UnitedHealth Care Organization Discussion Sample
Organizations are always constantly seeking change to ensure continuity and competitive advantage. Healthcare organizations target unique areas in healthcare. These organizations provide healthcare and related services to citizens across several states by focusing on several aspects of healthcare. An example is the UnitedHealthcare, an organization committed to serving society’s needs by ensuring every individual accesses high-quality and affordable care that meets their needs. It is one of the leading organizations in the United States. This essay analyzes United Healthcare care goals, develops a strategic plan for the organizations, and highlights potential barriers to implementing the plan.
About UnitedHealthcare Organization
UnitedHealth care is an organization under the UnitedHealth group. It is among the top ten corporations active in healthcare services provided to the public. The organization focuses on improving the value of care to the citizens through lowering the care costs, enhancing quality care delivery, enhancing health and wellness, and improving patient satisfaction. These goals are achieved through four businesses that run under UnitedHealth care (UnitedHealth care group, n.d.). The UnitedHealthcare employer and individual plan offer a variety of consumer-tailored benefits and health services Nationwide to all employees, from large-scale national employers to small-scale employers and individuals.
UnitedHealth care Medicate and retirement offer services to older adults and other individuals eligible for Medicare benefits. UnitedHealth care community and state offers diversified healthcare services and benefits to the economically disadvantaged, medically undeserving, and those with no employer-funded healthcare insurance plans. The last business is UnitedHealth care global offers healthcare services to the citizens working and traveling to more than a hundred and fifty countries. It serves the government, insurance companies, re-insurers, individuals, families, and local and multinational businesses.
An Analysis of UnitedHealthcare Readiness to Meet the Patients’ Requirements in the Next Decade
UnitedHealth care, as mentioned earlier, is under the UnitedHealth group. Its operation is based on the overall UnitedHealth group objectives. The organization is adequately prepared to take care of the citizens’ healthcare needs due to the availability of goals and objectives to meet by 2030. One of the goals by 2030 is to adequately provide preventive healthcare services to eighty-five percent of its members by the year 2030. The second goal is to lower healthcare and prescription drugs costs. Another goal is to deliver 55% patient radiological and surgical services at sites of care that are high-quality and cost-efficient by 2030 (UnitedHealth Group, n.d.).
Other goals include improving access to healthcare data for the healthcare providers, improving care delivery, and focusing on diversity and environmental sustainability (but lacks specific objectives for this goal). The specific objectives are covered under the general goals in the responsible business among the four businesses. The organization is thus highly ready to cater to the citizens’ healthcare needs in the next decade.
Organization’s Strategic Plan
A strategic plan is vital in any healthcare organization. It allows the organization to expound on its mission and vision, develop goals and objectives, and actualize them. The strategic plan shall entail network growth, patient satisfaction, and resource management (including human resources). A primary goal is increasing interprofessional collaboration, quality care delivery, and patient satisfaction by promoting electrical health records in all healthcare facilities.
Promoting electronic health records in the hospital shall improve interprofessional collaboration among healthcare providers (Parasrampuria & Henry, 2019). Availing patient information to these healthcare providers ensures care continuity and high-quality care delivery. In addition, it enhances hospital small and big data collection, tracking of diseases, and informing national statistics, which leads to effective healthcare planning and quality care delivery. Quality care delivery enhances patient satisfaction.
Another effective strategy to meet the changing and unique patient needs is improving nursing professionals’ leadership and educational skills through developing a center for nursing advancement. Understanding healthcare changes and professional development requirements are integral to both healthcare leaders and policymakers. The nursing profession is dynamic, and nursing practices are based on evidence (Tachtsoglou et al., 2019).
In addition, infiltration of technology in nursing practice also calls for relevant skills which are thus offered in the training centers. Setting a nursing facility ensures education on current evidence-based practices, advanced nursing knowledge, and skills, thus informing care provision (Tachtsoglou et al., 2019). The quality of care provided increases with advancement in knowledge and skills. United Healthcare Group provides a variety of nursing staff such as nursing homes staff, emergency department staff, critical care nursing, midwives, and general nurse practitioners. It shall thus greatly benefit from the advancement center in advancing nursing practice and nursing services delivery.
The resource management department of any organization should endeavor to provide better health care quality to United States Citizens. Ensuring transparency is thus integral to the success of any organization. Another strategy is embedding a culture of effective communication that shall enhance transparency through advanced reporting (Blomgren & Sahlin, 2017). A transparent network system produces advanced reports on the organization’s spending, projects done, proposed projects, and current plans and goals. In addition, Goodwin (2018) notes that effective communication also enhances interprofessional collaboration, planning, initiation, monitoring of projects, and better quality care delivery.
One of the significant core values of the UnitedHealth care group is relationships. Good relations with the public and other stakeholders are at the heart of this organization. An effective strategy to widen the network is participating in community activities beyond the normal organizational activities.
Participating in programs like nationwide immunization, national holidays’ celebrations and other community projects (health awareness programs) creates and enhances a good network and relations with the community and other stakeholders. A current intervention uses an Apple watch incentive to promote physical activity in diabetic patients (Raber, McCarthy & Yeh, 2019). Such interventions increase relationships with the public and other stakeholders.
Current and Potential Issues That Can affect the Strategic Plan
Another potential poor culture is poor communication. Large corporations often face problems with communication (McCorry & Mason, 2020). The channel of communication may follow several hierarchies and take much time before approval to the next level. At times, a project may take a year or years before the information reaches the top management. Sometimes, much valuable information is rendered unhelpful or is filtered before being actualized. The effect of poor communication cultures is delayed approval and implementation of the plan and the possibility of approval failure. These would negatively affect the implementation of the strategic plan.
Large organizations face many challenges of corruption. Leaders in successful for-profit organizations often have access to lump-sum amounts of money and are thus prone to corruption (Teachout, 2019). Corruption causes significant problems in organizations, including the resolution of companies due to bankruptcy. Corruption in the organization may lead to loss of funds integral to the success of the strategic plan. The strategic plan requires funds for purchasing and installing healthcare information systems and training healthcare providers. Embezzlement of the project’s money can lead to halting and failure of the strategic plan.
Autocratic hospital leadership denies employees the right to make decisions regarding their work and does not favor innovation. An organization’s leadership style reflects on the organizational culture (Janićijević, 2017). Information flow is often top-down and rarely down-up information (Janićijević, 2017).
Change is rarely accepted in autocratic organizational cultures, and the most significant opposition comes from leadership, and leadership significantly influences the success of a strategic plan. The effects of an autocratic organizational culture are reluctance and resistance to change, thus altering the strategic plan’s success (Janićijević, 2017). UnitedHealth care should thus adopt a democratic.
Application of Theory to the Strategic Plan
The three-stage theory by Kurt Lewin is ideal in implementing the strategic plan for this institution. Kurt Lewin’s theory provides three stages with well-outlined activities for every stage in the implementation process. The theory effectively manages change which often poses a significant threat to the implementation of the new plan (Hussain et al., 2018). In addition, the theory provides a template for activities from before implementation to post-implementation of the strategic plan. The first stage entails sensitizing the management on the existing deficits and the need for change.
Effective communication is a prerequisite, and informed employees collaborate in implementing change compared to uninformed employees. The second stage involves facilitating the transition from the old methods to the new change. It includes supporting the employees with the necessary resources and information. The third stage entails embedding change into the organization’s policy and culture (Hussain et al., 2018).
UnitedHealth Care should then develops policies and laws, thus promoting the utilization of the strategies after evaluation. In this case, all the hospitals should adopt electronic healthcare records to manage patient data, inform care delivery, and interprofessional collaboration. In addition, the advanced nurses training institute should run under the group’s management to continue providing competent nurses with highly advanced skills
Conclusion
Healthcare organizations are integral in healthcare services delivery, as seen above. They inform education and practice. In addition, they ensure the smooth running of individual hospitals and uniformity of care by implementing similar strategies across all their hospitals, as seen above. A strategic plan should also analyze current and potential barriers to implementing the plan to ensure the plan does not fail. In addition, the organizations should use theories to inform their practices to enhance success in their projects. Healthcare organizations are thus indispensable and vital pillars in the healthcare sector.
References
- Blomgren, M., & Sahlin, K. (2017). Quests for transparency (1st Ed.) Signs of a new institutional era in the health care field. In transcending new public management (pp. 167-190). Routledge.
- Goodwin, N. (2017). How important is information and communication technology in enabling interprofessional collaboration? Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 22(4), 202-203. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1355819617727030
- Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin’s change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 123-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2016.07.002
- Janićijević, N. (2017). Organizational models as configurations of structure, culture, leadership, control, and change strategy. Economic Annals, 62(213), 67-91. https://doi.org/10.2298/EKA1713067J
- McCorry, L. K., & Mason, J. (2020). Communication skills for the healthcare professional. (2nd Ed.). Jones & Bartlett Pub. Incorporated.
- Parasrampuria, S., & Henry, J. (2019). Hospitals’ Use of Electronic Health Records Data, 2015-2017. ONC Data Brief, 46, 1-13.
- Raber, I., McCarthy, C. P. & Yeh, R. W. (2019). Health Insurance and Mobile Health Devices: Opportunities and Concerns. JAMA, 321(18), 1767–1768. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.3353
- Teachout, Z. (2018). The Problem of Monopolies & Corporate Public Corruption. Dædalus, 147(3), 111-126. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00514