Health Organization Case Study

Health Organization Case StudyNameInstitutionInstructorCourseDate Kindred Healthcare Case Study Kindred healthcare is a healthcare services company which aims at providing healthcare services to individuals in hospitals and home settings. This is meant to ensure that all citizens are able to access the right care at the right place and at the right time (Kindred Healthcare, 2019). Kindred company was founded in 1985 as Vencor, Inc. where the name was changed in 2001 as the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Kindred Healthcare Inc headquarters are located in Louisville, Kentucky with the organization having approximately 60,000 employees across 46 states in the United States (Kindred Healthcare, 2019). This healthcare services company has hospitals and rehab facilities across the United States where individuals can be able to access its services. With the company’s clinical care consistently exceeding national benchmarks where it addresses not only the physical needs of patients but emotional needs as well, the healthcare service provider has been able to provide tailored care to individual’s specific needs (Kindred Healthcare, 2019). Readiness to Address the Health Care NeedsKindred Healthcare has continued to provide healthcare services in over 2,250 locations through its subsidiaries with the healthcare services company developing 120 long-term care facilities, 224 rehabilitation centers, and 47 home care facilities across the nation (Wimberley, 2017). The organization has also a contract rehabilitation service business known as RehabCare which has been able to serve about 1500 non-affiliated facilities. This has led to the company being ranked as one of the most admired healthcare companies by the Fortune Magazine (Wimberley, 2017). The company’s main agenda includes providing appropriate care setting for individuals recovering from illnesses or injury. The company’s mission which is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity, and produce value for each patient and everyone served by the company describes its focus to address all patient’s needs effectively (Wimberley, 2017). Kindred Healthcare’s main objective is to provide healthcare to all individuals across different states of the United States and ensure that individuals who have been are receiving care or have injuries recover to the fullest extent possible (Wimberley, 2017). Strategic Plan That Addresses Issues Pertaining To Network GrowthKindred Healthcare has partnered with leading healthcare systems which has enabled the healthcare provider to continuously grow and expand to cover all populations across the United States. This has also led to improved quality healthcare (Hillestad, 2019). With the company believing that growth is the best way to minimize costs, mergers and acquisitions are common processes in the company. Although this initially brought some challenges to the healthcare provider, the healthcare team came up with automate and streamline strategy plan to replace the manual process used before that resulted in inaccurate data and was time-consuming (Hillestad, 2019). Merging and acquiring other healthcare organizations ensures that the company operates efficiently as patients are able to move among its facilities in different locations. This has led to a rapid growth of the organization with the company implementing Citrix desktop virtualization to integrate the new acquisitions. Citrix solutions have enabled Kindred workers to access corporate resources from any location across the 46 states. This is helpful to the organization’s employees who are able to access the resources they need that are important in carrying out their functions effectively (Hillestad, 2019). Strategic Plan That Addresses Issues Pertaining To Nurse StaffingThe company has developed strategies to combat the rehab talent shortage which are aimed at acquiring, retaining, and engaging nurses. Staffing issues can burden healthcare providers with additional costs that may also affect the quality of care. Recent predictions predict that the United States is expected to have a nursing shortage of more than 130,000 nurses by 2015 that will negatively affect specialized departments. For healthcare facilities aiming at preventing this impact, it is important for the facilities to optimize their recruitment and retention process. To prevent this, Kindred Healthcare has implemented recruitment best practices by engaging top recruiters that has enabled the company to identify the most qualified candidates for different roles in the organization. The company has displayed its culture to the public where candidates interested in applying for jobs at the company are able to research information about the organization’s workplace culture. The company has also developed and maintained a positive culture that enables all healthcare workers to perform at their best. This is also facilitated by high engagement that is one of the integral components of the organization. Active engagement has been achieved through providing access to training and education opportunities to the employees. This has improved employee satisfaction rates within the company as they are able to access career development opportunities. Other ways of retaining employees include having healthy team relationships, adequate work resources, clarity of the company’s objectives, and valuing employees. Strategic Plan That Addresses Issues Pertaining To Resource ManagementKindred Healthcare has a centralized control and management process that is carried out by XenDesktop and XenApp that also allows Kindred to enforce its policies regarding the utilization of the resources (Brooks & Williams, 2015). Kindred Healthcare has also implemented cloud-based email solutions in the aim of boosting employee collaboration. This has been helpful to the company in supporting employees who work in clinics and hospitals (Brooks & Williams, 2015). The company partnered with Microsoft Cloud Vantage Services which helped the company in deploying Office 365 for about 22,000 therapists where the company is able to provide the therapists with email and instant messaging services (Brooks & Williams, 2015). This partnership also improved communication within the company that has helped the company to strengthen its corporate culture as well as deliver improved patient care. Kindred Healthcare has partnered with Kindred Hospital Rehabilitation Services which is the largest contract manager of hospital-based rehabilitation programs across the nation (Brooks & Williams, 2015). This helps the company in resource allocation as well as optimal financial performance.A Strategic Plan That Addresses Issues Pertaining To Patient SatisfactionThe Fortune Magazine has ranked kindred Healthcare as one of the most admired healthcare companies for three consecutive years. This may be attributed to the company’s mission which is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity, and produce value for each patient and everyone served by the company (Kindred Healthcare, 2017). The company also focuses on delivering quality care and exceeding the expectations related to customer service. With the company being the largest provider of integrated care for patients with post-acute and chronic care needs, the company has provided important resources to ensure that patients are able to receive the right care for the right duration (Kindred Healthcare, 2017). Quality care is at the heart of everything that Kindred undertakes with the company also investing in its employees who are responsible for delivering healthcare services to patients. This has enabled the company to maintain patient satisfaction throughout its facilities. ConclusionThis study highlights the strategies implemented by Kindred Healthcare with some contributing to the high performance and effectiveness of the service provider while others have contributed to some of the challenges experienced by the company (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). With the company implementing clinical interventions that continuously support ongoing wellness as well as transparently reporting its performance to the public, this has enhanced trust between consumers of healthcare and the company leading to the current success experienced by the company (Kindred Healthcare, 2017). These strategies have also enabled the company to be ranked as one of the most admired healthcare companies by the Fortune Magazine. However, the company needs to focus on addressing some of the challenges as a result of the continuous merging and acquisition of different healthcare systems (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). ReferencesBrooks, S., & Williams, L. (2015). The Kindred Healthcare Model of Post-acute Care. Geriatrics Models of Care, 213. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=103716018&site=eds-live&scope=siteHillestad, S. (2019). Health Care Market Strategy: From planning to action. Burlington, Massachusetts Jones.Kindred Healthcare (1AD, September 2017). Kindred Reviews 2016 Accomplishments. Business Wire (English). Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=bizwire.c73084023&site=eds-live&scope=siteKindred Healthcare (2019). Caring for patients. Honoring life. retrieved from https://www.kindredhealthcare.com/Kindred Healthcare (2019). Home. Our Services. Kindred Rehabilitation Services. retrieved from https://www.kindredhealthcare.com/our-services/kindred-rehabilitation-servicesStanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.Wimberley, J. (2017). The Health Revolution: Give yourself the healthcare you deserve. Carbondale, CO: Lux Books.