Ancillary Healthcare-Mental Health Public Health

Ancillary Healthcare-Mental Health Public Health

We successfully managed to resolve Middlefield Hospital’s staffing issues. However, the last meeting with the hospital’s chief financial officer (CFO) indicated that the hospital was in a financial crisis. Middlefield Hospital serves a varied patient population. In the last few months, the hospital has experienced heightened competition from a healthcare facility across the town. The competing hospital offers improved care services that have largely upset the market. This is the leading cause of Middlefield Hospital’s loss of its former market share and current financial performance issues, besides the increasing number of uninsured patients seeking care from our facility. The introduction of care services such as comprehensive preventive and wellness programs has affected the performance of the mental health unit. With The Joint Commission survey scheduled for next year, the following strategy recommendations have been made to help improve the hospital’s performance with a focus on the mental health unit.

Strategies and Recommendations to Improve Financial Performance

Four recommendations have been developed specifically for the mental health unit. Firstly, an overhaul and remap of the mental health unit and provided is required. This hospital will need to examine its capacity to provide mental health services. It will also need to compare the cost of the provided services against the quality and content of the services and the average income rates across the target community. The quality of mental health services can be assessed based on the suitability of the services provided against the community needs, how accessible and affordable the services provided, how the community feels about the services, the professional capacity of the providers to deliver quality and safe services, and the efficiency of the available mental health providers (Samartzis & Talias, 2020).

The second recommendation is to reduce staffing costs and expenses in the mental health unit by using data to drive staffing decisions. One of the major factors contributing to the hospital’s operational expenses is the ever-increasing employee benefits, including employee health plans. This will require engaging the staff on the cost reduction efforts and renegotiating the benefits and health plans at the moment.

The third recommendation is to benchmark the preventive and wellness mental health programs offered by the Middlefield Hospital against the comprehensive services provided by the competing facility. The hospital will also compare the strategies the competitor applies to market the competing services. Benchmarking is appreciated in literature as an implementing factor for organizational performance and assessing the nature and competitiveness of the operating environment (Sutia et al., 2020).

Lastly, the fourth recommendation is to create a partnership with local walk-in mental health clinics and mental health organizations within the Middlefield Hospital’s covered area of operations. This strategy will seek to improve local partnerships with local physicians and community-based mental health help groups and organizations. Based on research evidence, hospital characteristics are important in establishing hospital partnerships and supporting commitment efforts to improve population health (Park et al., 2020).

Required Resources for Strategy Implementation

The required resources to implement the recommended strategies are human and financial resources. The hospital will be required to set up a mental-health unit-specific human resource group to carry out market surveys for benchmarking, carrying out market promotion and awareness on revamped mental health services, and negotiating local partnerships. Sufficient funding is required to ensure the successful implementation of the recommended strategies. Extra funding may also be required to support the development of the local partnership by supporting the capacity of partnering clinics and organizations.

Expected Recommended Strategy Outcomes

Revamping and improving the quality of the mental health services provided by the hospital will increase the attractiveness of the services to the target market. Besides this, developing effective local partnerships will help develop more community-centered mental health solutions and services that align with the community’s needs and capacity to consume. Local collaborations will also boost the participation of the local community and physicians and provide references to the hospital. According to Samartzis and Talias (2020), the attractiveness of care services is more determined by the accessibility and acceptability of service indicators of quality mental health services. Additionally, benchmarking against the competitor will enable the hospital to identify its weaknesses against the competitor, identify the existing and possible trends in the mental health market, and adjust the marketing of our services as per the current and future market needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Middlefield Hospital’s financial crisis is manageable if the right strategies are adopted to address the current issues leading to the crisis. The lost past performance of the mental health unit can be regained by improving the attractiveness of the services offered, benchmarking against the market and competition, creating local physician partnerships, and cutting down on the operational expenses in the unit.

References

Park, S., Hamadi, H., Apatu, E., & Spaulding, A. C. (2020). Hospital Partnerships in Population Health Initiatives. Https://Home.Liebertpub.Com/Pop, 23(3), 226–233. https://doi.org/10.1089/POP.2019.0074

Samartzis, L., & Talias, M. A. (2020). Assessing and Improving the Quality in Mental Health Services. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/IJERPH17010249

Sutia, S., Riadi, R., Fahlevi, M., & Istan, M. (2020). The benefit of Benchmarking Methods in Several Industries: A Systematic Literature Review. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(8), 508–518.

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Scenario Summary
You have been the Director of Operations for Middlefield Hospital for 2 and a half years and finally resolved the workforce challenges that plagued the hospital, and in particular the mental health unit. In a recent meeting, the chief financial officer (CFO) indicated that the financial performance of the hospital’s mental health unit has been deteriorating over the last 6 months. The hospital is not meeting its budget, and he is concerned about the future. The new facility across town has continued to cut into Middlefield’s market share by admitting more patients. The number of admissions to Middlefield Hospital is declining each month, and more uninsured patients are seeking services at your facility. You convene the Middlefield Hospital management team and discover a few interesting facts, which are identified below.

Ancillary Healthcare-Mental Health Public Health

The payer mix of Middlefield Hospital is comprised of more and more Medicare, Medicaid, and uninsured patients, and fewer patients have commercial insurance. This is reducing overall reimbursement and net income for the hospital.
The nearby hospital that competes with Middlefield has opened a wellness center that offers a comprehensive array of preventative and wellness services to the community. This facility is attracting young families to seek services at this location.
Most of Middlefield’s managed care contracts are more than 2 years old. There is little reliable utilization and reimbursement data available. No one at Middlefield Hospital is assigned to manage these contracts or maintain ongoing relationships with managed care companies.
The Joint Commission survey is scheduled for next year, and there are significant problems with the hospital’s quality improvement program.
The health plan offered to employees is getting more expensive each year. In fact, the costs are increasing at a rate of 20% each year. This is adding significantly to the hospital’s operational costs.
The inpatient mental health services and neonatal intensive care unit continue to lose money for the hospital.
Your Role/Assignment
The board of directors has asked that you provide a 750-word report (double-spaced in APA format) detailing your strategies and recommendations to improve the financial performance of the hospital by focusing on the mental health unit. The strategies and recommendations should be as specific as possible and include identifying resources that are necessary to implement the strategies. Also, describe the outcomes expected from implementing your recommendations. Your primary text journal and website research must be used as a reference to support your analysis. Use at least three references.
Reference Book :
Austin, Anne, and Victoria Wetle. The United States Health Care System: Combining Business, Health, and Delivery. Available from: DeVry, (3rd Edition). Pearson Learning Solutions, 2018.