Table of Contents
Analysis of social, political and economic factors driving the proliferation of urgent care facilitates and primary care practices
Social factors
National Spending on healthcare in the USA is the highest in the world in terms of both dollar and percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (Casey, Call & Klingner, 2015). Based on the recent data, it has been found that the spending of USA people in healthcare services is almost double than that of the second best country, Norway. However, one of the major factor that has contributed to high spending in healthcare services is the shift of demographic mix in the USA. Recently, it has been found that a large section of population has transformed to senior citizens in USA (Crow, et al. 2013). Moreover, due to irregular food habits and work pressure, the number of people suffering from the chronic disease such as diabetes and heart problem have also been increasing at a rapid rate (Casey, Call & Klingner, 2015). These social factors have been driving the growth of primary health care services in the USA.
Political factors
Primary healthcare services of USA has directly been affected by the regulation set up by the government. Most importantly, the reimbursement policies of primary healthcare services in this country has been impacted by the introduction of new laws. For instance, introduction of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare has severely affected the internal operational policies of the primary care services of USA (Casey, Call & Klingner, 2015).
Economic factors
The revenues of the primary healthcare services can indirectly be affected by the economic status of the particular country. Thus, it can be inferred that average per capita income of the healthcare institutions is directly proportion to the per capita income of the people (Crow, et al. 2013). However, Casey, Call & Klingner (2015) argued that in most of the cases, the urgent healthcare facilities have not been affected by the economic status of the people. Economic turmoil caused due to the recession has severely affected the USA economy for the last few years. The country has not yet been able to enhance its economic growth due to lack of employment opportunities. The economic slowdown of USA has also indirectly affected the development of primary healthcare services.
Mission statement for primary care clinic
The mission statement of the clinic is to become the most effective primary care clinic in the region by providing the best possible healthcare services to the patients within next 2-3 years.
The above mission statement set up by the primary care clinic clearly indicates that the organization sets a goal to improve the quality of healthcare services provided to the patents. Moreover, the above mission statement indicates that the organization aims to improve its infrastructure in order to enhance the quality of services provided to the patients. Most importantly, the primary care clinic targets to improvise its technical infrastructure such as installation of the latest equipment for the laboratories for catering the requirements of the rural patients.
Recommendations for enhancing the growth of business for the clinic
For improving the growth of the business, the concerned healthcare clinic needs to focus on two major aspects. Firstly, it is required to improve its technical infrastructure. In most of the cases, it has been found that the rural healthcare clinics have not been able to attract patients or been able to provide the best quality of treatments to the patients due to poor technical infrastructure (Crow, et al. 2013). Thus, the concerned clinic is required to analyze its present technical facilities in terms of information system, laboratories and treatment procedures. Based on this analysis, it is required for the clinic to invest in installing the latest equipment. It will allow the clinic to detect the physical abnormalities of the critical care patients and provide the accurate treatments within a proper time frame. Moreover, by improving the technical facilities, the clinic will also be able to obtain the faith of the rural patients and it will result in higher number of patients in the clinic. Improvement of the information system of the clinic will help it to restore all the important information related to the patents.
Secondly, the clinic needs to recruit at least 5 more specialist doctors from domains such as cardiology, gynecology, urology and oncology. It will allow the clinic to grow its business through serving the maximum number of patents. However, considering the limited financial capability of the clinic, it is recommended that it needs to refer to critical surgery cases to the other healthcare institutions in the main city. In that case, the concerned healthcare clinic can partner with some of these hospitals of the main city and take commissions for referring patients. This commission will allow the clinic to improve its present infrastructure.
Methods for performance measurement
In order to improve the quality of services, it is important for the clinic to appraise its performance on the regular basis (Covin & Slevin, 2009). The healthcare clinic can measure its actual performance by comparing it with the preset goals.
Goal 1: To provide the best possible healthcare services to the patients within the available capability.
In order to measure the performance of the clinic in terms of the above mentioned goal, the management of the clinic can consider procuring the feedback of the patients or the patient parties after the discharge. It will enable the management of the clinic to assess the perception of the patients regarding the quality of healthcare services offered by the clinic. In addition, this feedback will also help the management to identify the loopholes of the present services. Moreover, from the feedback of the patients, the clinic management can also appraise the performance of the concerned doctors.
Goal 2: To ensure positive growth of revenues of the clinic
One of the easiest ways to measure the above mentioned goal is to collect data regarding the number of patients admitted in the clinic on regular basis. For that, the clinic is required to install a quality database management system that can gather the necessary information about the patients such as frequency of visits. From the frequency of visit, the primary care management can assess its loyalty factors created among the patients. In addition, the managers of the clinic can also analyze the growth of financial performance through specific financial tools.
Identifying the opportunities
One of the most crucial ways an organization can improve its business performance is to explore the available opportunities in an effective way (Covin & Slevin, 2009). However, for that, the managers of this organizations are required to identify the scopes. The management of the clinic is required to conduct an analysis related to the external business environment. This assessment will allow the managers to identify the present scopes that can be explored by the institutions. For instance, with the help of such analysis, the primary care clinic has been identified that the healthcare facilities in the rural part of USA is not sufficient. Thus, the clinic has explored this opportunity by providing the urgent care services to the patients.
On the other hand, with the proper market research, the clinic management can also assess the demand of the patients, type of most common chronic disease of that region and the affordability of the patients. All these factors will allow the clinic management to develop their business strategies for improving the market share. At the same time, this research can enable the clinic management to understand the recent regulations related to the healthcare sector of USA. Gathering information related to the legal requirements of the heath care industries can help the concerned clinic to operate its business without any considerable interruption.
- Casey, M. M., Call, K. T., & Klingner, J. M. (2015). Are rural residents less likely to obtain recommended preventive healthcare services? American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 21(3), 182-188.
- Covin, J. G., & Slevin, D. P. (2009). Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments. Strategic Management Journal, 10(1), 75-87.
- Crow, R., Gage, H., Hampson, S., & Hart, J. (2013). The measurement of satisfaction with healthcare: implications for practice from a systematic review of the literature. Clinical Governance, 8(4), 352.