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With good strategic planning and market analysis you can trim your organization without a massive employee bloodletting. The trick is to start the planning process before a financial crisis occurs. But it takes visionary leaders to get the efficiency ball rolling when you have a healthy bottom line.
It's more than just "muffins and massage," Laura Gilpin says of the Planetree program. It's a new level of awareness of patients' concerns and needs. That level of awareness is carried to the patients' surroundings, calm, home-like and friendly to visitors. Caregivers at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.; Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Ore.; and Bergan Mercy Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., tell of their experiences and their commitment to this more humanistic approach to patient care. And the cost can be little more than the cost of traditional care.
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Being a trustee of a health care organization if hard work. So why do busy professionals give so generously of their time and energy? See what drives your peers to sacrifice their time for the health and well-being of their communities. And don't forget to complete the fax pool at the end of the article!
This latest management fad can bring dramatic cost savings, but the savings often are through reduction in head count. Experience in other industries shows that the damage too much downsizing can cause occurs in short-term benefits, as well as over the long run. Readers are advised to participate actively in reengineering rather than to be content with others doing it for them. Research now underway in a number of New York City hospitals is exploring the effects of greater labor-force participation as a cost-effective and humane alternative to downsizing.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a large public-sector healthcare delivery system, is following the lead of the private sector in seeking a more integrated approach to providing patient care. The belief is that new entities known as organized delivery systems (ODSs) will produce better, more cost-effective care. Toward this end, VA has reorganized its facilities into 22 networks. The purpose of this paper is to provide VA policymakers and managers with information about building and managing an integrated delivery system for the nation's veterans based on findings from the Health Systems Integration Study (HSIS).
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is undertaking a massive reorganization to transform itself into a more efficient, patient-focused healthcare system. It has developed a new strategy and structure. But if it is to achieve the rapid, sustainable transformation needed to succeed in today's environment, it must also change its culture. The rigid, functionally focused, command-and-control culture that has long been a hallmark of VA must be replaced by one that values speed, flexibility, and the processes for delivering high-quality, cost-effective patient care. Such a change will not come easily. In addition to the normal hurdles, several barriers are unique to VA. They include ingrained bureaucratic traditions and behaviors, constraints imposed by the federal government, close scrutiny by powerful service organizations, and a Civil Service employee base that makes the hiring, promoting, and removing of employees a slow, unwieldy, and procedurally complex exercise. In a climate that does not encourage change, successful transformation must be well orchestrated. To drive the change, the leadership must be mobilized as a team, new work processes must be developed, and a full range of human resource processes must be established.
As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) makes the change over to Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISNs) the need for new and better leadership is warranted if VA wants to not only survive, but thrive in the emerging twenty-first century healthcare system. VA can prepare for the future and meet the challenges facing them by adopting a system of visionary leadership. The use of scenarios and vision techniques are explained as they relate to VA's efforts to move toward their new system of VISNs. The four scenarios provide snapshots of possible futures for the U.S. healthcare system as well as the possible future role and mission of VA--from VA disappearing to its becoming a premier virtual organization.
Strategic alliances are proving to be effective strategies for responding and adapting to changing environments, and as such they offer the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system valuable opportunities for accomplishing the goals of its major reorganization effort. This article begins with an examination of basic strategic-alliance structures that are employed across many different types of industries. Next, consideration is given to the ways in which these basic alliance structures may be adapted to the unique organizations and individuals that serve as providers, purchasers, and consumers of health services. Finally, this article explores how models of strategic alliance in healthcare can be tailored to the specific needs and constraints of the VA healthcare system through an examination of existing and potential alliance opportunities.
Transformational change interventions often fail or short fall of their intended impact on organizations and systems. One main reason is that these interventions frequently do not strategically address the complex human dynamics of change. This happens despite awareness of and commitment to intervening at this level by top management and change leaders. The wisdom that "systems don't change; people change" is widely acknowledged but inadequately applied. These are exactly the conditions the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces in deploying its new Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs). Applying validated behavioral science strategies that address the human side of change will help VA implement VISNs effectively. Six strategies derived from many years of study and practice in the public and private sectors are discussed, along with suggestions for VISN managers about how to implement them.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.