Jupiter Medical Centre

Hospitals provide treatment for a variety of diseases. Though many healthcare facilities are established across the world, the number of complications, infections and death rates is high in some clinics as compared to others. One such example is the Good Samaritan Hospital. Complications, infections and death rates directly affect the quality of standards set forth by hospitals. By examining and comparing the performance of the later, it becomes easier to identify alternative approaches that can be used to solve the issues above. The causes of the problems are directly linked to specific aspects, such as cost leadership, customer service problems, poor executive leadership and the loss of strategic vision. A good strategy always determines the quality of health care services and the reduced number of complications, infections and death rates. The strategy adopted by the Jupiter Medical Centre to deal with the issues has competitive advantage over the one used by the Good Samaritan Hospital.

Theoretical Concepts

Cost leadership is one of the strategies implemented by the Jupiter Medical Centre. It involves offering services at the lowest possible costs. Most clients prefer organizations that provide services at reduced costs. A comparison of prices for services set by the two hospitals reveals large disparities. Most options offered by the Jupiter Medical Centre are cheaper as compared to the ones at Good Samaritan Hospital. A good example is the cost of the treatment of transient ischemia, which is $4,36960 (“Jupiter Medical Center,” 2016). At Good Samaritan hospital, an individual has to pay $7,29410 (“Good Samaritan Hospital,” 2016). People lacking such amount of money are highly unlikely to receive the above service, and in the process, complications, death rates and infection indexes increase. Another important strategy followed by the Jupiter Medical Centre is an excellent customer service. Hospital’s patient satisfaction is a way above national performance values set as a threshold for all healthcare facilities. A good customer service ensures that the needs of patients are addressed making them feel valued in the process and increasing their return rates (Al-Balushi et al., 2014). As a result of good customer services, most patients recommend others to visit the Jupiter Medical Centre. Client-oriented medical settings have reduce rates of complications and infections since the needs of patients are adequately and urgently addressed. Apart from the two strategies above, medical center’s executive leadership has been effective too (Kumar, 2013). Similarly, hospital’s strategic vision helps to prevent the issues of complications and death rates. The effects of good executive leadership are directly linked with the commitment shown by medical professionals (Taplin, Foster, & Shortell, 2013). Their work is in tandem with the nationally accepted standards. The medical facility is working towards achieving its vision. Hospital’s score is 77%, while the highest index among other healthcare facilities is 88% (“Jupiter Medical Center,” 2016).

Competitor’s Problem

The Good Samaritan Hospital seems to be doing well against its competitors. However, a critical analysis of its internal divisions reveals the company has several problems relating to the use of wrong strategies. Patient experience is rated below the national levels meaning that some of hospital’s services are not pursuant to the required standards. In other words, the healthcare facility has deviated from its vision of providing quality care. When patient experiences are below the required levels, the hospital receives less recognition and does not act as a reference point (Al-Balushi et al., 2014). Additionally, it means that there are high cases of complications and death rates as compared to other healthcare centers. It is supported by the fact that the hospital has a higher number of deaths and issues that relate to poor customer service and the lack of leadership. Staff communication with other parties is considered to be below the required standards (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2013). Communication improves the quality of healthcare and the rating of hospitals. At Good Samaritan Hospital, the executive leadership has failed in its leadership role, since it has not addressed issues relating to staff communication (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Finally yet importantly, the cost of medical services at Good Samaritan Hospital is quite high as compared to other facilities. Sometimes high-quality care is directly related to high costs.  The same factor may reduce the number of people visiting the hospital setting.

Recommendations

Though the strategy used by the Good Samaritan Hospital may not necessarily be producing the required results, it is important to note that the healthcare facility is doing quite well in some areas. Good strategies improve the performance in the latter requiring efforts in addressing other issues. The Good Samaritan Hospital should come up with strategies that will reduce the cost of medical care without compromising its quality. One of the methods is seeking funds from both governmental and nongovernmental organizations interested in specific disease-related areas (Al-Balushi et al., 2014). Both healthcare settings should establish internal quality control measures that will greatly reduce any issues relating to patient experience. An internal standards department should be established to come with specific measures aimed at improving services (Al-Balushi et al., 2014). It ensures that healthcare will be above the national standards. This way, all institutions can increase their quality and reduce cases of complications, infections and death rates. Another recommendation is to change the type of the leadership style currently used at the Jupiter Medical Center and the Good Samaritan Hospital. The above settings directly deal with the lives of people, and therefore, there should be less room for decreasing the quality of healthcare. Transactional forms of leadership ensure that the executive leadership discharges duties in the required manner maintaining the importance of tasks in the hospital settings (Yoder-Wise, 2014).   

Conclusion

Strategies play an important role in the management of different organisations in the healthcare field. Cost leadership approaches, good executive leadership, proper customer service and the alignment of strategic goals with the vision of the organisation help reduce the number of complications, infections, and death rates.