Research a health care organization or network that spans several states with in the United
States (United Healthcare, Vanguard, Banner Health, etc.). Assess the readiness of the
health care organization or network you chose in regard to meeting the health care needs
of citizens in the next decade.
Prepare a 1,000-1,250 word paper that presents your assessment and proposes a strategic
plan to ensure readiness. Include the following:
Describe the health care organization or network.
Describe the organization’s overall readiness based on your findings.
Prepare a strategic plan to address issues pertaining to network growth, nurse staffing,
resource management, and patient satisfaction.
Identify any current or potential issues within the organizational culture and discuss how
these issues may affect aspects of the strategic plan.
Propose a theory or model that could be used to support implementation of the strategic
plan for this organization. Explain why this theory or model is best.
The United Health care Group
Introduction.
The United Health group is not only a highly diversified healthcare organization but a
wellness institution as well. Its headquarters is in Minnetonka, Minnesota in the United States.
It mostly provides a huge range of healthcare services to the community. These mainly include
healthcare products and insurance services as well. The organization can today be considered the
largest revenue collecting healthcare organization with a revenue amount of over $200 billion
within the last year and as many as over 100 million clients. This year alone, the company
managed to be ranked the sixth on Forbes. The organization provides the various markets with
health benefits through UnitedHealth care and the subsequent growing markets for health
services are provided through Optum.
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UnitedHealthcare Group’s Overall Readiness
UnitedHealth care and Optum were established on and share three core competencies.
These are:
The clarity of Clinical Insights is the organization’s experience and know-how when
it comes to the organization and the use of healthcare resources to offer the best
services locally.
The enabling of various interactions at huge scales and complexities that enables its
direct interactions with other key stakeholders in the healthcare industry through the
best technologies.
Its uniqueness in the way it collects manages and analyzes data coupled with the
ability to transform data into useful information.
Due to the diversified nature of the organization, it consistently improves its healthcare
quality, access, and affordability to the general population. The organization’s ability to analyze
all the complex data it collects and turn it into healthcare expertise and insights aid them in
serving patients, caregivers, businesses, the community at large as well as governments with a
host of innovative products as well as solutions to many of the healthcare challenges. Through
UnitedHealthcare and Optum, UnitedHealth Group can provide medical benefits to people in all
the states of the United States as well as more than 130 other countries. The organization
manages to invest approximately $3.5 billion a year towards technological advancement and
innovation with about 1.1 trillion digital transactions being carried out every year. Its readiness is
also clearly asserted by the huge workforce that the organization employs which includes 85,000
clinical professionals who focus on improving the lives of others health-wise.
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Key Strategic Plan to address the Issues in Faced by UnitedHealth care group.
Network growth.
From the 1 st of January 2019 (UNITEDHEALTH GROUP, 2019) , Quest diagnostics will
be participating as a national provider of laboratory services for all the institutions under the
UnitedHealth care plan umbrella. The partnership between these two organizations will further
grow the organization’s network by coming up with various ways of creating more personalized
care recommendations and simpler customer experiences among the over 48 million people
currently using the UnitedHealth care plans. This collaboration is bound to come together on
several value-based products that will bring together the same aligned incentives thereby
enhancing the patient experience with laboratory services. These are existent in the form of
accountable care arrangements between UnitedHealth care and more than 1100 hospitals
together with 110,000 doctors.
Resource management.
The leveraging of data and technology to improve care quality. This will be able to
improve care quality and health outcomes of patients by effectively utilizing integrated data and
technology in the making of informed treatment decisions to accomplish greater efficiency levels
across the healthcare system. This will be actualized through the leveraging of common data
standards that will allow for the seamless exchange of data and thus enforce connectivity as a
crucial requirement among the different stakeholders.
Patient Satisfaction.
The adoption of value-based performance payment mechanisms as opposed to the fee for
service payment models. This will be able to produce better health outcomes through the
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adoption of payment models that will provide an incentive to increased accountability for quality
and cost outcomes thereby bringing about even more customer satisfaction.
Nurse Staffing.
The adoption of a higher number of registered nurses to increase overall patient
satisfaction. This is because of the significantly lower levels of patient satisfaction with contract
nurses.
Issues within UnitedHealth care culture and how they may affect aspects of the
strategic plan.
Potentially several issues could affect the execution of the strategic plan. These issues
could be;
Politics within the organization has the ability either positively or negatively
affect the plan
Financial challenges since the economics of healthcare are tough.
Demographic issues that revolve around the aging of the population which in turn
causes a changing epidemiology
The ever-changing customer expectations
New technologies which impact the strategies in several different ways
The ever-changing workforce which is in line with the demographic changes
The real difficulty is the fact that the organization cannot isolate these challenges and
face them individually. Rather, it faces them all together. This is also coupled with the fact that
for a set of complex solutions there has to be a set of complex problems.
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Theory or model that could be used to support the implementation of the strategic plan for
this organization.
The Theory that can be best used to support the implementation of the strategic plan has to be
the 4-Step Approach to strategic planning. It offers a structured approach to strategic and change
management planning and was developed by Price Waterhouse. The model gives a holistic look
at the drafting, development as well as the implementation of the plan. It consists of;
STEP 1: Where are we now?
This is where the organization has a look at itself and establishes its present position. An
organizational audit is hereby conducted with factors such as organizational history, profile,
previous and current strategies.
STEP 2: Where to get to?
This equated to the organization’s vision as described in a strategic plan. It answers the
question of where the company needs to get to and is normally summarized by a mission
statement or a vision statement with a mission of giving an anticipated result to a set of
deliberate actions
STEP3: How to get there?
This is the organization’s route map that will lead them to their vision
STEP 4: How to know if we get there?
This stage comprises of the key measuring and monitoring aspects. With the journey plan
having been set, monitoring points are set as well to assess the performance against the plan.
This model is the best since it allows for error reporting, eliminates fear and ego among the
employees while still eliminating the crippling blame game culture since monitoring is clearly
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done. It also allows collaboration and communication among the employees and does away with
outdated rules.
Conclusion
Based on the research on UnitedHealth care Group, healthcare organizations that uses this
same strategic approach will not wait until adverse occurrences occur for them to react. Also,
about $1 Trillion of cost that’s in the fee for service system today is largely unmanaged. This
leaves room for a better job to be done in terms of practical private practice services to the
different populations that can as well be considered. This will result in a lot of cash savings. The
organization can as well use its influence to get other stakeholders in its umbrella get focused on
a similar mission and drive that improves healthcare costs by lowering them and driving greater
levels of effectiveness and working together to make a difference.
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References
UNITED HEALTH GROUP. (2019, July 19). Health Care Modernization.