Middlefield Hospital Essay Example

Middlefield Hospital Essay Middlefield Hospital is a 450 bed tertiary care facility in a major urban area in the Northeast. The hospital is an integrated health system that provides the fill array of inpatient and outpatient services. The Hospital has a reputation for quality care in the area. Problem: The Hospital’s turnover rate exceeds 20% and there are over 100 nursing vacancies. Factors that may contribute to the turnover is that a new hospital has recently opened in our market area that has produced competition for Middlefield, employee morale has deteriorated over the past 12 months, and Essex University is considering eliminating its nursing degree program because of the difficulty recruiting quality instructors. Strategy: In order for Middlefield to strive and serve our patients with quality care and motivate our staff to stay employed with us long-term, we must change our operational strategy. First and foremost, we must invest in our employees. We have to offer our employees incentives and motivate them to stay and grow within our organization. Next, we must improve our community relations and form an alliance with Essex University to ensure the pipeline of new recruits continues to come through our doors for careers in nursing and other healthcare fields. And last but not least, we need to develop a triad of care, provide our patients with the best possible care at an affordable price. Recommendation: We will write a custom essay sample on Middlefield Hospital specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Middlefield Hospital specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Middlefield Hospital specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer As the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Middlefield Hospital, I have the following suggestions that I hope will improve our organization and better accommodate our patients’ needs and employee satisfaction. (1) Invest in technology and equipment that will make the experience more productive and cost effective. (2) Expand our services to include preventive counseling and education. (3) Possibly become a teaching hospital for new nurses, doctors, and allied personnel, while providing quality affordable care for our patients. (4) Provide opportunities for our staff to teach at Essex University (5) Reduce the 20% turnover rate and reduce the nursing vacancy rate by offering recruiting incentives and retention bonuses, and continuing education. Middlefield Hospital is in an urban area where patients should have access to the best quality healthcare possible. Middlefield needs to offer their patients a triad of care, which includes access, cost and quality of care. There are many factors why a patient may not be able to access care, such as lack of health insurance or financial resources, therefore Middlefield needs to ensure the population that we are affordable and the patient will receive the best possible care regardless of their financial situation. Cost refers to the total expenditures related directly and indirectly to the provision of healthcare. It is imperative that the hospital manages these costs as effectively and efficiently as possible so that these costs do not reflect to our patients and their care. Quality of care can be conceptualized by two measures, process and outcome. Process measures look at the specific components of providing care and assesses whether these concepts are effective in achieving the desired outcomes, i. e. , did the patient receive the appropriate care for the diagnosis in the ER? Outcome measures evaluate the end result of care and assess whether treatment has produced the desired outcomes, i. e. , did the patient have a heart attack after entering the emergency room or was the heart attack avoided? This leads me to Preventative and Curative Approach to healthcare. The Curative approach refers to a system of care that is based upon treating illness or alleviating symptoms. People fall sick unexpectedly; they can be fine one moment and have the flu the next moment. In a situation like this the curative approach to health is appropriate. However, the Preventative approach, which is preventing illness rather than curing it, is more productive. The hospital can save a lot of money if they do not have to run extensive tests and procedures for diabetes and heart disease and other diseases that could have been stabilized if the patient used proper care. An effective strategy would be to offer classes on diet and exercise and other preventive measures such as smoking cessation programs just to name a few. Employee motivation-Recruiting Qualified health care professionals employed by Middlefield hospital should teach classes at Essex College and the clinical internship should be conducted at Middlefield hospital. That way Middlefield will know that new recruits will already know the proper procedure and will be qualified to work at the hospital upon graduation. This solution will benefit both parties because Middlefield can look forward to qualified new recruits and Essex has qualified teachers with real life experience for their healthcare programs. Employee Motivation- Retention Ways that Middlefield Hospital can motivate employees is to offer intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and offer them an opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. Extrinsic rewards are mostly financial and tangible, such as, wages, raises, bonuses, and benefits. Employees need to feel assured that they are offered a competitive salary and they will be able to take care of their obligations. Although extrinsic rewards a short term remedy to the problem it is still important and needs to be addressed. Intrinsic rewards on the other hand are more effective for employee retention and include: * Sense of meaningfulness, a sense of purpose * Sense of choice- use your judgment and feel responsible * Sense of competence- qualified * Progress- feeling of accomplishing something. An employee can offer intrinsic rewards by promoting the employee to a higher position where they are in charge of a department or project and acknowledging their accomplishments by offering incentives, such as extrinsic rewards. An employee is more likely to stay with a company long-term if they feel appreciated and have a sense of meaningfulness. Our employees are our most valuable asset and we have to make them â€Å"feel at home. † Middlefield Hospital should encourage our employees to climb the corporate ladder. Middlefield should offer continuing education and promotions within the company to motivate our employees to stay. Many people chose to look for work elsewhere or go back to school to change their careers because they are not making enough money and/or they are bored. At Middlefield Hospital, we encourage all of our employees to always strive for more, no matter what their position might be. Education and/or finances should not deter any of our employees from going to the next level. Let’s say for example, Maria was hired to work in environmental and clean the hospital earning $9. 50 /hr, if Maria chooses she should be able to take a course which is provided by the hospital so that she can earn her certified nurse’s assistant license (CNA), making $12. 50/hr. Maria doesn’t have to stop there; she can continue taking advantage of the classes and opportunities offered by Middlefield until she becomes a Registered nurse (RN) making $30/hr. Middlefield should offer their employees endless possibilities. Conclusion There are endless possibilities for Middlefield hospital to offer the best quality care for their patients and motivation for their employees. If the techniques suggested are applied, Middlefield hospital would see a vast improvement in their operation and employee retention.