week 11

 USW1.6313.202230 - PBHL-8450-1/DDHA-8450-1- PROJECT & RESOURCE MGMT-2021-WINTER-QTR- TERM-WKS-1-THRU-11-(11/29/2021-02/13/2022)-PT27

SafeAssign Drafts Metushela Nicolas on Mon, Jan 24 2022, 7:22 PM

32% highest match Submission ID: df1e0bad-e6b0-4961-9b00- e33e9da97bb8

Word Count: 3,249 Attachment ID: 5150223731

Submission_Text.html

32%

Citations (16/16)

1 Another student's paper

2 Another student's paper

3 Another student's paper

4 Another student's paper

5 https://dokumen.pub/heal…

6 Another student's paper

7 https://www.science.gov/…

8 Another student's paper

9 Another student's paper

10 Another student's paper

11 Another student's paper

12 Another student's paper

13 Another student's paper

14 Another student's paper

15 Another student's paper

16 Another student's paper

1 Final Project Template

2 Evaluation Plan for Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Formation

Introduction

Health care in the large community hospital experiences rising costs, and substandard quality. The situation is so bad that even incremental fixes cannot address the issues of high costs and poor population health. This issue can lead to decreased incomes, high costs for patients, and restricted services. If the board of directors can agree on the overarching quality for health care systems, improving outcomes and the costs related to the outcomes can facilitate progress. The strategy involves developing an electronic health system to increase patient safety while providing easy access to patient information. The characteristics of the proposed EHR include being patient-focused, using common data definitions, and comprising all types of patient data. Also, all necessary stakeholders involved in care should easily access medical records, and information in the system should be easily retrieved. Lastly, the EHR should have templates and expert designs for every medical state.

The EHR will improve scheduling and enable clinics to run more efficiently with a minimal backlog and delays, not to mention faster lab results' access. The development of electronic health records provides easy coordination between the nurses concerning patient information. Therefore, the risk of over-prescription or the wrong diagnosis is significantly reduced, which is also because of the streamlined record-keeping that is not manual. This paper will examine the measures and methods for creating an evaluation plan of an ACO and create a timeline for implementation and evaluation of the plan. 3 The paper will also discuss how the evaluation plan contributes to the feedback loop and how the plan is aligned strategically with the mission of the ACO.

Project Objectives

The goal of an accountable care organization is to reduce costs, improve population health and gain a competitive advantage. 4 To achieve this overarching goal, project objectives were identified for the first year of the program formation. Since the program and problem are new, specific baselines, i.e., how much of an increase can be expected, is unknown.

5 Increase patient safety.

Provide easy access to information.

Increase the percentage of survival rate, and reduce the patient mortality rate.

Increase the degree of health and recovery by the end of the year.

Reduce the time of recovery through beginning early and effective treatment whereby the patients can quickly return to work.

Elimination of diagnostic errors, ineffective care, treatment-related discomfort, complications, and adverse effects.

Increase the percentage of sustainability of health or recovery and decrease the nature of recurrences by the end of one year.

Reduce the long-term consequences of therapy.

Increase organizational profitability while reducing costs incurred by patients.

Evaluation Questions

4 Although the evaluation team generated many possible questions in a brainstorming session, the evaluation team prioritized the following as representing the most important aspects of the program that could be examined at this time. To determine if the program has been implemented as planned:

Has appropriate (a variety of types of clinicians, usually in several different locations, who function more like a spontaneously assembled “pickup team” than an integrated unit) staff been recruited?

Has the staff (all the ACO program employees) been trained appropriately (in accountable care practice and cultural competency)?

4 To determine if the program is meeting its objectives:

Have more organizational persons been tested and treated appropriately?

Are the systems effective?

4 Are patients adhering to treatment (not lost to care and follow-up)?

Evaluation methods

4 The evaluation team decided to use multiple data sources because the program was small (few people served), the need to obtain information to improve the program was high, and in-depth information was needed. No control or comparison group seemed appropriate. 6 The team discussed reviewing records for the organizational patients in the past and comparing these data to current program information, but realized that it would be difficult since data in the files were incomplete (Krishnan et al., 2019). 4 The decision was made to assess the data against the benchmarks the program has set. Further, it was decided that the data collected for this evaluation would serve as a baseline for later evaluations

a) Data

The way to evaluate the Accountable care organization’s efficiency would then be to do a paired two-sample t-test for each patient. This method would work mainly by using the aggregate scores for each participant before and after the formation of a mock ACO. These scores would be plugged into an excel sheet. Then through the data analysis tab, the t-test would be selected, and the analysis would be carried out. The results would show if there were a significant difference in the results. If this comes as affirmative, the results would be checked to see whether the scores are higher or lower. If they are higher, it will ascertain that the Accountable care organization’s formation was successful, especially in meeting project objectives.

Reaction: 7 The participants' reactions will be evaluated through their participation and sharing experiences in a brief voluntary question and answer session. The health care providers will observe how the customers share their experiences and how they rate the new accountable care organization. 8 According to Krishnan et al. (2019), this idea will show the health care providers whether the ACO formation will have a positive impact on the organization. Through the reaction from the mock Accountable care organization, the board of directors will decide on whether to implement it for the entire organization or not. This application will also help determine whether the leaders retain the ACO long term and if the strategy manifests all organizational department behaviors and attitudes.

Outcome: The ACO outcomes will be matched to the evaluation of the methods that have been employed. The outcomes will also be matched with the project objectives and the evaluation questions. The payment application will be apparent from how the customers view and talk about it. Positive ACO formation will lead to competitive advantage and sustainability against other organizations. The professional teams that will be involved in forming the accountable care organization also contribute to the success of the project. The evaluation questions' scores will show how the participants are internalizing the ACO formation, and by how much they support it.

Application and Implementation: the application, in this case, is important because making a substantial investment in health information technology and physician participation.is an integral part of health care reforms. The practicality of the ACO will be tested and reviewed during a question and answer session with the board of directors. There is also input from other organizational stakeholders, such as project sponsors. Each of the professional team members will take up a group of participants and keep track of what they said about the ACO formation and recommendations on how to improve the formation process. These notes will be amalgamated and discussed among the board of directors to understand how the customers and health care providers view and plan to implement the formation of the accountable care organization.

4 Data Collection Plan

Indicators Data Source Data Collection Method

Number of qualified employees (can they use the EHR) Personnel records

Observe the presence of staff

Review records if staff not present

4 Clinical treatment standards (calendar of standard appointment dates based on the initiation of services and drugs)

Clinic charts

Chart review

Patients feel they can trust the EHR program Patient perceptions

The survey sample of patients (forms and dropbox in the clinic waiting room, follow up text surveys)

Attendance at ACO and clinic visits (appointment system and missed appointment follow-up) Program visit records

Review records, noting if any patients are lost of care

Data Materials

Materials Source

Questionnaire Developed by the health care administrator and given to patients for feedback

Evaluation questions Developed by the health care administrator and given the project team

b) Measures

The boards of directors need to find value through measuring costs at the medical condition level. Health care administrators should track the costs involved in treating a specific illness through the full cycle of care. 9 Hence, all stakeholders should understand the resources used in a patient’s care, including personnel, equipment, and facilities; the capacity cost of supplying each resource; and the support costs associated with care, such as information technology and administration. Then the cost of caring for a condition can be compared with the outcomes achieved. An effective method includes the use of time-driven activity-based costing, TDABC. This method will help to determine various ways to substantially reduce costs without negatively affecting outcomes (and sometimes even improving them). The board of directors will achieve savings of 25% or more by tapping opportunities such as better capacity utilization, more-standardized processes, better matching of personnel skills to tasks, locating care in the most cost-effective type of facility, among others.

Return on Investment or Business Impact: the impact of improving the payment system is not directly observable on organizational outcomes. However, variables that can be observed to determine if the organizational goals have been achieved better through the formation of the ACO include the changes in patient engagement and staff productivity and reduced employee burnout. This method is a holistic way of measuring the return on investment, as there cannot be a direct financial outcome of this exercise. This strategy can considerably impact health care workers' performance, but the financial outcomes will be impacted indirectly. For instance, patients who use payment models designed to reduce costs and improve population health in an organization are rarely involved in company conflicts and complaints, therefore focusing on recommending the company to their family and friends. These people are also more likely to return to the organization for more products and services. Also, the system reduces the employee workload, therefore, productivity increases.

10 Market volatility is linked to most forms of financial risks. Liquidity risk includes securities and properties, which can neither be bought nor sold promptly to reduce losses in an unpredictable market. There are various methods I would use to measure the financial and risk concerns related to ACO formation. These methods assess the degree of risk and its possible costs. The results of this assessment will help to counter the projected consequences. 11 The first method I would use is the qualitative and subjective risk. 10 This method involves projecting the likelihood of a risk occurrence and an evaluation of the counter solutions concerning the formation of an accountable care organization. The method technique uses subject matter experts and previous records. Repeated trends and procedures are most valued when using qualitative risk.

Another measurement technique includes quantitative risk analysis. 11 This technique centers on numeric approaches and the incorporation of repeated actions to get estimates. 10 For example, the Monte Carlo simulation method assesses the cost risks of the technology decision relating to the formation of the ACO.

Quantitative risk study, normally, relates to the principles of qualitative investigations. 11 Deciding on one method against the other relies on the requirements of a project

and the security level of the board of directors. 10 The health care administrator should discuss with the board of directors the projected risks, the consequences related, degree, and importance or priority. Lastly, the project team can design effective responses to these risks. This information can be represented in a table format to enable the team members to reevaluate the risk processes at even intervals.

Timeline

Task Name Start End Duration (days)

Research 16/01/2015 16/02/2015 31

Planning 17/02/2015 16/03/2015 27

Software Coding 17/03/2015 16/04/2015 30

Development 17/04/2015 16/05/2015 29

Testing 17/05/2015 16/06/2015 30

Launching 17/06/2015 16/07/2015 29

Training 17/07/2015 16/08/2015 30

Maintaining 17/08/2015 16/09/2015 30

Re-Launching 17/09/2015 16/10/2015 29

Implementation timeline

Evaluation timeline

12 Period Project Goal Related Objective Activity Expected Completion date Person Responsible

1-10 Continue to conduct process evaluation in the health care in the large community hospital through the ACO formation.

Monitor the operations of the ACO formation.

12 Conduct site visits to review and discuss program operations.

September 2015 Health care administrator

1-10 Continue to conduct outcome evaluation.

Finish data gathering for the experimental group.

Work with Community Specialists to complete the ACO formation exit data for the experimental group.

June 2015 Community Specialists

Finalize data collection procedures for the control group.

Extract and analyze ACO data on demographics and service/placement history October 2015 Health care administrator

12 Access and analyze information sources for the follow-up data collection on outcome measures for experimental and control groups Receive first annual data extract from ACO for conducting analysis.

October 2015 ACO Research Team

12 Conduct sample case tracking and follow-up interviews.

Initiate and complete tracking and follow-up component of the evaluation for the ACO formation February 2015 Subcontractor

Develop and implement initial plans for data analysis and reporting.

Receive second annual educational outcome data extract from ACO April 2015 Research Team

13 Maintain privacy and protection of human subjects’ certifications Conduct analysis of ACO data.

Ongoing Research Team

2 How an Evaluation Plan Contributes to Feedback Loop

14 The evaluation plan contributes to the feedback loop for effective management through implementing feedback structures to hear methodically from the patients. The feedback systems link to improving accountability, participatory observing, assessment, and social responsibility. The feedback loop improved regarding customers' perception, and views through data collection. This collected information can either be real-time performance indicators and can lead to the development of employee incentives.

Additionally, the incentives can increase employee productivity, and focus on the patients' priorities. This strategy can enhance impact and sustainability. The evaluation plan is inherently empowering for effective management. The feedback systems in an evaluation can form an organizational link that connects engagement procedures and management structures. Hence, can increase performance.

The evaluation plan assists a health care administrator to make a change on formed or during the formation of an ACO depending on the feedback gotten. The whole process can be finished before all the stakeholders are informed of any inefficiency. Hence, feedback control is crucial in recurring and common projects. The feedback through an evaluation plan is effective in measuring developments, which are usually repeated by an organization over a period. Feedback control provides methods to measure the performance of health care providers and project team members. The strategy ensures that the ACO formation achieves the project's goals. Also, the teams' output is compared to agreed standards through encoded metrics. The health care administrator makes decisions on changes needed to improve efficiency. A health care administrator also alters the productive procedure together with control structures depending on the feedback provided. Lastly, the health care administrator should adjust the feedback control to access better information and make better decisions.

15 How the Evaluation Plan is Aligned Strategically with the Mission

16 The organization’s vision is to improve its performance with the ultimate focus on its patients while its values include commitment, accountability, and value centricity. This ACO wishes to develop a culture of providing effective and high-quality health care to its customers, and lastly, its mission is achieving performance excellence through affordable quality services and improved population health. The organization has not fully met its vision and mission and struggles to create a solid organizational culture for its employees. Its core competencies are high-quality services, incomparable value, and excellent customer service, and all these are usually vetted against actual service outcomes that the customers receive. The organization's sales have been fluctuating over the years, and its market share is slowly being reduced by competitors that are up to date with current technological trends and innovations. Therefore, the organization's customer retention rate is low.

I will ensure that the proposed evaluation plan aligns strategically with the organizational mission by creating clear objectives and outlining the role of electronic health systems in the ACO. The health care administrator will ensure that the EHR system has long-term value and facilitate organizational opportunities which add value to existing products and services. I will ensure that electronic health systems are an integral part of organizational success and sustainable strategic development. This technological strategy is little known to competitors and can be a success if effectively implemented.

Additionally, the EHR is a ''future state'' technology vision that is aligned with the company's strategic plan. The evaluation plan points out the goals that need to be realized so that the ACO can achieve its desired state. Some of the areas that the evaluation plan focuses on include data, finance, service, and employee engagement (Thompson et al., 2020). The formation of the new ACO enables the board of directors re-assess, homogenize and redesign the services, structures, and financial aspects of the company. Acquiring the right workforce or training the current ones, makes the ACO adapt to change better.

The proposed evaluation plan has evaluated gaps in technology. Thompson et al. (2020) found that this plan considers the present state of technology and the gaps found between the condition and the company's anticipated ''future state'' Also, the proposed evaluation plan has examined tactical options that could fill the gaps. The health care administrator has qualitatively evaluated the gaps using certain criteria. The criteria involve supporting unmet user needs, the assumption of minimum risk, and attaining a considerable time-to-value ratio. Lastly, the proposed evaluation plan has minimum conversion trauma to the organization and has the lowest possible cost.

The evaluation plan will choose the best option and list implementation projects. This selection will consider estimations of onetime and ongoing costs. The plan has already mapped the proposed program and eliminated ones that will need over a year to execute and has considered the EHR systems with the best investment budgets. I will make decisions at various levels, such as foundational, operational excellence, and innovation. Also, I will create procedures for software initiatives and this includes the internal or external purchase of software initiatives. The electronic health systems will be hosted by both internal data and external cloud environments.

I will also measure the benefit of the EHR systems investment. The proposed evaluation plan will enable strategic goals, and the system will have an added value. Lastly, the plan will measure strategic goals and objectives before and after the ACO formation. I will ensure that I involve companies that have strong IT expertise to ensure that the ACO formation aligns strategically with the organizational mission.

Conclusion

To ensure a successful evaluation plan, the health care administrator will ensure that the plan is of excellent quality yet cost-effective. The evaluation will take eight months to finish and will include a schedule. This schedule will guarantee that all the ACO formation components are evaluated. The health care administrator should not needlessly regulate the scope of the evaluation study, and standard procedures should be created for collecting and validating maximum data. The health care administrator should involve other stakeholders, budget assets for assessment, and create a system that will guarantee the independence of the evaluation progress. Lastly, the project team should develop a quality assurance procedure that encourages external review, improves the quality of information, and encourages uniformity.

Reference

Krishnan, M., Yun, S., & Jung, Y. M. (2019). Enhanced clustering and ACO-based multiple mobile sinks for efficiency improvement of wireless sensor networks. Computer Networks, 160, 33-40.

Thompson, S., Green, B., Vice, J., & Kelly, T. M. (2020). Assisting Students, Faculty and Staff with APA 7th and Hawkes–A Case Study in Effective Change Management.