Beacon Edge Care Home: Strategies for Change in Healthcare Services

This report analyzes the process of facilitating changes within the Beacon Edge Care Home, a facility providing services to dementia and chronic neurological patients. The introduction highlights the importance of identifying problems and implementing strategies for positive outcomes in healthcare. Task 1 delves into the internal and external factors driving change, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental influences (PESTLE), as well as internal strengths and weaknesses (SWOT). Task 2 outlines strategies for measuring changes, such as questionnaires, interviews, rating scales, and surveys, along with criteria for assessing their effectiveness, including customer and staff satisfaction. It also discusses the impact of recent changes, including improvements in service, staff skills, resource allocation, and accountability. Task 3 focuses on the principles of change management, planning, and monitoring alterations within the care home. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for continued improvement in health and social care services.

FACILITATING CHANGES IN HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Key factors that drive changes...............................................................................................3
1.2 Key challenging factors change bring to health and social care services..............................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Strategy and criteria for measuring recent changes...............................................................6
2.2 Measuring impact of recent changes......................................................................................7
2.3 Evaluation of impact of recent changes.................................................................................8
2.4 Appropriate service responses to recent changes...................................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Key principles of change management................................................................................10
3.2 Planning of changes in health and social care organization................................................12
3.3 Monitoring of recent changes..............................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Change is the transitional and dynamic process through which organizations can
transform its operation from current state to desired outcome. Before implementing
modifications it is necessary to look upon its negative and positive aspects as these changes
impact on service users and providers both. In health care organization it is very important to
identify the root cause of problems, make strategies accordingly and then implement alterations
so that positive results can come out (Brock and et.al, 2013).
For the present report Beacon Edge Care Home is being taken into account. It provides
clinical services to dementia and chronic neurological patients. Cited firm focuses on developing
flexible live-in care services so that it can meet with the needs of users. Assignment will explain
the key factors which drive changes in health and social care services. Several strategies will be
formulated for measuring alteration, so that positive results can come out. Impact of recent
modifications will be measured in this study and evaluation of overall impact will be done. Key
principles of change management will be discussed in this report (van de Poll-Franse, Nicolaije
and Ezendam, 2017). Planning of changes and monitoring of these alterations in health and
social care services will be done in this assignment.
TASK 1
1.1 Key factors that drive changes
There are many external and internal factors that can drive changes in the health and
social care organizations. Care home can make effective control over internal elements but it has
no control over external components. These factors influence working of Beacon Edge Care
Home to great extent (Hyatt-Burkhart, 2014). External factors (PESTLE) are discussed as
below:
Political: Government time to time update its legislation and set new standards for health
care organizations, so that patients can get advanced services in the hospitals. It is necessary for
Beacon Edge Care Home to follow all these laws so that it can meet with the needs of users.
These laws drive changes in the cited firm as care home is required to make changes in its
clinical methods so that efficiency of the workplace can get improved. Health Act 1999, NHS
and Community care act 1990 force care homes to provide excellent care services to their
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patients, to match with the standards of CQC and to work ethically it becomes necessary or the
firms to make modification in their working practices. NHS continuous paying focus on training
of medical professionals, that development reduce existing demarcation lines (MacNeill and
et.al, 2014).
Economic: It is another importance factor that drive changes in the Beacon Edge Care
Home. Cost of medical treatment is continuous rising that force care homes to make necessary
modification in their existing services so that they can reduce their cost and can deliver excellent
care services to patients. Now it has created pressure on workforce to develop skills so that
provide quality care to users and can run their operation in cost effective way (Happell, Platania‐
Phung and Scott, 2013).
Social: This is another components that force for making changes in the care home. As
users belong to different culture, their values, tradition are differed from the medical staff. So for
providing effective care services Beacon Edge Care Home will have to make changes in its
treating methods.
Technology: In the modern advanced era there are many technical equipment's and
machinery which can provide excellent services to patients. Earlier these machinery were not in
the workplace but to render quality care cited firm will have to modify its operations and have to
train its medical professionals so that they can render quality care to users (Douglas and et.al,
2014).
Legal: It is the factor that drive changes in the health care organization. Legislation and
standards get changed any time. It is necessary for health care organization to follow these laws
and match the standard. For meeting these standards it becomes necessary for the care home to
make modification in the workplace.
Environment: It is another element that drive changes in the health care organization.
Care home needs to look upon the environment condition and accordingly they have o provide
treatment to the service users.
SWOT analyses (Internal factors):
Apart from external elements, there are many internal factors that drive changes in the
Beacon Edge Care Home :
Strength Weakness
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 Skilled medical professionals.
 Strong relationship with charitable
trusts.
 Superior reputation in the health care
sector so patients trust on practitioner.
 Lack of awareness in medical
professional regarding their roles and
responsibilities.
 Low staff morale and unsafe
environment.
By identifying its strength cited firm can
improve its efficiency and can overcome from
its weakness.
These weaknesses can help the firm in
identifying the internal problems so
management can prepare strategies to make
necessary modification in the workplace for
improvements.
1.2 Key challenging factors change bring to health and social care services
There are many challenges that are faced by Beacon Edge Care Home at the time of
making changes in the care home. Key challenging factors are as following:
Resources (Financial and human): Beacon Edge Care Home is having limited budget and
resources that pull it back from changing its practices and service standards. It has limited staff
members, limited economical and technological equipment's. That create challenge for the cited
firm and hinder its performance. As due to limited budget it can not hire skilled medical
professionals and can not give training to existing work force regarding the latest technologies
(Kilpatrick and et.al, 2014).
Employee resistance: It is another main key challenge which is aced by Beacon Edge
Care Home. As staff members do not accept modifications easily as they first resists it that create
problems for the cited firm.
Communication gap: As language, culture, values, belief of staff members are differed
from each other. So that create problem in communication and due to ineffective coordination
care home fails to make people understand about the necessity of changes. Due to this firm fails
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to manage its staff members well and that it why changes can not take place on time (Edwards
and et.al, 2014).
Ineffective leadership: As ineffective leadership of manager create challenge for the
Beacon Edge Care Home and it fails to accomplish its objectives and vision. Authorities do not
involve its staff members in decision making process that demoralize them and people do not
support firm well at the time of making changes.
Training: Medial professionals of cited firm are skilled but they are unaware with their
responsibilities (Dziegielewski, 2013). Due to this Beacon Edge Care Home can not train them
because it has to first make them understand with their duties so that confusions do not take
place. Management is very poor that is why people do not get training on time, that is obstacle
for the change management in the organization.
Equipment: Due to lack of financial resources cited firm is not able to implement such
high cost equipment in the care home. That creates challenge for the medical professionals and
they find it difficult to provide effective care services to patients in the absence of advanced
equipment.
Lack of management support: Higher authorities of Beacon Edge Care Home do not give
medical professionals support that demotivate them and they feel incapable to perform the duties
well.
TASK 2
2.1 Strategy and criteria for measuring recent changes
It is necessary to make modifications in the working practices, criteria is the set
benchmark which organizations want to earn. It is essential to identify the improvement areas
and take a decision of making modifications. Beacon Edge Care Home needs to devise strategy
to carry out the alterations in the workplace:
Questionnaire
It is the great tool in which management of cited firm can ask questions with customers
and other staff members regarding working practices of the organization. It would help in
knowing the root cause of problems, by this way management will be able to make necessary
modifications on this. It can be in the form of quantitative and qualitative. In the qualitative
method cited firm can ask view points, feelings of respondents and in the quantitative methodit
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can use statistical data for making strategies (Keegan and et.al, 2014). Management can fill this
questionnaire through face to face meeting or via mail. It would help in collecting relevant data.
The major benefit of this strategy is that it can save time of Beacon Edge Care Home and it
would not affect reliability of the operations. On other hand it may be possible that people do not
give actual answers of questionnaire. Interpretation can be tough because people give answer as
per their emotional level so it might be possible that actual situation can not be identified.
Interview
It is another tool which can be used by Beacon Edge Care Home for collecting
quantitative and qualitative information before making changes in the workplace. The major
advantage of this tool is that management of cited firm can capture behavior of interviewee and
can identify the actual subject matter (Labonte and et.al, 2014). On other hand it is time
consuming and costly method. This method can give relevant detail regarding development
areas, lacking points etc. By this way care home will be able to make changes in the organization
that would give positive results to the firm.
Rating scale:
It is another strategy that can help in measuring changes. Cited firm can rate its
improvement and on the basis of the rates it can give rank to the improvements in the
organization. That helps in identifying the shortcomings and making further strategies for the
improvements.
Survey
Beacon Edge Care Home can conduct survey for gathering data related to improvement
areas. It can ask questions with service users it would help in gathering valid information within
less time duration. Reliability of this tool is very high so it can give optimistic results to the
organization. With the help of survey care home can know about variety of issues and can
analyses its current performance. It would help to identify the needs and expectation of patients
so that Beacon Edge Care Home can modify its operations accordingly (Waterson, 2014).
Beacon Edge Care Home can prepare and fill up questionnaire with service users in a
structured way this will help in fulfilling the objective of the care home.
Criteria: The actual effectiveness of the strategies can be measured by the changes occurred after
implementing these strategies. Cited firm can measure it by looking upon customer satisfaction
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level. If patients are satisfied with the services after changes that means strategies are worthwhile
and by this way care home can accomplish its objectives. Staff satisfaction is another criteria of
measuring changes. As in the interview authorities can identify the necessity of changes and can
modify its operations accordingly. After making alteration in the process if staff members are
satisfied and happy then it can be said that overall strategies and modifications are good for the
organization.
2.2 Measuring impact of recent changes
For the health care organizations it is essential to make necessary changes in the
workplace so hat it can render quality care services to its patients. This would help in increasing
trust of users and that would improve working efficiency of the care home. Beacon Edge Care
Home is required to make modification in the services, skills of staff members, resource
allocation, accountability etc (Kumar and et.al, 2015). These alterations impact on the health care
organization to great extent:
Impact on Beacon Edge Care Home
Efficiency and effectiveness: Changes can help in improving overall performance of the
organization to great extent (Xiong and et.al, 2016). This helped the cited firm in meeting with
the standards, now patients are getting immediate treatment by medical professionals.
Miscommunication due to language barrier has been reduced effectively. Now care home is able
to maintain confidentiality in the workplace, patients now trust more on doctors and they discuss
their issues openly with medical professionals. Now it is providing quality care services to its
patients because medical staff are well trained with the latest technologies and they treat well to
service users (Brewer, 2016).
Timely response: Now practitioners are able to response to patients on time. That has
enhanced their satisfaction level to great extent.
Cost reduced: Changes have impact positive on the Beacon Edge Care Home as
operation cost of the care home has been reduced (Brewer, 2016).
Impact on staff members
Modifications have impact on the medical professionals of Beacon Edge Care Home
positively. Changes in the relocation of services has helped the staff members in understanding
their role and responsibilities (Xiong and et.al, 2016). Technological changes have enhanced
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their skills because of training provided by management to medical professionals. Earlier Beacon
Edge Care Home was suffering from high turnover of practitioners as they were not satisfied.
But training and development in the technical equipment have enhanced their skills that has
increased their satisfaction level (Rees, Payne and Houlahan, 2015). Now they are satisfied and
employee turn over has been decreased to great extent. Now people work in the organization
well and they put their best efforts for rendering quality services to patients.
Impact on service users
Due to changes in the services and treating methods satisfaction level of patients have
been increased. They are more satisfied and that has build trust of them (Xiong and et.al, 2016).
Now they discuss heir problems openly with doctors so that they can get right treatment at right
time. Families and friends of patients are also satisfied because medical professionals of Beacon
Edge Care Home are discussing with them in polite language (Xiong and et.al, 2016). Medical
professionals take feedback from patients that enhance their confident and build relationship with
them. Sign language, positive body language has reduced communication gap. Apart from this
implementation of technologies and electronic record keeping system has increased satisfaction
level of serve users and their families (Lachman, Runnacles and Dudley, 2015). For instance, by
making changes in the care home medical staff members will be able to do Nobel tasks for the
social welfare. That would help in improving the condition of the population to great extent. It
will impact positively on the management of medicine. As management level person will be able
to identify drawback in their management styles and they will involve more to the lower staff.
By this way medical services will get improved significantly (Xiong and et.al, 2016).
2.3 Evaluation of impact of recent changes
It has been identified that Beacon Edge Care Home needs lots of changes in the
workplace. These modifications have impact on the working practices of the organization to
great extent. Earlier staff members of care home were not taking much interest in its working but
training and feedback have enhanced their engagement in the organization and they actively
participate in the changing process. It has impact positive on the care home as cited firm can
make effective strategies and policies and an implement it without any resistance of staff
members. Training has increased cost of the Beacon Edge Care Home and now it has to enhance
its budget figure to provide information about the latest technologies. Cost enhancement is the
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negative impact on changes in the workplace (Xiong and et.al, 2016). Besides this thing, it can
be evaluated that training and feedback are good for the health care organization, As by this way
staff members will feel involved and they will be able to deliver quality services to the staff
members. But getting manager registered help can impact positive and it can improve the overall
efficiency of care services of the care home. By this way cited firm can evaluate that whether
waiting time is being reduced or not. Apart from this it can measure the satisfaction level of
patients with the help of registered (Xiong and et.al, 2016). It will help in decreasing confusion
related to responsibilities of doctors thus, service quality will get improved.
Implementation of performance development system or analyzing system has helped the
Beacon Edge Care Home in knowing the lacking areas, so that management can take necessary
actions to overcome its weakness. But they have to maintain the PAS system that is why
operational cost of the organization can get increased. Recent modifications have enhanced the
satisfaction level of users and their family members. As they now trust more on medical
professionals of Beacon Edge Care Home. Due to this brand image of the care home has
increased. Waiting time for patients have been reduced but there is requirement of continuous
monitoring the performance otherwise it may get changed ant time. As some staff members were
not having that qualifications and some were highly qualified (North and Kumta, 2014). So
common training program have no given extra knowledge to such highly skilled persons.
Changes have impact positively on the users now they are giving positive feedback about the
care home. But Beacon Edge Care Home has not focused on safety criteria and risk management
strategies were not effective.
From the above evaluation it can be concluded that changes have given positive results to
the Beacon Edge Care Home but still there are chances of improvement and continuous
monitoring. So that policies and procedures followed by the staff members strictly. Cited firm
has to form a team that can observe and monitor staff member's performance and can look upon
the further improvements. By this way it would be able to develop and render quality services in
the workplace (Boone, 2015).
2.4 Appropriate service responses to recent changes
There are various ways through which Beacon Edge Care Home can improve its services
and can deliver quality care services to patients. Changes in structure and policy of the care
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home can help in reducing waiting time of patients. By this way service users would be able to
get immediate treatment that would help in building strong relationship with patients (Boone,
2015). Apart from this, changes in structure and policies would be beneficial for the staff
members as well, as they will be able to spend more time with patients and will be able to
identify their problems. It would help them in providing quality care services to them. It would
help in improving efficiency of the workplace and it will enhance satisfaction level of patients to
great extent (Successful Change Management — Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, 2017).
From the report it has been identified that cited firm is not able to meet with the needs of
users. As people want advanced treatment and timely prescriptions for their disease. But due to
lack of awareness doctors fail to provide them such treatment. By giving them advanced training
skills of medical professionals of Beacon Edge Care Home can get improved by this way they
will be able to treat patients well. Previous training programs were not that much effective
because of lack of presence of senior doctors. Cited firm has to scheduled training programns in
the presence of senior doctors so that they can also give their practical experience to lower staff
members (Top 7 Healthcare Trends and Challenges from Our Financial Expert, 2016). This will
give them practical and real life knowledge and they will be able to treat patients well. Apart
from this it should hire skilled persons in the workplace those who are capable to give quality
care services to patients. By ensuring continuous professional development (CPD) cited firm will
be able to improve its efficiency. The major issue in the care home is that staff are demotivated
due to lack of empowerment. But by effective leadership this problem can be resolved to great
extent. If leaders communicate well with the medical professionals and circulate necessary
information on time then they will feel comfortable (Boone, 2015).. Involvement of them in
decision making process can be effective solution and it will encourage them for performing
better. Another issue in the care home is that people are not skilled and they are not able to
handle advanced machinery (Xiong and et.al, 2016). But recruitment of right person at right
place can help in resolving such issue immediately. By this way users will get quality care
services in the cited firm.
Effective enforcement of legislation will have to run operations more ethically. By this
way no complications will take place in the organization. By introducing 360 degree
communication system in the workplace Beacon Edge Care Home will be able to reduce
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miscommunication issues. Person centered approach (PCA) would be effective technique and
risk will easily identify by the authorities and they will be able to formulate strategies which can
enhance coordination and can reduce risk of users. Cited firm needs to take feedback from
service users so that their needs can be analyzed by the managers and they can fulfill those by
providing quality care services to them (Boone, 2015).
TASK 3
3.1 Key principles of change management
Change management is the process through which organization can implement changes
in the workplace effectively. It supports in accomplishing goal and objective of he firmk to great
extent. There are several models which can help in successfully implementing modifications in
the organization such as Kubler Ross transition cycle, Kotter's eight step model, Lewin's change
model etc (Successful Change Management — Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, 2017).
John Kotter has given great model of change management which assist organizations in
making alterations in the workplace. It has eight steps which can lead to changes, these are as
below discussed:
Create urgency: Beacon Edge Care Home can create sense of urgency it would help in
creating motivational environment so that people can get to know about changes. As in the cited
firm the main issue is that staff embers are not motivated and they do not like their workplace.
Apart from this, users are not getting quality care services in the care home. For creating
alteration in the workplace cited firm can examine the market and can create catalyst for changes
(North and Kumta, 2014). This will develop an environment where people will look upon the
lacking points and they will rely the necessity of changes in the workplace. It can be done by
starting honest discussion with staff members and consumers both.
Form a powerful coalition: Ineffective leadership is another issues in the care home as
mangers do not support their lower staff members and do not involve them in decision making
process. Making modification in the existing workplace is not a easy task for that managers have
to take initiative and have to lead team. Strong leadership and support from the key persons can
form a powerful coalition. For achieving the vision manager of Beacon Edge Care Home will
have to develop effective strategies which can help in implementing changes in the workplace
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