Health Oganization Case study - Essay Example

United Healthcare is committed to providing quality care and to its continuous improvement. In the last five years, UnitedHealth Group has invested approximately $3 billion dollars in research and development (R & D), technology and business processes enhancement (UnitedHealthcare, 2014). With this huge investment, the Group is confident it is going to be able to serve its customers satisfactorily over the next decade and beyond. The organization recognizes that the healthcare needs of Americans are changing fast and becoming more complex.

The complexity partly stems from the emergence and spread of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. Over the years, the average American has continued to grow more affluence. Unfortunately, with affluence comes risky lifestyles like eating a lot of junk food and overreliance on the automobile such that a person rarely gets to exercise by walking or cycling to work. The above stated investments, coupled with the Group’s strategic plan, put UHG in a solid position to satisfy the medical needs of Americans.

Key elements of the strategic plan include network growth, staffing, resource management and customer satisfaction. We now take a more elaboratelook at each of these. As of June 2011, United Health Group (UHG) had partnered with 650,000 doctors and other healthcare providers, over 5,000 hospitals, some 80,000 dentists and 65,000 pharmacies across the United States (Hilton , 2011). UHG’s network strategy is to expand this network in coming years. The strategy is informed that it is cheaper to partner with existing organizations and professionals as opposed to establishing new ones from scratch and hiring and retaining health workers.

In addition, the network strategy affords UHG to reach more Americans that it could single-handedly. In fact, the Group attributes its ability to serve some 70 million Americans annually to its network of partners. In order to attract