Week 10: Project & Resource Management for health service organization

Week 10: Project & Resource Management for health service organization

Absorptive Capacity and Management of Innovation

In today’s evolving health care landscape, promotion of innovation for effective and efficient health care delivery on the part of HSOs is important in enacting positive social change. Whether such innovations attract new patients and revenue streams to fund future projects or they are directly tied to positive health outcomes, engaging in change management is a step in the right direction to move an HSO forward.

1. As a current or future health care administrator, what does it mean to engage in change management? How might you foster absorptive capacity when seeking to implement new technologies, new therapeutic techniques, or new approaches aimed at increasing project management for your HSO?

This week, you explore HSOs and their capacity to promote innovation. You examine how health care administrators enact certain strategies for organizational capacity for change. You also examine change management strategies for innovation and change in HSOs.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Analyze health services organizations’ capacity for innovation

· Analyze health care administrator assessment strategies to implement organizational capacity for change

· Evaluate change management strategies for innovation and change in health services organizations.

Learning Resources

Required Readings

Schwalbe, K., & Furlong, D. (2013). Healthcare project management. Minneapolis, MN: Schwalbe.

Chapter 6, “Managerial Problem Solving and Decision Making” (pp. 293–324)

Kash, B.A., Spaulding, A., Johnson, C.E., & Gamm, L. (2014). Success factors for strategic change initiatives: A qualitative study of healthcare administrators’ perspectives. Journal of Healthcare Management, 59(1), 65-81.

Kash, B. A., Spaulding, A., Gamm, L. D, & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Health care administrators’ perspectives on the role of absorptive capacity for strategic change initiatives: A qualitative study. Health Care Management Review, 38(4), 339–348.

Swensen, S. J., Dilling, J. A., Harper, C. M., & Noseworthy, J. H. (2012). The Mayo Clinic value creation system. American Journal of Medical Quality, 27(1), 58-65.

Discussion Part (3 Pages)

Organizational Strategies for Management of Innovation

Consider the following scenario:

Chris is the health care administrator for Health Innovations South, a large network of regional hospitals and care centers that provide direct patient care and engage in health research. In a recent market analysis, Chris discovered that Health Innovations South is ranked among the lowest 25% of all health networks in promoting patient engagement, interaction with providers, and access to health information. Chris also noticed that all health networks that ranked in the top 25% had fully implemented patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) that allow health care professionals and patients to interact with each other and access health information to make informed decisions and to promote positive health outcomes.

Chris decides to bring this matter to the board at their next meeting as a call for action to improve Health Innovations South’s performance in empowering health care professionals and patients with such innovation. Recognizing that such a change requires organizational capacity for fostering continued innovation in practice, Chris also realizes the inherent risk in mobilizing current resources toward development of a PCMH. However, electing to not move forward with the development of the PCMH may hinder Health Innovations South’s performance in the marketplace. As a health care administrator committed to innovation, Chris is confident that such a move is indeed necessary.

1. For this Discussion, reflect on the scenario presented and consider the strategies that you, as a current or future health care administrator, might implement to improve organizational capacity for innovation.

By Day 3

2. Post an explanation of how an HSO might develop organizational capacity for innovation. Explain how you as a current or future health care administrator might assess the readiness of an HSO to develop organizational capacity for change. Then, explain how your organization might implement change management strategies for innovation, and explain why you would use those strategies. Be specific and provide examples.

By Day 5

Continue the Discussion and challenge or support the strategies detailed by your colleagues.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 10 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5

To participate in this Discussion: Week 10 Discussion