Determinants of Effective Healthcare Planning Process

Running head: MANAGEMENT CARE PROCESS
Management care process
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1MANAGEMENT CARE PROCESS
Answer 1 a
With the introduction of fast paced technology and complexity of healthcare processes
and preference for patient centered care, there is a need to engage in careful and flexible
healthcare planning process (Butler et al. 2014). Certain determinants will play an important role
in engaging in effective health care planning process. One of the determinants is the skills of
health workforce and the availability of adequate health care staffs. This is because a flexible and
accessible health service requires diverse range of skillful workers to fulfill the health needs of
the population. Nancarrow (2015) argues that health workforce failed to respond effectively to
health care demands because of several restrictions imposed by professional boundaries and
funding models. These issues reduce workforce flexibility as well as contribute to additional
medical cost and inefficiencies. Hence, workforce flexibility is a major determinant while
shaping the effective health care planning process. Current health workforce are bound to
traditional role boundaries and flexible workforce can address health care accessibility issues by
eliminating the need for training all staffs and the time lost in training. Health workforce is major
challenges for health care system today and embracing policies related to workforce flexibility
can help to address workplace shortage as well as increase the opportunity to provide patient-
centered care (Humphreys et al. 2017).
` Clinical governance structure is also one of the determinants needed for planning an
effective health care system. Government plays a vital role in intervening at the right and
implementing action to improve equity and governance. Hence, to strengthen the function of the
health care system, focusing on governance and service delivery is necessary. They can influence
outcome of the health care planning process by the generation of human resources and
strengthening the health care systems. Therefore, government can play a role in addressing

2MANAGEMENT CARE PROCESS
health inequalities, promoting health care financing and responding to the needs of the
population. The values and effective integration of patient centered care is also necessary to
increase the quality of care and promote patient satisfaction. The main advantage of patient
centered care is that it can promote patient-staff partnership, enhance flexibility in health care
provisions and denounce traditional approach to care.
Presence of appropriate resources determines the quality of health service and
effectiveness of the health care system. The most common gap in hospital setting is that health
care resources are limited, but the patient expectation is high (Mosadeghrad 2014). Current,
clinical leaders focus on getting all advanced medical technology and equipments to achieve
positive health outcomes. However, despite introduction of medical technologies, efficacy of the
health care is hampered because of lack of collaboration of care. The study by O'connor et al.
(2016) has revealed that poor collaboration with team results in poor team function and high
level of risk to patient. The study investigated about the situations that lead to poor team work
and found that poor quality of collaboration was the most commonly identified reason for poor
teamwork. Hence, level of collaboration can be regarded as one of the factor that can influence
effective health care planning process. To move ahead with the goal of flexible and effective
health care system, there is a need to focus on factors that improve collaboration process between
health care team. Morley and Cashell (2017) gave an insight into the structural, psychological
and educational determinants of collaboration. Structural determinants include the physical and
organization environment such as physical structure, functionality and communication mode.
Psychological determinants include presence of mutual trust and respect, willingness to
collaborate and communication process. Educational determinants include skills training and
giving clear understanding regarding roles and expectations in care.

3MANAGEMENT CARE PROCESS
Communication and efficient care coordination among multi-disciplinary team and health
consumers is also a necessary element for promoting efficiency during care planning. This is also
necessary considering the importance and preference for patient-centered care currently.
Clinicians or health workers work in a stressful environment often working overtime to provide
care to patient. However, main reason for dissatisfaction with the job and poor quality of care is
the poor alignment of the organizational culture and poor preparedness to accurately respond to
patient needs. This signifies that communication structure and organizational culture is a
necessary determinant affecting the efficiency of the health care system (Smith et al. 2013).
Current research evidence pays special emphasis to enhance the multi-disciplinary care
coordination protocol as it is associated with improved measures of care quality. Development of
a standardized protocol can play a role in improving patient assessment, care coordination and
length of hospital stay. Lau and Dhamoon (2017) also gave the evidence that when a
multidisciplinary round protocol was implemented in an academic medical center, improvements
in the care coordination and patient outcome is seen. Therefore, to realize the goals of an
efficient and flexible health care system, implementation of new communication and decision
making paradigms particularly for vulnerable population group such as low income group and
racial minority group is essential.
Answer 1b
While conducting search on the determinants that play a role in shaping an effective
health care planning process, two challenges has been identified in using addressing those
determinants during the planning process. Firstly, maintaining workforce flexibility will be a
difficult task particularly in low-density setting. One of the objectives of the World Health
Organization is to maintain sufficient number of health workers to achieve Millennium