There are many reasons why creditworthiness is important to the strategic direction of health care organizations. Moseley (2009) states that creditworthiness “is an indicator of how worthy an organization is to be granted credit by banks, lenders and other types of debt holders” (p.281). Credit ratings are very important to the strategic direction of health care organizations because it determines whether or not your organization will be able to get the funding it needs to put the strategies into action. Mosely (2009) states that creditworthiness is measured by the formal credit or bond ratings given to it by the three leading credit rating entities: Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s Investors like BBB-, BBB, BBB+, A-, A, A+, AA-, …show more content…
One internal factor is the leaders and managers in the health care organization. Moseley (2009) states that the “board members, senior executives, physician leaders, head researchers, and others with major roles in strategy-making must display a strategic mindset” (p.285). It is important to have good, strong leaders that can work with credit rating agencies to keep the creditworthiness high. If the leaders and managers are not compliant with developing and financing strategies then they could negatively affect the creditworthiness of the organization. Another internal factor that affects the creditworthiness of health care organizations is the “formal integrated strategic-financial planning process” (Moseley, 2009, p.285). It is important for health care organizations to have an ongoing planning process that looks at the past, present and future that integrates the changes happening in the industry as they occur. Health care organization must have a successful history of strategic planning because credit rating agencies take that into account when determining their creditworthiness. Another internal factor that affects the creditworthiness of health care organizations is the “financial position and performance” of the organization (Moseley, 2009, p.286). It is important to maintain a strong financial position and performance in order to uphold high creditworthiness. Credit rating agencies look thoroughly at the organizations “current capital structure, the free cash flow available to service the debt, and anything in its strategies that may alter that” (Moseley, 2009, p.286). Health care organizations must show the credit rating agencies that their finances are great and that they are performing efficiently with their finances for them to rate your organization
Strengths Long-standing reputation Provision of quality healthcare Highest rank in patient satisfaction Recipient of Joint Commission accreditation Serving a diverse population Weaknesses Smaller than other four hospitals Decrease in net profit Increase in expenses Significant increase in long-term debt Not-for-profit status Opportunities Changes in government regulations Change in lifestyle Influx of patients due to higher patient satisfaction Cost savings Opening of some outpatient clinics and surgery centers Threats Too much competition
Cimasi, R. J. (2013). Accountable care organizations: Value metrics and capital formation. (pp. 90-92). CRC Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=EDMTlDWYvmUC&dq=specific service payment bundled&source=gbs_navlinks_s
This group is more focused on satisfaction, access and quality of care. Providers, or practitioners, are also key stakeholders within an organization. The term provider can encompasses not only physicians and surgeons, but also nurses, physical and occupational therapists, technicians, and other members of a clinical staff. Providers fall into two categories, primary, which includes hospitals and health departments and secondary, which includes educational institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Providers are focused on the best treatments for patients and are involved in delivering health services and products. The final element of the MCQ model is the employer who by far is the largest paying and purchasing stakeholder of an organization. The employers focus is primarily on their return on investment within an organization. Cost and quality is a focus for employers when choosing health benefits but are mindful that access is just as important. Within the Patient Healthcare model, MCQ explains the interactions between the four elements of employer, patient, provider and payer while the Iron Triangle focuses on the factors of cost, quality, and access. The Patient Healthcare model charges healthcare leaders with the task of balancing satisfaction with the stakeholder (employer, patient, provider, and payer) in relation to cost, quality and access. This may be very difficult since stakeholders may have competing priorities. Changes and variations made in how healthcare organizations operate may have profound effects on how stakeholders perceive the quality, access and cost. For instance, a patient may consider cost to be a top priority when seeking healthcare and at the same time the healthcare organization may consider raising costs and therefore devaluing access and quality. Patients who begin to incur high out-of-pocket costs may begin to perceive a financial
The purpose of financial measurement in healthcare is to provide the community with the services it needs, at a clinically acceptable level of quality, at a publicly responsive level of amenity, at the least possible cost. This is done by providing healthcare finance managers with accounting and finance information to help accomplish the purpose of the organization (Nowicki, 2015). When making accounting decisions about budgeting and inventory control, an understanding of economics, statistics, and operations research is needed. Major Financial Measures
To guarantee that its members receive appropriate, high level quality care in a cost-effective manner, each managed care organization (MCO) tailors its networks according to the characteristics of the providers, consumers, and competitors in a specific market. Other considerations for creating the network are the managed care organization's own goals for quality, accessibility, cost savings, and member satisfaction. Strategic planning for networks is a continuing process. In addition to an initial evaluation of its markets and goals, the managed care organization must periodically reevaluate its target markets and objectives. After reviewing the markets, then the organization must modify its network strategies accordingly to remain competitive in the rapidly changing healthcare industry. Coventry Health Care, Inc and its affiliated companies recognize the importance of developing and managing an adequate network of qualified providers to serve the need of customers and enrolled members (Coventry Health Care Intranet, Creasy and Spath, http://cvtynet/ ). "A central goal of managed care is containing the costs of delivering care, but the wide variety of organizations typically lumped together under the umbrella of managed care pursue this goal using combination of numerous strategies that vary from market to market and from organization to organization" (Baker , 2000, p.2).
In addition to this business plan, we must also address the financial issues plaguing this organization. To illustrate some of these issues lets look at some of the trends here at OCB and within our Industry: For example, OCB’s clinic operations profitability in 1990 was 60%, and now in 1996 our profitability is only 37%, which is down 23 percentage points! We can blame some of this on rising costs of overhead, consumables, etc, however this is happening as the industry as a whole is growing 5% annually, and as our customer base, largely senior citizens, population is growing at almost 1% as year. We should be capitalizing on these industry trends, however, as you all know, not all the trends work in our favor. For example, our lifeblood, the Insurance company’s managed care organizations, and government healthcare reimbursement programs shows a downward trend of allowable payments for our services (DRGs) For example in 1995 the DRG price of ...
...on rates have shown to improve when the facility is practicing patient- and family- centered care, which ultimately can increase the reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid. The increase reimbursement rates are extremely important for non-profit health care system such as OhioHealth Mansfield whose revenue comes from over sixty percent in Medicare and Medicaid funding. The PFCC self-assessment tool was analyzed based on OhioHealth Mansfield with strengths and weaknesses, which one big weakness consisted in the personnel domain which consists of support for staff, and the utilization of patients and family involvement in decision making and new employees. The system change of adding the new role of the patient navigator allows collaboration with a diverse team including patient and family members, along with ultimately increasing patient satisfaction rates.
The current health care system can be difficult to navigate and often medical centers need management tools to help them develop strategic plans within their organizations. The SWOT-Analysis is one strategic tool that health care centers can use to formulate a roadmap for their organizations. The SWOT-Analysis examines internal capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) and external developments (opportunities and threats) when determining a strategic plan for an organization (Van Wijngaarden, Scholten, & Van Wijk, 2012). Van Wijngaarden et al. (2012) explains for SWOT-Analysis to prove meaningful throughout an organization, it is important for stakeholders to be part of the brainstorming to identify its’ internal capabilities and external developments. However, there are a few drawbacks to the using the SWOT-analysis tool that are important for health care centers to remain cognizant of when developing their strategic blueprints. Helms and Nixon (2010) state the SWOT-Analysis can be vague and too simplistic when developing a strategic course for an organization; it can be difficult to classify variables into the four SWOT quadrants; and no definite strategic path is identified after the SWOT-analysis is completed. For these reasons, they explain it can be helpful to use additional analysis tools in addition to the SWOT-analysis. One such tool the U.S. Army Medical System uses is the balanced-score card. The balanced-score card can assist health care centers in the clarification of their strategic objectives and goals, and facilitates communication throughout the organization (Chan, 2006). Chan (2006) also reveals balanced-score cards allow for constructive employee feedback l...
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Staff Analysis Statement of Problem HCA, after following a conservative financial policy since its establishment, has entered the new decade preparing to make some changes in order to realign their financial strategy and capital structure. Since its establishment, HCA has often been used as a measure for the entire proprietary hospital industry. Is it now time for the market to realign their expectations for the industry as a whole? HCA has target goals that need to be met in order to accomplish milestones in the future.
Formed in 1998, the Managed Care Executive Group (MCEG) is a national organization of U.S. senior health executives who provide an open exchange of shared resources by discussing issues which are currently faced by health care organizations. In the fall of 2011, 61 organizations, which represented 90 responders, ranked the top ten strategic issues for 2012. Although the issues were ranked according to their priority, this report discusses the top three issues which I believe to be the most significant due to the need for competitive and inter-related products, quality care and cost containment.
Competitive advantage matters greatly to those responsible for the management of healthcare institutions. Together with rapidly escalating healthcare costs, increasingly complex medical technologies, and growing regulatory and legal pressures, healthcare organizations face a critical need to improve the quality of care at reduced costs (Cu...
WellStar Health Systems is currently the preeminent and largest health care provider in Metro Atlanta. WellStar Health Systems is a not-for-profit institution that is composed of 5 hospitals and an abundance of physician groups. Physician specialty groups included within WellStar are: ENT, Psychiatry, Endocrinology, Pulmonary Medicine, Infectious Disease, General Surgery, Rehabilitation, Pathology, and Rheumatology. WellStar’s organizational design is composed of internal and external factors that define the organization’s size, organizational structure, and processes. Internal and external factors are the basis for influencing managerial conclusions in decision-making. These factors vary from organization to organization and are the rationale for understanding WellStar’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Understanding these variables is a necessity for the sake of WellStar’s survival
Healthcare organizations are designed to meet the healthcare needs of individuals and promote a healthy community. The three healthcare organizations that interest me are: The Heart Hospital Baylor of Plano, Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery Plan, and Parkland Health and Hospital System. Due to the evolving healthcare industry, focusing on just patients and physicians is no longer a marketing strategy. According to Mycek (2015), “Marketing teams need to expand their consideration set and focus on the new 5 P’s of Healthcare Marketing” (p. 1).
An organizational analysis is an important tool to become familiar with how medical businesses and organizations are able to meet standards of care, provide services for the community and provide employment to health care providers. There are many different aspects to evaluate in an organizational analysis. This paper will describe these many aspects and apply the categories to the University Medical Center (UMC) as the organization being analyzed.
...provide information about an organizational financial stability and challenges. A health care organization, such as JHH, can evaluate financial statements and ratio analysis to benchmark performance, address financial challenges and initiate strategies to maintain financial solvency while providing health services to patients, family members, and the community