University Hospital Sharjah: Strategic Management Essay

In the Middle East, various health organizations, including University Hospital Sharjah, have been established to improve people’s lives by offering reliable medical care services. The hospital was an initiative that was sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, the Ruler of Sharjah and Member of the Supreme Council.

It is one of the best healthcare institutions in the United Arab Emirates as it offers quality medical treatment services to the population as compared to other medical facilities. It is a 325 bedded educational medical facility, connecting academic research, training, and care services. Its vision is to become the leading medical institution in the UAE and the entire region.

Its mission is to improve people’s health and well-being by providing distinctive healing experience, patients’ safety, and unrelenting focus on best practices. It has particular strengths and weaknesses that impact on its overall performance. Nonetheless, particular strategies are adopted to attaining its goals and objectives.

UHS Strengths and Weaknesses

The hospital provides a scope of services depending on the needs of its patients, and this makes it a destination of choice for many people in the region. It offers clinical, surgical, cardiology, medical diagnostics, and supportive services among others to make sure that all patients’ needs are addressed. The specific services include general surgical procedures, neurosurgery, vascular operations, urology, orthopedics, neurology, stress test, ultrasound, and digital x-rays among others.

Its capacity to offer various services to its clients has made it attract multiple customers, who bring economic benefits to the facility. From a business perspective, an organization that provides a variety of products or services is more likely to have a wider customer base than those that offer fewer products. In this view, people in the region have developed interests in the hospital’s services as they can get any medical assistance and treatment.

Furthermore, the facility has good and reliable leadership to ensure that operations focus on goals and objectives. From a business context, management is associated with an organization’s performance. University Hospital Sharjah has attained greater success in the region due to its exceptional leaders, including its CEO, Michael Stroud. He is widely recognized as an international medical care executive who has shown an incredible track record regarding management (University Hospital Sharjah, 2016).

Before becoming its CEO, he held the same position in several facilities in various countries such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. It is worth noting that he graduated from the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff as a diagnostic radiography expert. As the UHS CEO, he is credited for his knowledge and skills in operational planning, strategic direction, control, and overall management of the hospital. Additionally, he has been instrumental in healthcare quality and patients’ satisfaction as he advocates customer preference. Principally, his efforts are instrumental in achieving the hospice’s mission and vision.

Moreover, it hires committed and determined health professionals who give their clients the best. It has more than 700 employees who are expected to support the delivery of high-quality healthcare services. The workers are guided by particular core values toward common targets. For instance, they are needed to respect each other and their clients’ to create a favorable environment that can produce better health outcomes. Cultural differences among customers should be recognized to enhance productivity. In this view, building teamwork within the hospital has seen it become one of the best ones concerning service delivery.

Equally important, workers comply with quality improvement standards and innovations to improve their performances relating to the needs of each patient (Goyal, 2014). Chiefly, all of them are required to strive for excellence in their day-to-day operations regarding their jobs or areas of specialization.

Most importantly, UHS makes use of modern technologies, such as ICT, to improve outcomes. It utilizes various media channels to reach its loyal and potential customers in different regions. For instance, it operates a Facebook account, a website, and Twitter among others to inform customers about their services, and this has yielded positive responses and benefits. Additionally, individuals can make direct calls, and send texts or emails concerning their comments and inquiries.

Apart from that, patients can book appointments online without having to travel in Figure 1. It has facilitated the delivery of healthcare services and performance in the facility. What is more, its architectural designs align it with the modern health care institutions that are associated with patients’ satisfaction and experience (UHS Medical Times, 2015). For instance, its floor plan was strategically designed for patients’ to navigate to their destinations easily.

Strengths

Figure 1: UHS strengths.

Despite its strengths, it has some glaring weaknesses, including inadequate infrastructure to cater for all its needs. UHS offers various services that require more buildings to support improved performance. In this view, it lacks sufficient funds to provide all consumer needs in an environment where innovations are necessary to enhance medical care outcomes (Goyal, 2014).

Besides, it spends a lot of money on technology, and this cuts its profit margins. In this way, there is a need to note that hospitals, such as UHS, are capital intensive, and they require proper strategies regarding the sources and use of funds. What is more, UHS has concentrated on delivering its medical services only around the Middles East as other hospitals cast their nets beyond Asia (Figure 2).

Furthermore, the hospital experiences staffing difficulties due to the challenge of finding qualified physicians. It makes turnover rates for doctors high, thus increasing operational costs. The table below shows its annual growth in expenditure.

Weaknesses

Its strengths have enabled it to counteract the weaknesses to thrive in the competitive industry due to the growing demand for healthcare services. Through its leadership strategies and technological advancement, it has attained sustainability relating to patients’ safety and quality improvement (Figure 3). Its devoted employees have won the trust and confidence of most clients, and that has improved the goodwill of the organization in the region.

Competitive Relevance

Figure 3: The ranking of various strengths and weaknesses for UHS.

Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals

Mission

“Our mission is to improve the health and wellbeing by delivering exceptional healing experience, unrelenting attention to clinical best practices, patient safety and an unparalleled passion and commitment to exceed patient’s expectations, offered in a caring, convenient, compassionate and collaborative care environment”

Critique: per Ginter and his colleagues in 2013 they have reported that within any mission some basic components should be there, example as the target population, geographical location, organizational philosophy, and organizational desire. The UHS mission had a lack of these components and even if they are present they tend to be vague to the reader. Moreover, according to Bart in 2004, he believes that it’s a primary reason purported for having a mission statement is to focus and control the behavior of the employees toward the organizational goals.

After taking these points under consideration I have refined the UHS mission to be as the following:

To improve patient’s well-being of UAE people health through the application of a robust strategy and the provision of unique healing experience; to enhance the safety of patients and focus on best practices for the better well-being; to ensure the provision of high-quality services to patients, spearhead research and development, as well as improve the overall health services facilities.

Vision

“UHS will be acknowledged as one of the leading Health Care Institutions in the UAE and the future, the entire region.”

Critique: the UHS vision aims to behold lots of meaning at the same time. The hospital setting its plan to be leading health care institutions, “one of the leading” this phrase shows that the hospital tends to transform the hospital quality, HR, Employees, services, and technology to adapt to such a change. Where in the same time “one of leading health care” emphasize that the UHS is under massive competition.

I think the vision should be more elaborated to hold more meaning, and if I had the chance to change the vision I would define it as the following: –

To be the leading provider of healthcare services in the region; to improve and support the health of patients through the provision of quality clinical services and practices; to be a devoted provider for patient safety to maximize their services and ensure a caring environment that is empathetic, appropriate, and collective to improve productivity and patient satisfaction. In other words, my vision is to enhance the performance of the hospital to make it one of the most significant medical institutions of the MENA region.

Strategic Goals

“To be the leader in the provision of quality healthcare services and pioneer in the provision of quality and affordable health services”.

Considering the above statement, it is possible to identify the following strategic goals:

1. Provide high-quality care services. This can be achieved by the acquisition of high-tech equipment and facilities and computerization of medical processes.
2. Embrace people from the UAE and MENA region. This is likely to increase the health outcomes of large populations.
3. Ensure patient safety by providing the best health care delivery to meet the patient’s high standards.
4. Increase competitiveness by enhancing the quality of care and reducing patient waiting time.
5. Create a collaborative environment that, in turn, would contribute to the increased convenience, awareness of the patients, and their effective communication with medical staff.

Expansion and Diversification Strategy

As part of its development plans, the hospital is concentrating on infrastructure and technologies. For instance, it announced its desire to add ten new specialty units such as Interventional Cardiology Unit, Haemodialysis Unit, Paediatric Emergency Room, Specialized long-Term Unit, and Refractive Surgery Centre among others (Gulf News Health, 2015). The additional units will help the facility deliver quality medical services, serve more patients, and surpass its competitors in the health sector (Jeffreys & Oxford Business Group, 2008).

The expansion is expected to cost the hospital around Dh 16.8 million. The new health services that have been added this year include bariatric, neuro-spinal, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery (Gulf News Health, 2015). An additional Intensive Care Unit has been opened on the second floor to cater for long term patients. Increasing several services gives it a comparative advantage that can discourage new entrants in the business or healthcare industry. Principally, the expansion strategies will help UHS attain economies of scale and increased returns without compromising quality.

A New Strategy That the Hospital Should Adopt

To suggest an adequate strategy that is to be employed by the hospital in the future, it seems appropriate to summarize key strengths and weaknesses in the framework of competitive relevance. Among the most important strong points, one can note such service delivery activities as medical coverage offering, accessible location of the hospital, positive perception, a range of promotional strategies, and a transparent system of billing. The mentioned strengths present essential grounds to speak about the productivity of the hospital.

Also, the fact that it provides 24-hour registration possibility shows that UHS positions itself as a high-quality medical institution, focusing on collaboration and coordination strategies. At the same time, support activities involving the patients’ safety and security, open communication practices, continuous hospital development, and robust health information system, in particular, Trak Care contribute to the success of the hospital.

Furthermore, the most significant weak points are to be mentioned as well. The low rate of occupancy, namely, only 40 percent in some areas, no diabetic clinic, affiliation with 13 organizations, and excessive waiting time reduce the productivity of UHS. Moreover, such support activities as turnover, personnel shortage, and insufficient reporting of incidents seem to be alarming factors that can significantly decrease the hospital’s image. Thus, the mentioned weaknesses present potentially dangerous points that are to be addressed with the help of a new strategy that is presented below.

• It seems that UHS concentrates on Middle East countries only in the delivery of its services, while it lacks to provide high-quality care.
• Health care delivery quality is to be enhanced by focusing on reduced waiting time, guaranteed insurance coverage, and early identification of incidents.
• There is a need to increase occupancy rates by approximately 70 percent.
• The hospital needs to liaise with universities and other advanced institutions in collaboration for research projects the results of which can be applied in evidence-based practice.
• Moreover, the technological growth needs professional competence and ability to pioneer in disease control and diagnosis.
• There is a need to initiate new care sectors such as diabetic clinics and a one-day surgery department.
• It is crucial to ensure the continuum of care.

Implementation Plan

Based on the work breakdown structure, the work to be executed by a project team needs to be divided based on competencies and capabilities. The work breakdown structure is as shown in Figure 5 below.

From the above figure, a project is subdivided into various tasks and subtasks to maximize output and participation of everyone in the hospital.

Vertical Integration

1. The organization needs to review and define its vision, mission, and objectives before executing the new strategy to realize a successful implementation. For instance, the vision should not only focus on the United Arab Emirates but the entire globe.
2. Setting goals and objectives will act as a driving force to enhance productivity.
3. By itself, the hospital needs to liaise with institutions of higher learning by assigning the projects to its employees based on their expertise (Ginter, Duncan, & Swayne, 2013). For instance, those who have specialized in pharmaceutics should initiate projects with pharmaceutical schools, while nurses and doctors can initiate research programs with schools of nursing.

Market Development

1. What is more, it will be essential to carry out adequate market research regarding target groups to avoid unproductive investments.
2. Therefore, UHS needs intensive capital investment in market research and building new infrastructure.

Product development

1. More workers must be hired to cater for the anticipated increase in several clients seeking medical care. Therefore, careful planning will be required before executing this expansion strategy to avoid losses that can occur in the case of poor preparation.
2. Moreover, it will need to spend heavily on information technology to create more awareness for its products (Swayne et al., 2008).

Staff training

1. It seems that the level of staff competence is to be improved by its engagement in continuous professional development. The employees can attend specific training courses quarterly to ensure adequate care based on relevant knowledge and skills.
2. It is possible to state that training should be specialized and focused on a certain professional area. For instance, cardiologists and physicians are to be trained differently based on their position and specific job requirements. The training outcomes should be devoted to the achievement of increased patients’ satisfaction and care continuum. The latter can also be achieved by the integration of inpatient and outpatient care.

Technology implementation or change

1. The application of an updated Electronic Health Record (EHR) system can reduce the duration of waiting time and promote the establishment of necessary departments. In particular, the Epic EHR system seems to enhance the current situation due to its innovativeness, convenience navigation, and online access to patients’ medical information (Boonstra, Versluis, & Vos, 2014). Another potential solution is to enhance the existing information system that is referred to as Trak Care.
2. The specialized training is also to be provided either in case of the implementation of new technology or improvement of the existing one so that every employee would be aware of the core goals and objectives of its use. In its turn, a high level of staff awareness can increase the frequency of incidents reporting.

Establishment of an appropriate working environment

1. To reduce turnover rates and staff shortage, it is essential to identify their causes by applying any adequate methods. For example, surveys, personal interviews, or other frameworks can be beneficial.
2. The next step is to eliminate the specified factors that cause the mentioned negative aspects. By developing a specific and clear model based on identified causes, the hospital would be able to reduce turnover rates.
3. It is crucial to establish open, collaborative, and responsive space to ensure staff engagement and proper relationships between the employees.

Thus, it is important to conclude that the suggested Balanced Scorecard (BSC) focuses on a comprehensive and consistent approach, taking into account various weaknesses that are to be addressed in the result of the implementation of the above strategic plan. Furthermore, the application of a systematic strategy based on measurement and evaluation of key performance indicators that focus on all significant aspects of medical activities of this hospital would considerably contribute to the effective elimination of existing weak points as well as the perspective complications.

Services provided in UHS-based on the marketing research of healthcare demand

1. International Cardiology Unit charged with the diagnosis and treatment of coronary and other diseases of the heart.
   Research result: the chief cause of premature death in UAE is cardiovascular diseases.
2. Hemodialysis employs the latest technology of ultra-clean water system.
   Research results: in UAE, 1,600 are on dialysis, with 240 joining the list every year of persons diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
3. A Refractive Surgery Center caters to the patient requiring correction of short and long sight, using the most advanced technology in UAE, that of laser surgery.
   Research result: UAE population is always searching for strategies to realize personal satisfaction; laser became the modern trend of sight management.
4. Dedicated Pediatric Emergency Room offers specialist care promptly.
   Research results: 20 percent of a patient who visits the ER are children (UHS).
5. UHS collaborated with a key global In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment provider.
   Research result: children are life’s gift; therefore, such services are of great importance.
6. Reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, neuro-spinal surgery.
   Research results: 20 percent of the UAE population experience back and neck pain arising from a high diabetes incidence in the country (19%).
7. A Bariatric surgery unit
   Research result: more than 60 percent of women and 66 percent of men in UAE suffer from obesity.
8. UHS NICU is the only medical facility in the northern region to own a positive pressure incubator.
   Research result: to provide continuity of care in post-hospital care delivery for emergency cases. Attract the required cases.

UHS is an outstanding hospital that was sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, the Ruler of Sharjah, to offer medical services. It has competent leadership through its CEO, Michael Stroud, who efficiently manages its operations. The organization’s dedicated workers and information technology have been instrumental in its success.

It has financial challenges, inadequate space, and technologies among others. Its vision is to be the leading institution in the United Arab Emirates. It is committed to offering high-quality healthcare services. It focuses on expansion and diversification strategies to attain its goals and objectives. It must concentrate on a wider market outside of the Middle East countries.

Summary

Conclusion

UHS is among the most rapidly growing hospitals in the world. The institution has revolutionized the medical care industry in the UAE for its shrewd leadership and trendsetting approaches to the practice. Moreover, the institution’s workforce is patient-focused, thus giving it a good reputation among clients. The good standing has been bolstered by the hospital’s deliberate efforts to install effective ICT structures to manage its operations.

Nonetheless, UHS has some shortcomings that must be addressed to take it to the next level. For instance, it must adopt a diversification and expansion strategy to attend to more patients in wider geographical regions. What is more, it needs to invest in efficient and cost-effective technologies. Finally, to keep all this in motion its human capital must be kept at the highest level by international standards. Such include its management, patient, and healthcare support staff.

References

Boonstra, A., Versluis, A., & Vos, J. F. (2014). Implementing electronic health records in hospitals: A systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research, 14(1), 370-375.

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2013). Strategic management of health care organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Wiley.

Goyal, A. (2014). Innovations in services marketing and management: Strategies for emerging economies. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.

Gulf News Health (2015). University Hospital Sharjah to add 10 new specialty units. Gulf News Health. Web.

Kumar, P. J., & Clark, M. L. (2012). Kumar & Clark’s clinical medicine. Edinburgh: Elsevier.

Jeffreys, A., & Oxford Business Group. (2008). The report Sharjah 2008. London: Oxford Business Group.

Swayne, L. E., Duncan, W. J., & Ginter, P. M. (2008). Strategic management of health care organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

UHS Medical Times. (2015). Celebrating success with the staff. UHS. Web.

University Hospital Sharjah. (2016). Vision and mission. UHS. Web.

University Hospital Sharjah. (2016). Michael Stroud, chief executive officer. UHS. Web.