Challenges Facing Health Care Management

Reflecting on the focus and content of this course, what is an important challenge facing management of health care organizations today, and how would you go about addressing it? Explain.

Course overview:

Even though health care practices, policies, and approaches evolve, you are at a point now in your studies where you can synthesize all of the knowledge that you have learned about health care theories, lessons, and practices. An exciting aspect about this stage of your educational journey is being able to translate this assimilated information into workable, measurable plans and managerial decisions that will enhance services and protect patients from risk.

Your reading and resources will cover the following topics:

Health care management practices
Services and practice management
Decision making in health care
Planning and measurement
Risk management and patient care
Transitional practices appear to be the focus of management in today’s health care organizations. This is because of mergers, acquisitions, and large medical groups that are mushrooming nationwide. These rapid changes in health care organizations, coupled with insurance coverage policies constantly in a state of flux, propel managers to adjust their operational plans and their methods of managing varying health-related issues.

By the end of this course, you will be able to do the following:

Critically evaluate the efficacy of management practices in a contemporary health care organization
Assess the implications of various health issues and methods of managing them on operational performance of health care organizations
Compose performance baselines for health care organizations, and develop strategies to manage and measure performance
Evaluate the impact of legal and regulatory policy on decision making and strategy development in health care organizations
Formulate policies governing health service vendors retained by a health care organization to address legal and regulatory requirements to ensure the safety, care, and privacy of patients
Develop a crisis management plan for a health care organization to ensure patient safety and containment or control of contagions in the event of a natural disaster, a catastrophic building failure, or an act of terrorism.