Overview
Kaiser Permanente employed an organizational strategy to create an approach that included the adoption of telemedicine, reorganizing therapists’ work, and increasing the number of employees to contribute to better client treatment and give them access to medical services. When a toddler’s hospitalization at an ED was postponed in 2007, Dr. Murrell, the head of the pediatric department at Kaiser Permanente, learned about the incident through the news (Swayne, 2016). It states that the organization’s policies are consistent with the hospital’s values, mission, and overall context.
Policies
The organization’s policies address the problem of reducing the flow of patients and paying attention to their concerns promptly. Implementing telemedicine to ensure all patients have access to their services when needed is a practical solution for minimizing crowds in the emergency department. Increasing the number of healthcare professionals is also an efficient way to improve organizational policy and contribute to positive changes through strategic planning. The hospital hires more doctors and nurses to ensure that the person has an adequate workload and that the needs of all patients are covered.
The vital detail is that Kaiser Permanente attracts more people to work in the observational unit. In this case, it is the most effective organizational policy because most hospital visitors do not need hospitalization, and the therapist can solve their health concerns in this department (Swayne, 2016). Therefore, the administrative policies aim to balance the workload of the personnel and pursue the patients’ interests, and Kaiser Permanente achieves these goals.
Mission and Vision
The hospital’s vision and organizational mission are to provide all patients with individual attention and high-quality services, and the organization’s strategic planning is consistent with these goals. Due to diligent work, the department’s performance indicators have greatly improved since 2015 (Swayne, 2016). Dr. Murrell and her colleagues must overcome the difficulty of expanding capacity without adding a floor (Swayne, 2016).
Changing the patient flow within the organization, adding the option of online consultation, and hiring more personnel are the alternatives for adding more beds in the hospital. They all fulfill the mission of providing patients with high-quality medical assistance because they focus on the convenience of the hospital experience for people. They will not wait long to receive the consultation if the policies mentioned earlier are adequately implemented in practice.
SWOT Analysis
The organization’s strength concerning the issue of reducing queues is the ability to solve the problem without expanding the hospital, which is an expensive strategy. The weakness, in turn, is the comparatively moderate result of the hospital’s changes because the same number of employees cannot satisfy the needs of dramatically more patients (Swayne, 2016).
In this case, the opportunity is to reduce expenses by optimizing the hospital and achieving the final goal. The organizational strength is connected with the need for additional supervision of the initiatives. For instance, managers should regulate the distribution of responsibilities to engage in telemedicine and to work in the observational unit to avoid personnel burnout and excessive workload.
Environmental Factors
The SWOT analysis shows that environmental factors such as threats and opportunities are connected to the discussed topic. These include rivalry in the clinical sphere and prospects for improving patient services in healthcare in general (Swayne, 2016). The new trend in hospitals to provide patients with the telemedicine option is revolutionizing public health.
The emphasis on the online consultation format with the healthcare professional optimizes the hospital’s services. It ensures that all people can ask for medical assistance and advice. In some situations, people need a prompt consultation to avoid the negative consequences of their actions and reduce the chances of the illness’s aggravation.
Reference
Swayne, D. (2016). Kaiser Permanente: Creating a no-wait emergency department. Richard Ivey Publishing.