Faith Community Hospital

Faith Community Hospital

"With the foundation and commitment of our spiritual heritage and values, our mission is to promote the heath and well-being of the people in the communities we serve through a comprehensive continuum of services provides in collaboration with the partners who share the same vision and values."

This mission statement explains the goal and purpose of Faith Community Hospital. Unfortunately, it seems that a large number of employees either forget the meaning of the mission statement or have made their own. At the present time, there does not seem to be a clear direction for the employees to follow. In order to get everyone on track and make this hospital successful, we must focus on three preliminary areas. The three areas are organizational processes, ethics issues, and communication systems. In order to effectively correct the tribulations that plague Faith Community Hospital, we must first get to the root of the underlying problems.

All companies, including not-for profits, must make enough money in order to stay in business. At the present time, Faith Community Hospital is having difficulty in their organizational processes which is affecting the overall operations. Currently, Faith Community Hospital has a seven percent decrease in patient population. The cost per patient last year was $217, this year it has risen to $240. This increase along with the decrease in patient population has had a negative impact on the revenue earned. In addition, twenty-eight percent of the costs are fixed costs. Unfortunately increasing patient count is not easily done, unless there is extensive marketing done, which requires money. First items to address are analyzing the fixed costs. All contracts must be reviewed and renegotiated, if feasible. In addition, the hospital's payor mix should be thoroughly reviewed and analyzed. Identifying the percentage of patients according to financial classification will reveal a multitude of information. For example, if Medicare patients are a large percentage of the payor mix, Faith Community Hospital can gear programs to the elderly population. Identifying the self-pay population may allow further investigation as to where these patients are coming from. For example, a large portion of the self-pay population may be contributed to non-insured patients that cannot afford healthcare or international patients seeking superior treatment in which money is not an issue. If we identify that there are a substantial number of international patients, the creation of an international concierge position will provide one-on-one services to a patient population that has the funds to pay for any services necessary. Due to the financial hardship of the hospital, restructuring or shifting employee personnel may allow for this type of position. If in fact there is a large percentage of an indigent patient, further reviewing what geographical areas these patients are coming from may allow limiting entrance to the hospital. When other hospitals / physicians identify an institution that will see any patients regardless of financial status, we may open the door to becoming the "dumping" ground for non-funded cases. There may be other community hospitals in the patient's geographic area that could handle their care.

Another key area that needs to be addressed is ethical issues. Ethics is the accepted standards in terms of an individual's personal and social welfare (Velaszquez, 1998.) This can also be expressed, as what an individual believes is correct. However, individuals have different definitions of "ethical". Ethical can range from what an individual feels is right to one's personal religious beliefs. Business enterprises are the main economic institutions through which individuals in modern societies carry on the tasks of producing and distributing goods and services. In the case of Faith Community Hospital, they must provide the fundamental structures within which the employees can carry out the mission of the institution.

Ethical standards must be applied to the behavior of people in business organizations. Business activities cannot exist unless the employees involved in the business and its surrounding community adheres to some level of standards of ethics. The operation of Faith Community Hospital is a cooperative activity whose very existence mandates ethical behavior. Since businesses are unable to survive without ethics, then, it is in the best interest of Faith Community Hospital to promote ethical behavior both among its own staff as well as within the surrounding community. Faith Community Hospital must strive to educate their staff as to the "ethics" of the institution. A staff retreat might be a good place to start in delivering this message.

Faith Community Hospital employs a large employee workforce. With such a wide variety of ethnical backgrounds, there are many different beliefs and values among the employees of the hospital. Using the hospital's mission statement is an ideal way to find commonalities. Many different employees are constantly breaking hospital policy thinking they are doing what is best for the patient or doing what they believe to be religiously correct. For the most part, Faith Community Hospital is known for its religious heritage, not those of the employees that staff the hospital. The hospital ethics are geared at doing what is best for the hospital and the patients. Several key areas that need to be addressed are those of staff members who refuse to provide certain services due to religious beliefs as well as those that do not believe in DNR (Do not resuscitate) because they believe in doing all that can be done to save a life. In addition, all staff members that are "bending" the rules need to be addressed. For example, the pharmacist who is filling uninsured prescriptions as well as the counselors who are treating some clients' pro bono, must be explained the severity that their actions have on the hospital. These staff members are doing what they believe to be ethically correct, which is not necessarily wrong, but they must not act on their beliefs or values. They must follow the polices and