Health Care Practice: the Managers Role in the Running of a Health Care Practice - Essay Example

? Health care practice Health care practice The General Practice managers are individuals within a health care practice that overseeand develop the functions of a general practice surgeon or a group of surgeons. These persons ensure that the functions of the general practice, run smoothly and necessary support are availed to the surgeons as required. Practice managers lead a team of receptionists, medical record staff and secretaries in order to work as a team to achieve the desired results (Atlantic, 1990). Practice manager plays a number of roles to facilitate smooth operation in a General Practice. These roles include ensuring quality services are offered to patients; recruiting, training, and managing the administrative staff; and overseeing the patient’s records. In addition, the manager should agree on and manage the general practice budget; monitor patients satisfaction; and handle complains from patients, as well as, ensuring appointments run smoothly. Managerial functions are not limited to the daily operations of the practitioner, but he or she also assesses the market and advice the BOARD on the introduction of new services in the General Practice. In Newham there is a huge population of people who seek medical attention from the General Practice clinics. The Newham population is expected to grow at an average rate of 11% which provides opportunity for the General Practice to invest (Dlugacz, 2006). Selecting and developing a suitable practice environment The accessibility of a general practice is the primary factor that should be considered in a General practice. The selection of a suitable location puts into consideration the safety and the nearness to the patients. It should also consider other strategic things such as means of communication, water, and power supply. One should also have in mind the competition from other established service providers. In this case, the competition comes from the National Health Service. In addition, one has to consider the services to offer. For example, in Newham borough the demand for primary health care is huge. The interior and exterior layout should be appealing and provide a sense of security to the patients (Heizer, 2004). A person should also consider the staffing on the roles of each staff, the supervisors and the clinicians who have to work as one to achieve the desired results. Marketing and promotion of the practice Brand The patients should have enough knowledge of the services provided and their quality. The practice has to focus on the target patients. For example, in Newham in the Tower hamlets borough, the major service is primary health care. The manager should identify ways of improving their services in order to gain competitive advantage over others. There are many population distribution factors that may affect the General practice. In the Tower Hamlets Borough had an unemployment level of 12% which is the third highest. It is also the most overcrowded area with 15% of households overcrowded and high crime rate (Dlugacz, 2006). This calls for appropriate mode of advertising to reach them. Buying and selling of a practice Buying and selling a practice should be done with caution. One should involve a general practice surveyor and the deal should be signed in front of a legal expert. The issue of shareholding is crucial since all parties should be satisfied with the deal. A person should also be fully aware of the reasons behind the selling of the practice in order to plan on the best action taken to move into the practice (GPC, 2005). Apply essentials of starting a practice Before a general practice is started, it should ensure that it has fulfilled all the legal requirements. The practice is bond bound by the law to provide services to the disadvantaged people. For example, the practice should remove physical obstacles such as replacing steps with ramps and expanding narrow doorways in the premises. This is according to Disability Discrimination Act (1995). The practice should ensure that reasonable adjustment is done to the protocols and structure of the practice to assist them. Health and safety regulations in running a practice There are a number of health and safety regulations that have been set by the government in running a practice. Every practice should implement health and safety policies; and procedures, by translating legislations into practical protocols. The health and safety regulations emerged in 1974, when the first health and safety work Act was enacted. This act was meant to ensure that the employers identify the risks that employees go through while being at the work place. There are various legal requirements for any employee in a General Practice. First, employee should own a written safety policy that guarantees him or her of compensation in case of accidents. Second, there should be a health and safety law leaflet or a poster that visible and available to anyone. Employers are also obliged to consult with employees on the safety and health issues. The other legal requirement is that General Practice should have an employer’s liability insurance that ensures that employees who are injured during the course of their duties are compensated. The other one is that the accidents should be recorded and communicated to the relevant people. Another legal requirement is that employers should have a clear record identifying those responsible for each procedure in the practice. Lastly, the practice should have a clear first aid arrangement to provide fast treatment in case of emergency. This work is facilitated by practice manager (Great Britain 1992). Financial viability and operational management Financial viability refers to the ability of a firm or entity, to generate sufficient income to meet its operating objectives and fulfill its mission over a long time. Operation management refers to the activities, role, and responsibilities of managing resources which are supposed to facilitate productive and efficient products and services. Therefore, financial viability and operation management in health care practice refers to the ability of the organization to finance their activities, as well as, attain profits using the resources available. This means that the organization is able to pay employees and managers and cover other expenses in the General Practice (Heizer, 2004). The attainment of financial viability and efficiency of operations management of the health care depends on the interplay of various factors. The first factor that plays crucial role is competition. Competition challenges the managers to exert more effort when faced with competition, as they will be determined to improve their service delivery with a chief purpose of attaining a competitive advantage. Competition can also make the General Practice to close if it is poorly managed (Heizer, 2004). In New Harm, the competition comes from the National Health Services which receive a lot of support from the community, as well as, being affordable to the patients. The NHS has improved greatly where they are focusing on ways of controlling chronic diseases. The second factor that needs to be analyzed is the skills and competences of the Practice Manager. It has become a necessity to train the Practicing Manager on clinical matters. The managers who are trained on medical skills are more likely to perform better than those with no clinical knowledge. This indicates that for a health care practice to attain financial viability, the managers have to possess knowledge on the clinical skills to enable him allocate resources effectively. The financial viability is based on the ability of a manager to make profits by charging fair fee, as well as, the ability to reduce the cost of operation (Gapenski, 1999). The third factor is the size of the General practice. The financial viability of a General practice will also depend on the number of surgeons operating in the General Practice. A General Practice that consists of many surgeons is going to attract more clients than those that are operated by only one practitioner. The financial viability and effective operational management would, therefore, be realized if a General practice is able to maximally use resources that they have (Harrison, 2013). This also means that the practitioner must be able to attend to as many patients as possible. However, the fact is that, health care practices that are run by more practitioners are more effective than those run by only one or few practitioners. In Newharm, there is huge demand for their services, this call for more practitioners to run the practice. Methods used to optimise the service configuration and measure its performance The first method that can be used to optimize service delivery is through effective marketing and promotion of the practice. The manager should ensure that he or she institutes effective promotional practices that can reach many people. Effective promotional practices have to consider the patients who attend the clinic and the level of competition in the area (Prince, 1998). The demographic pattern and trends in the area also play a role in determining the promotional mechanisms to use. Newham has the highest birth rate of 3.18. This means that services that target maternal health care and the children related diseases are most suitable. The area is faced with high poverty levels where 55.9% of children are living in poverty. Various steps have been taken by the national health services in order to improve the provision of quality health care programs. These include the immunization programs, as well as, awareness on the chronic diseases. The competition in the area, therefore, comes from the National Health services that are also acceptable due to improvements over time and support from the government. With this in mind, the general practice should try to provide services that are way above those provided by the national health services (Dlugacz, 2006). A General Practice can improve its performance in the area by trying to operate at the lowest rate possible. This is done by attaining internal efficiency. One way of attracting patients is by maximizing the surgeon time. The surgeon time is usually defined as the most valuable asset of a medical practice. This is due to fact that the surgeon is the primary driver of profits by attending to the patients effectively and in good time (Hickey, 2012). The Practice Manager, therefore, needs to institute mechanisms to ensure that the physician makes use of his or her time effectively. This can be done by making a clear schedule of his or her time, maximizing face to face time with patients, evaluating the work progress, and making the necessary adjustments. The other method is staff optimization. The administrative team must have appropriate expertise and skills that would enable them to support the clinical staff. The clinical staffs are supposed to handle the patients while the other staffs do the administrative work. This is done by improving the scheduling process. The Practice Manager improves this by planning for contingencies which may cause the normal operations to be disrupted, speeding internal communication by defining protocols, empowering staff to meet the needs of the patients, and avoiding appointment distinctions. Smooth planning provides a measure of optimization of service delivery and measure of performance (Hickey, 2012). The next method is work flow efficiency. The work is said to be efficient if the patients are handled properly and promptly from the time they enter clinic up to the time they leave the clinic. In this perspective, the Practice Manager has to put in place some mechanisms. These mechanisms include reducing waiting time where possible, smoothening the scheduling process for each category of patients, as well as, adjusting service capacity. Both the management and the clinical staff are regularly trained to enable them improve customer delivery, as well as, add professional expertise (Edge, 2005). The General Practice can also incorporate information technology and information management. The General Practice is installed with information system hardware and software that are capable of addressing most of the organization’s needs. These needs include maintaining a medical record, payment options and speed diagnosis. These measures minimize the cycle time of the patient, and increase the number of attended customers per day by a single practitioner. This might be an added advantage to a General practice since the National Health services have not been able to institute them (Edge,2005). The last method is building financial performance that is sustainable and consistent. General practices are engaging in activities that support financial viability. The practice manager work to provide effective services to the community while at the same time, focusing on their ability to finance their operations (Gapenski, 1999). Applying financial and operational principles to managing a health care practice effectively In delivery of services, General Practice utilizes both operational and management principles to run their daily activities. The financial and the efficiency of the operations have to be realized. These financial and operational skills can be affected in various ways. First, they are used in evaluation and planning of financial operations. The management takes precaution not to plan haphazardly by taking time to carefully compare the number of patients that the General Practice attract and serve everyday, and their capacity to pay for these services, as well as, evaluating the opportunities that emerge (Bartlette, 2008). This enables the General Practice to make both short and long term plans. The financial principles are used to make long term investment decisions. These decisions help the management to prioritize on the capital investment decisions. These capital investment decisions include acquisition of new facilities and equipments that are used for expansion purposes. The operational principles are used to determine the optimization of resources and labour. Financial principles are used to finance the operations of the General Practice. These operations raise funds that are used to purchase resources used daily. These funds are also used to pay the manpower that provided services to the people. Financial principles are also used to manage the working capital. This involves effective operational management of current assets which may include cash, marketable securities, and inventories (Prince, 1998). The financial principles also play a role in contract management where the negotiation, signing, and monitoring of contracts is conducted in a professional way. In addition, financial principles assist the General Practice to carry out the financial risk management, where it assesses the risks that are posed by various operations that the General Practice engages in. It should be noted that all these decisions requires input of management and the Practice Manager. All these financial obligations are approved and implemented by them and, therefore, they have to be involved effectively (Prince, 1998). The operational principles involve decisions on the allocation of duties and responsibilities, as well as, coordination of those duties. As discussed, Operational principles aim at maximally utilizing every resource in the General Practice. To achieve maximum operational principles, the Practice Manager must ensure that functions are well coordinated. These include preparing a detailed communication plan that is honest and regular, and one that intends to reach all the stakeholders. In addition, the management identifies opinion leaders, and clinical champions from the management team (RCGP, 2005). The practice manager plays the role of implementing change in the organization. Change in an organization is necessary in order to keep up with the rapidly expanding technology (Grol, 2013). He or she, therefore, coordinates both the financial and operational principles in order to facilitate smooth running. In conclusion, this paper has discussed the health and safety measures which every General Practice should implement in order to cover patients and employees, and ensure compliance with the law. The discussion also critically analyzed the financial and operational management aspects which depend on interplay of various factors. The paper also discussed the various methods used by General Practice to improve service configuration and measure performance. The discussion has also focused on the application of financial and operational principles in order to facilitate smooth running of a General Practice in Newharm. References Atlantic Information Services. (1990). Physician manager. Washington, DC: Atlantic Information Services. Bartlette, L. A., & Lawson, I. F. (2008). Health care policies. New York: Nova Science Publishers. BMA (2003) Disability Disrimination Act: physical adjustments to GP premises. Retrieved from http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/pracpremdda/$file/dda.pdf Charvat, J. (2002). Project management nation: Tools, techniques and goals for the new and practicing IT project manager. New York, NY: Wiley. Dlugacz, Y. D. (2006). Measuring health care: Using data for operational, financial, and clinical improvement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Edge, R. S., & Groves, J. R. (2005). Ethics of health care: A guide for clinical practice. Albany: cengage learning . Fairman, D. (2012). Negotiating public health in a globalized world: Global health diplomacy in action. Ney York, NY Springer. Gapenski, L. C. (1999). Healthcare finance: An introduction to accounting and financial management. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press. General Practitioners Committee.(April 2002).Framework for a written contract of employment .Retrievedfrom.www.sheffield.ac.uk/content/1/c6/03/33/35/Framework_for_ a_written_contract_revised_Jan_05.doc Great Britain. (1992). Management of health and safety at work: Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 Approved Code of Practice. London: H.M.S.O. Grol, R., & Grol, R. (2013). Improving patient care:The implementation of change in health care. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. Harrison, C., & Harrison, W. P. (2013). Introduction to health care finance and accounting. Albany, N.Y: Delmar. Heizer, J. H., & Render, B. (2004). Principles of operations management. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Hickey, J. V., & Brosnan, C. A. (2012). Evaluation of health care quality in advanced nursing. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Higson, N. (1996). Risk management: Health and safety in primary care. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann. Natpact.(2005).HR Friend for practices and primary care providers. Retrieved from www.natpact.nhs.uk/uploads/2005_Feb/HR_Friend_for_Practices_&_Primary_Care_Pro viders. pdf NHS Estates. (2006). Primary and Social Care Premises: planning and design guidance. Retrieved from http://primarycare.nhsestates.gov.uk/secure/content.asp Nowicki, M., & Nowicki, M. (2011). Introduction to the financial management of healthcare organizations. Chicago: Health Administration Press. Occupational Health and Safety Lead Body. (1996). Occupational health and safety regulation: Standards for health and safety inspectors. Sudbury: HSE Books for OHSLB. Prince, T. R. (1998). Strategic management for health care entities: Creative frameworks for financial and operational analysis. Chicago: American Hospital Pub. Provost, L. P., & Murray, S. K. (2011). The health care data guide: Learning from data for improvement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. RCGP. (2005).Information management and Technology in General Practice. Retrieved from http://www.rcgp.org.uk/pdf/ISS_INFO_07_Feb05.pdf Skurka, M. F. (2003). Health information management: Principles and organization for health information services. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More