Project and Resource Management for the Health Services Organizations

Strategic Improvement

What is strategic improvement, and how is it related to overall management in HSOs?

As you have examined throughout this course, health care administrators face a very challenging task when managing the business needs and necessary operations to propel an HSO forward in the marketplace. Responding to both internal and external factors, health care administrators must consider the effects of implementing necessary projects or resources not only as a response to these factors but also to contribute to organizational sustainability. Thus, health care administrators must assess, evaluate, and execute those strategies that most align to the business needs required by the HSO.

This week, you examine strategic improvement as you develop evaluation plans for accountable care organizations (ACOs) for your Final Project. You consider implementation for ACOs as part of a process evaluation plan and reflect on how evaluation plans are related to the business strategies of ACOs.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Synthesize development of evaluation plans for accountable care organizations

· Evaluate how process evaluation plans affect accountable care organizations

· Analyze evaluation plans in relation to the mission of accountable care organizations

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required Harvard Business Review resources, select the article link and navigate to the relevant article or go back to Blackboard and select Harvard Business Articles from the course navigation menu.

Required Readings

Longest, B. B., Jr., & Darr, K. J. (2014). Managing health services organizations and systems (6th ed.). Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press. Chapter 9, “Strategizing” (pp. 454-455).

Chassin, M. R., & Loeb, J. M. (2013). High‐reliability health care: Getting there from here. The Milbank Quarterly, 91(3), 459-490.

Clark, J., Singer, S., Kane, N., & Valentine, M. (2013). From striving to thriving: Systems thinking, strategy, and the performance of safety net hospitals. Health Care Management Review, 38(3), 211-223.

Nolan, T. W. (2007). Execution of strategic improvement initiatives to produce system-level results [White paper]. Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Retrieved from http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/IHIWhitePapers/ExecutionofStrategicImprovementInitiativesWhitePaper.aspx

Document: Final Project Template (Word document)

Porter, M. E., & Lee, T. H. (2013). The strategy that will fix health care. Harvard Business Review, 91(10), 50-70

Final Project Template

Evaluation Plan for Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Formation

(1) Project Objectives

(2) Evaluation question

(3) Evaluation Methods

(a) Data

(b) Measures

(4) Timeline

(a) Implementation timeline

(b) Evaluation timeline

Final Project (Exam 250 points)

Evaluation Plan for Accountable Care Organization Formation

Consider the following scenario:

1. You are a health care administrator for a large community hospital in an urban market. Your hospital has already made substantial investments in health information technology and physician participation. In response to health care reform, several competing hospitals are starting to form ACOs to participate in new payment models designed to reduce costs and improve population health.

2. The board of directors for your hospital has requested that you lead the development of an evaluation plan to assess the potential impact of ACO formation. In particular, the board wants to understand how the ACO will align with the organization’s strategy and what information will be required to assess the impact of the ACO on your organization’s performance.

3. For this Assignment, reflect on the scenario presented, and consider how you might implement an evaluation plan for the desired outcomes and goals described. Consider what steps you might take as a current or future health care administrator and how an evaluation plan should be developed for a project such as that described in the scenario.

The Assignment (20 pages):

· Describe the measures and methods you would use for the evaluation plan, and explain why you would use them. Be sure to include what type of data you need to collect and a definition of the metrics you would use.

· Propose and develop a timeline for the implementation and evaluation plan for the scenario described. Be sure to highlight any challenges or opportunities in regard to adhering to the proposed timeline you develop. Suggest additional strategies you might recommend to ensure the implementation and evaluation plans are completed on time. Be specific and provide examples.

· Explain how the evaluation plan contributes to the feedback loop for effective management of an ACO.

· Explain how you will ensure that the evaluation plan you propose is aligned strategically with the mission of the ACO and why.

By Day 7

Submit your Final Project.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

· Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK11Proj+last name+first initial. (extension)” as the name.

· Click the Week 11 Final Project Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.

· Click the Week 11 Final Project link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.

· Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK11Proj+last name+first initial. (extension)” and click Open.

If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.

Click on the Submit button to complete your submission. Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 11 Final Project Rubric

Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity

To check your Assignment draft for authenticity:

Submit your Week 11 Final Project draft and review the originality report.

Submit Your Final Project by Day 7