Introduction
Nowadays, the healthcare sector faces a constantly growing number of issues associated with public health. The diversification of clients’ problems, along with the growing complexity of their requests, means organizations within the sector should be ready to meet the healthcare needs of all citizens to guarantee they are satisfied and enjoy a high quality of life.
For this reason, determining a particular unit’s readiness and offering a plan for its development and becoming more effective is essential for the future evolution of the sector and the gradual improvement of the nation’s health. Thus, United Healthcare is the organization belonging to the cohort. The presented paper is devoted to evaluating its current state and offering measures for its improvement.
Organization’s Summary
United Healthcare is a public firm in the USA that plays an essential role in meeting the citizens’ needs for care. It offers various healthcare products, treatment, and insurance services necessary for preserving the high quality of people’s lives (UnitedHealth Group, 2022). It is headquartered in Minnesota and is the giant organization that acquired a market capitalization of $477 billion in 2023 (UnitedHealth Group, 2023).
The organization operates within the USA using its two platforms, Optum and UnitedHealthcare (UnitedHealth Group, 2022). Its mission is to provide innovative end-to-end products to resolve various problems and meet clients’ needs across the state (UnitedHealth Group, 2022). It is one of the most influential organizations operating within the US healthcare sector, meaning its readiness to meet clients’ needs is critical.
Organization’s Readiness
The organization’s mission and values impact its development and ability to meet clients’ needs. For instance, it constantly reviews its work to ensure the diverse patients’ requirements are considered and the care is delivered most effectively (UnitedHealth Group, 2023). Moreover, significant attention is given to emergency services as those requiring effective collaboration between team members (UnitedHealth Group, 2022).
UH also organizes shifts for nurses and therapists regarding the firm’s workload, experience, and business level (UnitedHealth Group, 2023). It requires hiring trained, experienced, and skilled medics to address various conditions effectively and promote better outcomes. UH has sufficient health facilities, workers, and equipment, which helps it avoid using third-party actors’ services and focus on cultivating high-quality care (UnitedHealth Group, 2023). In such a way, the organization’s readiness is at the appropriate level, although there are options for its improvement.
Strategic Plan
The proposed strategic plan considers the four significant areas vital for improving outcomes: UH evolution, staffing, resource management, and client satisfaction. It implies performing specific actions in the outlined areas:
- UH evolution
- Further UH growth can be achieved by using innovative technologies, such as electronic health records, e-ICU, reducing pressure on workers, and online databases to improve data exchange (Veinot et al., 2019).
- The number of clients should be expanded by covering new regions to help those who have issues with insurance, which will improve the units’ readiness to meet people’s needs.
- Staffing
- Skilled and experienced nurses should be hired by offering advantageous conditions. UH already offers additional training for nurses, which attracts new workers (UnitedHealth Group, 2022). Understaffing issues should be addressed by finding new specialists and educating them.
- Resource management
- Ysing inventory management solutions, UH can enhance its current approach to managing resources and reduce the number of mistakes. Electronic health records might also be used to increase client satisfaction levels. Drug control should be performed by using specific applications.
- Client satisfaction
- Diversification of packages offered for various clients.
- Improving client service department to align the enhanced feedback.
- Cultivating further diversification of services to meet various patients’ needs.
Possible Issues
Strategic planning also implies considering specific issues that might emerge during the planned change and how they might be addressed. Thus, the first potential problem UH might face is diversity management. Hiring new specialists and finding new clients will mean that the questions of gender, race, culture, and inclusion will be the top priority. At the same time, poor diversity management might be a barrier to effective change because of the potential conflicts, lack of understanding, collaboration, and decreased client satisfaction levels (Stanford, 2020).
Under these conditions, cultivating an inclusive and diverse climate within the organization is essential for UH. It will boost the effectiveness of multi-national and multi-cultural teams and eliminate obstacles to hiring nurses from various groups. Moreover, an inclusive environment positively impacts the brand’s reputation (Stanford, 2020). That is why attracting new clients and supporting a high level of interest is possible by devoting attention to this aspect.
The second possible issue is the diversification of threats, such as those caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and, as a result, the growing healthcare costs. The price of medications, treatment, and care grows yearly, meaning UH must adapt to new conditions (Fazal et al., 2022). It might impact the organization’s ability to provide care to groups with lower income or minorities. It also means the unit’s readiness to meet all citizens’ needs will be undermined.
For this reason, addressing the growing costs during the complex times should be considered the top priority. The special emergency funds and the pool of resources that might be used during challenging periods should be prepared to ensure the population’s health is maintained appropriately. Otherwise, there is a high risk of failure.
Applied Theory
Lewin’s three-stage model of change might be selected as the theoretical framework for the proposed strategic plan. The core idea of this theory is that planned organizational change should evolve into a desired future state and become a standard practice, which will create the basis for further improvement (Hussain et al., 2018). It also implies the continuous and uninterrupted change process to ensure the organization does not stagnate and remains capable of meeting new challenges and operating in the new environment. The model implies three critical phases.
The first phase implies realizing the need for change and establishing new goals. Employee involvement also plays a central role, as they should actively participate in the process (Hussain et al., 2018). The second state means the change and all processes described in the strategic plan (Hussain et al., 2018). Finally, the third state states that new practices should be made ordinary and part of the new reality. The cycle should be continuous, and a new one should be planned once positive change is attained.
Conclusion
UH is an organization that plays an essential role in the US healthcare system. In general, the unit has a high level of preparedness for meeting the client’s needs and maintaining the quality of their lives. At the same time, offering a specific change plan to address its further growth, staffing, resource management, and client satisfaction issues is possible. It would establish the basis for the new achievements. Lewin’s 3 stage change model might be considered an appropriate theoretical framework to ensure the planned change is successful and cyclic.
References
Fazal, F., Saleem, T., Ur Rehman, M. E., Haider, T., Khalid, A. R., Tanveer, U., Mustafa, H., Tanveer, J., & Noor, A. (2022). The rising cost of healthcare and its contribution to the worsening disease burden in developing countries. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 82. Web.
Hussain, S., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M., Hussain, S., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin’s change model: A critical review of the role leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation and Knowledge, 3(3), 123-127. Web.
Stanford F. C. (2020). The importance of diversity and inclusion in the healthcare workforce. Journal of the National Medical Association, 112(3), 247–249. Web.
UnitedHealth Group. (2022). UnitedHealth Group. Form 10-K. Web.
UnitedHealth Group. (2023). Proxy statement. Web.
Veinot, T. C., Ancker, J. S., & Bakken, S. (2019). Health informatics and health equity: improving our reach and impact. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(8-9), 689–695. Web.
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