcare system by means of moving two-thirds of its contracts to the value-oriented care models by 2020.
In addition, the executives of Banner Healthcare believe that within five years, the organization will change in a positive way (Kutscher, 2016). Particularly, it will be focused on the provision of healthcare to the population, with the majority of its business being involved in the sphere of risk prevention. In doing so, the organization will be able to also focus on that kind of consumer and, at the same time, create facilities to manage their illnesses (“Banner Health services,” 2017). Thus, Banner Healthcare will successfully work in both spheres in 2020, with the plans for further expansion.
References
Banner Health services. (2017). Web.
Kutscher, B. (2016). New deals, new payment models continue to test Banner Health. Web.
Loria, K. (2016). Banner Health’s future-focused merger. Web.
Patient experience case study – Banner Health. (2016). Web.