Business Proposal for Change

Business Proposal for Change

Purpose of the Change Proposal

The change proposal aims to enhance operational efficiency and the quality of care offered to the elderly at Fairmount Assisted Living and Memory Care by integrating technology into the facility’s operations. The change proposal will address the facility’s current staffing and healthcare quality issues at the personal, supervisory, and directed levels. The personal level includes offering hands-on assistance to the elderly in the facility. The main activities at this level include medication, grooming, and bathing. The supervisory level includes offering care only when it is needed. The activities at this level include laundry, meals, housekeeping, and medical oversight. The directed level includes assisting patients who cannot communicate their needs or make safe choices. Hire our assignment writing services in case your assignment is devastating you.

Analysis of the Need for Change

Fairmount Assisted Living and Memory Care facility is ranked among Tucson’s best assisted living and elderly care facilities. However, the facility has serious staffing issues. Based on staff reviews on Indeed.com, it is evident that the facility is experiencing a staff shortage. For instance, one of the reviews indicates that caregivers have to handle a lot of workloads, leading to unsafe practices such as sedating stubborn patients so that they can have time to take care of other patients under their care. Another review indicated that the facility faces high turnover due to poor scheduling. High turnover contributes to staff shortages, which could affect the quality of care offered. Another review indicated that shifts are not awarded fairly, leading to too much workload for some caregivers and nurses. Therefore, the facility should integrate technology in staffing and patient management to eliminate the identified staffing issues and create a safe and conducive environment for the clients, caregivers, and nurses. The reviews are presented in Appendix 1.

Review of the Current Literature Supporting The Change

According to Pullen (2020), Tucson has a high population of people aged 65 years and older. Therefore, there is a high demand for elderly care services. Although there are many elderly care and assisted-living facilities in the region, most are understaffed. The issue is prevalent in Arizona, thus making it hard for facilities to look for nurses and caregivers in the nearby areas within Arizona. According to Miller Kory Rowe LLP (2019), Arizona faces a high shortage of caregivers, which is anticipated to increase to almost 130,000 vacancies by 2026. A report prepared by the American Health Care Association (2021) on the shortage of caregivers in nursing homes and elderly care facilities in Tucson indicates that 85% of the assisted living providers and nursing homes in Tucson have staff shortage that seems to be worsening over the years. The study also found that most assisted living facilities and nursing homes in Tucson ask nurses and caregivers to work extra shifts and accept overtime work. Staff shortage poses the risk of patient abuse and neglect hence the need to address the issue.

Technological advancements have created opportunities that can be leveraged to address staffing issues. According to Cicirelli et al. (2021), technology can be used to monitor the elderly to reduce daily physical assistance. Therefore, integrating technology can reduce the workload for caregivers because they can focus on other tasks as they monitor a client using technology. Technology can also be used to improve task scheduling to ensure that shifts are assigned reasonably. According to Uhde et al. (2021), effective shift scheduling reduces staffing issues by ensuring that there are enough staff members to complete tasks within a work shift without overworking them. Therefore, assisted living facilities and nursing homes should invest in shift scheduling and client monitoring technologies.

Financial Analysis of the Change

Potential Costs For The Change

Supplies

Employee Scheduling Software. Fairmount Assisted Living and Memory Care must purchase employee scheduling software that will be used to assign shifts. Various software can be evaluated based on usability in the facility, user interface, integrations, and value for money. Integrations focus on whether the software is easy to connect with other tools in the facility’s operations and whether they have pre-built integrations. Value for money includes the appropriateness of the software’s price, capabilities, features, and use. Usability includes the ease of using the software. The user interface focuses on the software’s design options. Essentially, employee scheduling software costs $20 to $200 per month. The facility can try different software before selecting the most appropriate one.

Wearable Devices. Wearable devices will be used to monitor the elderly to reduce physical assistance. The main wearable devices that Fairmount Assisted Living and Memory Care should purchase include smartwatches and fitness trackers. Smartwatches cost approximately $17 to $30, and fitness trackers cost $200 to 600.

Space

The wearable devices do not require a lot of storage space, and the software will be installed on the facility’s computers. Therefore, there is no need for additional space.

Staff

Integrating technology requires staff with knowledge of how the technology works. Therefore, the facility may hire at least three caregivers and three nurses to offer on-the-job training to existing staff on using new technology.

Time

Full integration of the new technologies in the facility’s operations will take one month. During this time, the facility will monitor how the elderly adapt to wearing the wearable devices and the caregivers’ ability to use the devices to monitor their patient’s health remotely. The facility will also monitor the effectiveness of the scheduling software within the month to determine the most effective software.

Risks versus Benefits

Integrating technology into monitoring will increase work flexibility for nurses and caregivers because they can remotely monitor the patient. This will boost staff morale, leading to reduced turnover and improved quality of care. Integrating technology into staff scheduling operations will reduce incidents of some staff having too much workload than their colleagues and unavailability of staff to attend to the elderly in the facility. This will increase the quality of care because the elderly will always have someone to attend to them, and the nurses and caregivers will not be overworked while providing high-quality care. Data breaches are the main risk of integrating technology into the facility’s operations. If a cyber-attack occurs, patient data from wearable devices may be assessed by unauthorized persons, leading to residential claims against the facility for privacy breaches. Consequently, residential claims could create massive losses and affect the facility’s reputation.

Implementation Plan Related To Proposed Change

The outcomes and success of the implementation and change will be measured based on staff resistance to the change. Limited resistance will indicate change implementation success and change acceptance. The facility will also create a communication channel allowing staff to give feedback about the change. The communication plan will include email communications, internal memos, and Zoom meetings. Staff will be encouraged to suggest improvement areas to enhance the success of the change and reduce resistance.

Evaluation Strategies

The outcomes and the success of the implementation and change will be measured by assessing the frequency of staff complaints about work schedules and client complaints about staff availability and quality of care. A decrease in complaints will indicate that the change is successful. The success of the change will also be assessed based on staff and client feedback about the change and suggested improvement areas.

Exit Strategy

The exit strategy will be hiring more part-time staff to address the staff shortage and training staff on the need for technology in the facility and how technology can eliminate staffing issues. Staff will be encouraged to propose different ways technology can be used to address the staff shortage and the work scheduling issues during the training programs. Their suggestions will then be implemented to create change, thus reducing resistance.

Conclusion

Staffing shortage in elderly care and assisted living facilities is a serious issue that should not be ignored because it puts the lives of the elderly at risk. The staff shortage issue in nursing homes, elderly care, and assisted living facilities in Tucson should be addressed as soon as possible due to the increasing population of the elderly in the region. Fairmount Assisted Living and Memory Care facility should consider integrating technology in addressing staffing issues to create a competitive advantage by offering the best care to the elderly. Addressing staffing issues will also enable the facility to attract more qualified staff to fill vacant positions due to work flexibility and manageable workload.

References

American Health Care Association. (2021). Survey: Nearly every U.S. nursing home and assisted living community is facing a workforce crisis. Press Releases. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Press-Releases/Pages/Survey-Nearly-Every-U-S–Nursing-Home-And-Assisted-Living-Community-Is-Facing-A-Workforce-Crisis.aspx

Cicirelli, G., Marani, R., Petitti, A., Milella, A., & D’Orazio, T. (2021). Ambient assisted living: A review of technologies, methodologies and future perspectives for Healthy Aging of Population. Sensors, 21(10), 3549. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21103549

Miller Kory Rowe LLP. (2019, April 30). Staffing shortage in Arizona could lead to an increase in neglect and bed sores in nursing homes. Miller Kory Rowe LLP. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.mkrfirm.com/blog/2019/april/staffing-shortage-in-arizona-could-lead-to-incre/

Pullen, J. (2020). Tucson’s population mix makes it especially vulnerable to COVID-19. MAP AZ Dashboard. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://mapazdashboard.arizona.edu/article/tucsons-population-mix-makes-it-especially-vulnerable-covid-19

Uhde, A., Laschke, M., & Hassenzahl, M. (2021). Design and appropriation of computer-supported self-scheduling practices in healthcare shift work. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3449219

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By the beginning of week 3 with your PROPOSED TOPIC for the Wk 6 – Summative Assessment: Business Proposal for Change for the MHA 515 Course

You will identify the specific healthcare organization, the rationale/data reflecting the problem, and your proposed solution.
I will offer either approval or recommendations for change to assist your development of this business proposal.
** UNDERSTAND THAT THE INSTRUCTOR, FOR NOW, IS ONLY LOOKING FOR A TOPIC TO SUBMIT TO HER NOT THE ACTUAL PAPER; I’LL SUBMIT ANOTHER REQUEST TO WRITE THE PAPER AFTER I GET THE APPROVAL FROM HER. I USED TO WORK FOR CIOX HEALTHCARE BUT NOW I WORK FOR SHARECARE CORPORATION. THOSE ARE THE OF MY TWO OPTIONS I’D LIKE TO GO WITH. THANK YOU!
** Here is the actual assignment for week 6**
Select a healthcare facility or service at which you work or with which you are familiar.

Design a 1,050- to 1,400-word Business Proposal for a process improvement or cultural change that would affect all levels of staff in the organization and improve productivity within the organization.

Obtain faculty approval for your proposal topic.

Include the following in your Business Proposal for Change:

Purpose of the change proposal
Analysis of the need for change (why)
Review of the current literature supporting the change from a minimum of 3 reputable sources (e.g., trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, or other sources of similar quality)
Financial analysis of the change to include the following:
Potential costs for the change:
Supplies
Space
Staff
Time (i.e., participation time and/or facilitation time).
Actual costs may or may not be included; however, the analysis must portray specific costs that should be considered within the context of the proposal.
Risks vs. benefits:
Impact on operations
Implementation plan related to proposed change:
How will you measure outcomes and the success of the implementation and change?
Communication plan to the organization
Evaluation strategies:
How will you measure the success of the change?
Exit strategy:
What is your exit strategy (if the proposal fails)?
Conclusion