Budget worksheet w/ Excel

Section 3: Strategic Direction

Strategic direction requires health administrators to analyze three key areas:

a.

a. Resources

b. Stakeholder expectations

c. The external environment

In their research, Harrison and Thompson (2014) suggested health administrators use the results of their analysis to promote organizational innovativeness and to challenge the status quo. Challenging the status quo requires collaboration across invisible boundaries to accomplish innovative projects that, together in partnership, accomplish more than can be accomplished alone.

Strategically directing healthcare organizations into successful new partnership ventures requires skill in leading teams into uncharted territory outside the comfort level of one or more stakeholders in the partnership. Through interprofessional collaboration, areas of uncertainty are addressed by stimulating discussion of these areas and identifying mutually agreeable solutions.

In Section 1, you reviewed the leadership competencies needed by health administrators and through the administrator lens critiqued community health needs assessment, thus examining the external environment. In Week 3, you considered organizational and community resources and stakeholder expectations through a SWOT analysis of forming a partnership with community health and design your strategic plan for this partnership. In Section 2, you examined the role of healthcare regulatory agencies in partnerships, then considered the legal aspects when forming formal partnership agreements. Additionally, you reviewed the performance outcomes of a potential hospital partner.

In this final section, you will use your strategies to finalize your plan to improve community health and improve organizational performance through a community health/nonprofit hospital partnership project.

Leaders inspire others to be effective without coercion; rather, they inspire effectiveness and innovation through the promotion of the value of their work (Sull, 2007).

References

Harrison, J. S., & Thompson, S. M. (2014). Strategic direction. In Strategic management of healthcare organizations: A stakeholder management approach (pp. 27-37). New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

Sull, D. N. (2007). Closing the gap between strategy and execution. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(4), 30-40.

Financial Impact of a Community Health Partnership

In Week 5, you learned the funding burden of community/hospital partnerships is borne by hospitals. However, according to an expert in multi-sector healthcare collaboration, hospitals that invest in community partnerships report a greater return on investment (ROI) for both entities in the partnership.

This week, you will begin preparing your budget for the partnership you are developing with the community health department.

Figure 5. Goals to Address Healthcare Needs

Given the three goals, you must budget for the added expenditures in operating costs and salaries and benefits. Remember to consult the Bureau of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook for the needed salary information.

Projecting expenses must be completed to ensure resources are allocated to a project. This week, you are creating a budget plan for the project into which you will enter with the community health department.

In your scenario as the nonprofit hospital CEO, you are encouraged to learn from your future partner, the CEO at the community health department, that they will share the cost of the collaborative project and pay for examination room equipment and supplies, furniture, office materials, printing costs, and the data software programs for patient education.

A nonprofit hospital’s investment in community health is mandated by the ACA with financial penalties for non-compliance. In addition, nonprofit hospitals risk loss of their IRS status as a tax-exempted without demonstration of contributing to the community benefit (Carlton & Singh, 2018).

The net cost (i.e., the total costs minus any offsetting revenues) of the hospitals’ spending on community health improvement provides the basis to calculate the return on investment.

The overarching missions of healthcare organizations are to improve the health status of their community through the delivery of safe and quality healthcare services. In recent years, healthcare organizations are seeking partnerships with community organizations to take a broader approach to improve community health.

In addition to breaking down perceived silos between healthcare organizations and community-based health organizations, the formation of partnerships is gaining the attention of research and philanthropic organizations who are making grant funds available to healthcare administrators to examine how community health/nonprofit hospital partnerships reduce overutilization of the healthcare delivery system, thus reducing healthcare costs through proactive activities, especially in older adults. A search of The Commonwealth Health Fund website will reveal grants awarded for organizations forming partnerships to improve performance; the value of grant awards is no less than one-quarter million dollars.

With any partnership that requires a start-up financial stake, there must be an assessment of the ROI, both from a holistic perspective and fiscal perspective. The net cost (i.e., the total costs minus any offsetting revenues) of the hospitals’ spending on community health improvement provides the basis to calculate the fiscal return on investment (Carlton & Singh, 2018). Communities that have formed partnerships are reporting the holistic ROI through the promising results to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.

Merely professing that it’s the right thing to do may sway some stakeholders, but not all. There will be skeptics, and only after providing information on the anticipated ROI of forming the partnership to carry out clearly established goals will these naysayers get onboard with the project.