Strategic Healthcare Management - Coursework Example

University

Introduction

My group took part in the implementation of a strategy related to strategic healthcare management. We were a group of four; one medical doctor from Pakistan, audiologist, and two nurses from UK. We sought to implement the strategy of expanding Shaw health carer to urgent care services. The rationale for the selection of this strategy is informed by the rise in urgent care services. This reflective paper seeks to reflect on the experiences and lessons learned from the group work and implementation of the strategy. Gibb’s model of reflection will be used for purposes of enhancing the quality of the reflection and prevention of repetition of the experiences. The reflective process using this model follows a step by step process of statements of descriptions, value, summation and justification for purposes of making insightful contribution to the underlying health care management strategy.

Experiences

In the last two decades, the demand for urgent care services has grown tremendously with many health care centres resorting to expansion of their facilities to incorporate urgent care services (Irvine, 2003). Out group sort to devise a strategy for the expansion of Shaw health carer to urgent care services for purposes of delivering care to the growing population. This strategy seeks to solve issues such as crowded emergency departments, long waiting hours for appointments in primary care and the increased demand for accessible care and follow-ups. Given that the group was made up of four members, and one as from Pakistan and the rest from the UK, we decided to form a WhatsApp group to aid in communication and coordinate the efforts of each member towards an effective implementation of the strategy.

The medical doctor was in charge of the general scientific, managerial, technological and financial roles that are transferable to other departments. The doctor provided insightful contribution to the changing dynamics in the health industry as the government, patients and the manager change their expectations thereby posing unprecedented challenges. The audiologist was in charge of assessing the viability of the proposed strategy in terms of its effectiveness in identifying, assessing, diagnosing and intervening in the treatment of permanent hearing loss in children. The nurses’ role was to incorporate the essential skills that will improve the effectiveness of the strategy by promoting a profound relationship in the urgent care centre. The rationale for this role is based on the appreciation that the effectiveness of the strategy will based on the direct and adequate liaison between the nurses, patients and the various medical professionals. The various member contribution allowed us to address the strategy holistically and ensuring that all aspects addressed were effectively communicated (Ham and Alberti, 2002).

Examination of the Gaps in the Experiences

The effectiveness of our group in the implementation of the strategy was based on interpersonal skills and cohesion within the group. Our team productivity was relatively slow at the beginning of the group work due to distance related issues. This issue was solved by forming a WhatsApp group where communication was enhanced and we were able to update and coordinate with each other effectively. Most of the tasks required that we divide work among ourselves and collaborate during task delivery, however, one member of the group was not very responsive to communications, which slowed down the progress of the strategy implementation. This was a major gap in the group as stalling communication wasted a lot of time and reduced the smooth coordination of the group. Moreover, distance was also a great barrier as it limited the chances we had to meet and have a face to face deliberation of the strategy (Petersona and Behfarb, 2009). This weakness is informed by the perception that face to face communication allows for more open and intense discussions as members of the group are able to voice their opinions and thoughts more clearly and extensively than when communicating through the internet. Moreover, face to face communication allows for effective clarifications that guide the progress of the tasks throughout the strategy formulation and implementation (Gulati and Sytch, 2008). As we progressed, we learned to solve these problems, improve cohesion and interpersonal skills by solidifying trust, commitment and a sense of identity, which reduced the tension between members thereby increasing our motivation (Blois, 1999).

Lessons Learnt from the Experience

This experience taught me that every care discipline is integral in healthcare, and most importantly in urgent care settings. Hence, the health care professionals need to work as a team so that each discipline is represented and plays a part in the delivery of healthcare. It is therefore prudent to conclude that the achievement of the desired outcome of patients is highly dependent on communication and effective teamwork (Khodyakov, 2007). Urgent care requires patients to be managed by a multidisciplinary team with an underlying theme of strengthening the ability of the medical professionals and their corresponding nurses to provide the patients with more efficient, quality urgent care. Given the pressing issues and challenges of population health in health care setting such as low quality service, delays in service delivery, crowded emergency departments, long waiting hours for appointments in primary care and the increased demand for accessible care and follow-ups, this strategy advocates for a multidisciplinary approach to treatment for improvement of delivery of urgent care services.

Our proposed strategy is in alignment with the strategic practice of surveillance and the assessment of a population’s health and wellbeing. This principle forms the basis for the implementation of the strategy to expand the Shaw health carer to urgent care services. This principle is based on the provision of health care service based on sufficient needs assessment and the target population, for purposes of ensuring that the service is effectively distributed to the target population. The strategy of the expansion of Shaw health carer to urgent care services was proposed after assessment of the problem, impact of the strategy on the target population and the implementation process. It is essential that out group ensured efficient due diligence in ensuring reliable and clear information about the nature of the problem, how the services will be distributed in Shaw health carer and well as the factors that promote of limit the acquisition of these services in the facility currently. Given the demand of urgent care services in the UK, the assessment revealed that there is a huge gap in provision of care, hence making our strategy highly plausible and necessary.

Another lesson learnt is that the implementation of our strategy is prone to certain strengths and weaknesses that need to be understood by the various stakeholders for purposes of ensuring quality delivery of care (Bloisi et al., 2006). The major strengths of the strategy is the improvement in access to care, which is achieved by filling an access gap that has existed in the conventional care delivery, particularly during weekend and evening hours when the patients are left without a primary care physician. Since urgent care centres do not disrupt the regular delivery of care and the relationship in the primary care provision, it is effective in care coordination. Nevertheless, some of the limitations of the implementation of this strategy is the concern of educating the legislators and other stakeholders of the meaning and undertaking of urgent care services. The strategy requires the legislators to understand the benefits of urgent care centres and minimize the regulation on the providers of these services. Moreover, the issue of reimbursement as the urgent care centres are not attached to the hospital system.

Exploration of Alternatives for Future Plan of Action

If we were undertaking this task again, I would ensure to close the most significant gaps that limited our ability to effectively implement this strategy. During the group work, we decided to use WhatsApp as our main mode of communication as it allows for members on different parts of the world to communicate effectively. However, it seems that this communication mode has its challenges based on the fact that it differs significantly with face to face meetings, which is the most effective for group work. In the future, we will try to limit these challenges in communication by using Skype instead of WhatsApp. Skype is highly preferable as we can set the time for the meeting when each member will be available and conduct a meeting without some members being elusive as was the case this time. Moreover, since Skype is involved more with talking than typing, it will allow more communication and contribution, thereby improving the effectiveness of our implemented strategy.

Moreover, we will consider a broader scope of the stakeholders to include groups of interest and legislators, as they also influence the effectiveness of this strategy. Despite the increased demand for urgent care services in the UK, the benefits of providing these services has not been understood by all the necessary stakeholders including the government, legislators, hospital management and the society, to ensure that they make it smooth to pursue the implementation of urgent care centres. The rationale for the improvement of this aspect is founded on the fact that the area of urgent care centres is being penetrated by both private and public investors, hence its implementation in Shaw health carer would require a very strong primary care base.

Conclusion

The group work for the implementation of the strategy to expand Shaw health carer went on well with the contribution of the group members. This strategy was selected on the rationale that here is a growing demand in the health care sector for urgent health centers to care for the urgent needs of the patients. This reflection was based on the Gibb’s model of reflection as it allows for efficiency in reporting and analysis of events and experiences of the group work. Moreover, it allows for evaluation of lessons learnt from the group work and the implementation process of the expansion of Shaw health carer to urgent care services. In a group of four; a medical doctor from Pakistan, and an audiologist and two nurses from UK, we were able to formulate the strategy successfully. The major challenges we faced during the process was communication issues due to the huge geographical barrier of connecting members in the UK and Pakistan. A WhatsApp group was opened to aid in communication. However, we plan to use Skype instead to overcome some of the obstacles we faced in communication. Generally, we learnt that urgent health care is an integral part of care provision and all medical professionals should coordinate for purposes of making health care accessible and quality for all.