Question

The ACA provided more people access to affordable healthcare insurance. The idea being that people who previously could not afford to get care could now do so. However, healthcare managers are now dealing with a shortage of various types of staff. This included providers, nurses, and diagnostic technicians.

Identify and discuss 3 methods that a healthcare manager can use to deal with increasing patient loads and a decreasing staff. What is the potential impact on patients? What is the impact on the existing staff? Where can patients get care if there are not enough primary care providers to see them?

Answer 1

Healthcare Industry: The healthcare industry is an ongoing sector which provides services to its patients in terms of curing and providing all other types of medical facilities. This sector needs to improve its functioning at a very high pace to match the fastest growing population and types of diseases at the same amount of speed as healthcare is a very important part of any economy.

In the above case of ACA where more access to affordable healthcare insurance is provided so the people who previously could not get care could now do so. This situation can create a few problems for the healthcare managers.

Methods that can be used by the healthcare manager to deal with the increasing patient load and decreasing staff:

1. Use data to identify the requirement of the staff : Since the staffing is the main expense for any healthcare facility it is important to manage the cost carefully by using flexible staffing method. In this method the staff or medical professionals are hired on the basis of actual requirement by hiring the staff on part time of hourly basis.
2. Managing Vendors : Through this method the cost of supply can be reduced it may include encouraging the contracts with the vendors for a longer tenure and taking fiscally responsible decision.
3. Outsourcing Services : Services such as client management, accounts management etc can be outsourced which reduces cost, efforts resulting in more efficient outcomes.

Impact on the patients:

1. Reduced Cost: Appropriate planning by the health managers can reduce the cost of treatment which directly benefits the patients and encourage them to take services from them.
2. Uninterrupted Services: Adequate staffing can help in providing consistent services to its patients without any delay resulting in better handling of emergency cases.
3. Customer Satisfaction and Reputation: When the patients will be more satisfied with the services it will automatically gain reputation in the market.

Impact on the existing staff:

1. Adequate Pay: When the labor turnover is appropriate the distribution of the salary is properly divided among the staff. They get well paid for all the efforts.
2. Motivation: When the health professional knows about its duties and responsibilities he can work more efficiently.
3. Employee Satisfaction : When there is a proper implementation of management strategies employees does not feel pressurized making them more satisfied with their jobs wanting them to stay for longer period of time.

In case patients do not get enough primary care services he would have to spend more money for primary healthcare services which cannot be afford by everyone. In few cases some people will choose the option of visiting other countries to avail cheaper healthcare services country such as Malaysia, Thailand, India etc.