Healing Hands Hospital is an acute care community hospital that serves a suburban community outside of a large city with two competing large academic medical centers. Both Healing Hands Hospital and the academic medical centers have a long history of service to the region, but their business and fundamental practices are different. Your manager, Ms. Woods, Healing Hands\’ Chief Operating Officer (COO), is part of the task force working on the strategic plan for the hospital and needs to understand the fundamental practices of these academic medical centers.
You have been tasked with providing this information for Ms. Woods in a 1-2-page paper that discusses the similarities and differences between academic medical centers and acute care community hospitals. Your paper should address each of the following prompts below:
Explain the similarities and differences between the mission of an academic medical center versus the mission of an acute community hospital.
Discuss the similarities and differences in the staffing and management structure of an academic medical center versus an acute community hospital. Note: You will want to consider what type of staff an academic medical center would have that a community hospital may not have.
Explain the similarities and differences in the Reimbursement model(s) that are used in academic medical centers versus an acute community hospital. I need a 2-page essay then add title page and reference page
Health Care Industry Unit #2 IP
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Health Care Industry Unit #2 IP
Healthcare organizations need to develop strategic plans that will guide them to gain a competitive advantage in the industry. Medical facilities should have a comprehensive understanding of the management structures, including the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors (Austin & Wetle, 2016). Healing Hands Hospital (HHH) wants to gain a deeper understanding of academic medical centers (AMCs) in the region. This assignment will describe the similarities and differences between acute care community hospitals (ACCHs) and AMCs. To be able to develop a good strategic plan for HHH, the organization’s leadership needs to understand the activities and operations of its competitors. This will offer insights into the best actions to take to enhance performance.
Mission
Both AMCs and community hospitals are important players in the United States healthcare system. The two types of healthcare organizations have a common goal of providing quality healthcare services to their clients. However, their missions are quite unique owing to the variations in their target audiences (The George Washington University, 2022). As Fleishon et al. (2017) explain, AMCs have a tripartite mission that combines health research, education, and the provision of clinical care. On the other hand, the mission of ACCHs is to provide primary care to members of the community. ACCHs do not provide graduate medical education and do not engage in research. In order to outperform the AMCs, HHH will have to refine its activities around its mission to ensure that it works towards achieving a common goal.
Staffing and Management Structures
The staffing and management structures of AMCs are different from those of ACCHs. The workforce of AMCs is made up of specialized physicians and practitioners who provide a wide range of care to patients from distinct population groups. For example, their clients primarily comprise those who are covered by Medicaid and Medicare, patients who have suffered burns and trauma, recipients of charity care, and hospital transfer patients with complex healthcare needs. The management structures of AMCs comprise researchers, members of faculty, and doctors specialized in clearly identified areas of practice (The George Washington University, 2022). On the contrary, staff members of acute community hospitals are more of generalists than specialists. The management structure is predominated by clinicians. The employees and management of ACCHs focus more on efficiency than workers from AMCs do (Fleishon et al., 2017). Despite these differences, both AMCs and ACCHs are committed to having workforce and management structures that are well-suited to enabling them to achieve their missions. HHH can consider hiring specialized physicians and practitioners to boost the quality of care provided to patients.
Reimbursement Models
Significant differences exist in the models of reimbursement used by AMCs and ACCHs. For instance, as opposed to ACCHs, AMCs have little recognition under the quality-related measures defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). On the contrary, ACCHs have transitioned to value-based reimbursement models that enable them to reward providers on the basis of the quality of care that they offer to patients (Austin & Wetle, 2016). AMCs generally have above-average costs when compared to ACCHs. HHH needs should maintain within-average costs and embrace quality.
Conclusion
Gaining a deeper understanding of the dynamics that surround AMCs and ACCHs can guide decision-makers in an organization to develop appropriate strategies to gain a competitive advantage. AMCs and ACCHs have different missions, staffing structures, management structures, and reimbursement models despite their positive contribution to the United States healthcare system. HHH should use the outcomes of this assessment to develop a good strategic plan that will enable it to compete favorably with the AMCs in the region.
References
Austin, A., & Wetle, V. (2016). The United States Health Care System (3rd Edition). Pearson Education (US). https://coloradotech.vitalsource.com/books/9780134297927
Fleishon, H. B., Itri, J. N., Boland, G. W., & Duszak, R., Jr (2017). AMCs and community hospitals integration: Trends and strategies. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, 14(1), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2016.07.006
The George Washington University. (2022). The differences between academic and community medical centers. https://healthcaremba.gwu.edu/blog/the-differences-between-community-and-academic-medical-centers/#:~:text=A%20CMC%20is%20a%20non,members%20may%20be%20more%20generalist.