Create a report that will help the Director of Strategic Planning at a health care organization understand current trends related to service line management, leadership, patient experience, employee relations, and quality improvement.

Introduction

In the current health care environment, patient satisfaction is a key metric by which reimbursement is determined. When organizations and leadership fail to consider the patient experience when planning organizational strategies, they risk losing income (via reimbursement) and business volume (via patients deciding to find new or alternate providers). While leadership may not interact with patients on a daily basis, there is a lot they can do to improve and impact the patient experience, which may include bringing patients and leaders together to better understand their experiences, creating a formalized definition of patient satisfaction, involving patients and families in improvement efforts, improving employee engagement, and ensuring staff are provided with regular customer service training.

Leadership is vital to every industry. Leaders are important catalysts in the organization’s ability to establish a vision, formulate a strategic plan, motivate staff, influence culture, and achieve business and department goals. Leaders within the organization who oversee daily operations can impact quality efforts through daily rounds, direct communication and contact with front-line staff, and follow-through with employees who voluntarily report safety and quality concerns.

As the transition from volume to value continues, health care organizations are implementing a variety of strategies to cut costs and improve quality. Included in these strategies is the management of clinical service lines. The goal of each service line should be focused on utilizing evidence-based medicine or clinical pathways to reduce care variation, resulting in improved patient experience and outcomes. Challenges to service line management include (but are not limited to) who will lead, what support they have from senior leadership within the organization, buy-in from clinicians, and information technology.

A popular management approach to service line management is the dyad model. This model utilizes a business leader who oversees and manages the operational aspects of the service line, as well as a physician leader who oversees the clinical practices. To be effective, the dyad model requires transparency and communication, which ultimately lead to trust and credibility with staff. Positive, productive working relationships in the service line are founded on trust, credibility, communication, and transparency. The benefit of this relationship can be seen in the roles working together toward setting and achieving a strategic vision. Working toward the strategic vision of the organization is advantageous as targets are met, tactics are completed, quality improves, and patients are satisfied with their experience.

Preparation

This assessment focuses on various models, strategies, and concepts related to strategic planning, leadership, and organizational success. If you have not yet done so, it may be helpful to check your knowledge around these topics by completing the activity in the Leadership, Strategy, and Organizational Success section in Assessment 3.

Instructions

While not entirely unique, leadership in health care differs from that of other service industries. Several unique characteristics of the health care industry include rapid and constant change, reduced reimbursements, political scrutiny, heavy regulation, a diverse workforce, and being tasked with the health and well-being of those who patronize the facility (often requiring life-and-death decisions).

For this assessment, consider your organization is three years into their ten-year strategic plan and they are updating it to align with current industry practice and standards. The Director of Strategic Planning has asked you to research several topics related to service line management, leadership, patient experience, employee relations, and quality improvement as these topics are top of mind for the staff, patients, payers, and regulatory agencies.

Include the following in your paper:

• Analyze health care leadership and its impact on patient experience.
  • Discuss why the patient experience is a critical issue for health care operations.
  • Identify the senior leader’s role in impacting patient experience.
• Explain implications for the organization if patient experience is not a strategic priority.
  • Describe potential signs of patient dissatisfaction.
  • Identify areas that would be impacted.
• Analyze service line management and the challenges associated with this organizational structure.
  • Discuss service lines within the health care setting (for example, what they are, why they are formed, how they impact organizational success).
  • Discuss how clinical departments were managed prior to the development of service lines.
  • Describe the changes required in hierarchal structures to allow for more effective management.
• Analyze the pros and cons of leading the service line using the dyad management model.
  • Describe the cultural shift involved in adopting a dyad management model.
• Explain the importance of employee and provider relations on the overall success of the organization from the service line perspective.
  • Identify the support functions provided to a service line and the importance of these functions on its overall success.
  • Identify two resources (one must be culture) necessary for the service line director to be effective.
• Analyze the role of the health care leader in regard to organizational quality improvement.
  • Analyze the impact of quality management on the overall success of the organization and why leadership is critical to improving quality (for example, the importance of quality as a strategy and implications for the organization if quality is not managed).
  • Discuss the role the leader has in quality management (for example, culture, improvement cycles, identifying opportunities for improvement).
  • Discuss the benefit of management rounding as it relates to identifying and managing quality issues within the organization.