Question

Identify two current environment trends that impact a healthcare organization’s strategy and discuss the short- and long-term implications of these trends.

Answer 1

The four major environmental trends that influences a health care organization’s strategy are

1. Information Technology
2. Changing Demographics
3. The Global Marketplace
4. Focus on Consumer

Information Technology and its effect on health care organization’s strategy

Technological change has been rapid in the past few years and is a factor in the external environment that constantly exerts pressure on the health care organization. If the organization do not adapt sufficiently quickly to technological change, they risk losing market.The HIPAA Privacy, Security and Transaction Rules are driving more practitioners into the information age.

Experts predict a complete shift to electronic client records within the next 10 years, with increasing use of "smart" technology and expert systems facilitates enhanced decision support and clinical management. Also the current electronic health record systems are becoming more user friendly and less annoying. This unavoidable development will allow for new ways to monitor health behaviors, track essential data elements, and document treatment and progress.

Short term implications:

• Fear of technology to the health care personnel
• Market shift that favors integrative, full-service providers
• Initial capital cost to the organization to implement the technology into the system, but a delayed return
• Access to more complete, accurate client records
• Need for a culture change in the organization
• Potential for information overload
• Need for safeguards to keep electronic health information confidential and secure

Long term implications:

• More automatic and less burdensome record keeping
• Increased efficiency and cost effective in long run
• More knowledgeable, better-informed clients
• Increasing transparency, with clients and payers scrutinizing practitioners' performance data
• High productivity
• Clinical data on fingertips
• Helps in future research

Changing Demographics and its effect on health care organization’s strategy

Demographic shifts and societal changes are the major intensifying pressures on health systems. Ageing populations around the globe is driving up the demand for healthcare across the nations..

The world’s population is expected to increase by one billion people by 2025, according to a report by United Nations. Of that billion, 300 million will be people aged 65 or older, as life expectancy around the globe continues to rise due to good health care facilities. But an Additional need in healthcare resources and service innovation is needed globally to deliver the long-term care and chronic disease management services which is required by a rapidly increasing senior population.

Though these demographic changes will not be evenly distributed across the globe, however need for a globalized health care will always be a demand in future to meet the demographic shifts.

Short Term Implications:

• Need for health care practitioners to develop cultural competencies
• Language barriers may develop in treating non-English-speaking clients
• Complexity of treating clients with multiple health problems and geriatric care

Long Term Implications:

• Demand for culturally appropriate assessment, treatment and consultation
• Demand for services may exceed supply
• Publicly funded health care system may struggle to finance services for large aging population leading to a change in the policy of the health care agency
• Need for flexible and adaptive models to fit the new health economies by the organization