Assignment #4 – Healthcare Organization Customer “Field Trips”
For this assignment, you will “visit” two different healthcare organizations. These can be physical, on-site visits (highly encouraged) or virtual visits through the organizations’ website, social media sites, and other on-line manifestations. You are to take a “customer” perspective and cast a critical eye on how well the organization fulfills its stated mission, provides services, and finally, you will identify some strategic challenges it may be facing.
Please do not limit yourself only to physical facilities that offer healthcare services (e.g., hospitals, clinics, long term care facilities). Do consider organizations or programs that provide funding for healthcare services, wellness programs, or even offer healthcare advice. These may include insurers (e.g., Blue Cross Blue Shield), government-funded programs (Medicare, CHIP, state Medicaid Programs, etc.) or perhaps health advocacy and information organizations (American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, WebMD). You can even choose organizations that you now work for or have worked with in the in past.
When choosing the two organizations to visit, I recommend that you review the Final Health Policy and Advocacy Project first. You may want to select an organization for this assignment that you can also use for the Final Project.
This assignment contains three sections that you will need to complete for each of the organizations you select:
The table below will guide your investigation and field trip.
Notes:
| Background and Organizational Direction | |||||||||
| Student name: | |||||||||
| Organization name and website (list) | |||||||||
| Why did you select it? | |||||||||
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| Provide a brief description of the organization. Include its role in the healthcare system and its basic functions. | |||||||||
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| Seek out as much of the following as you can obtain:
a) Mission statement b) Vision statement c) Core values d) Strategic goals (At the very least obtain the mission statement. Strategic goals are rarely available on a website, but good chance you can find vision and mission and maybe even core values).
If you are unable to locate a list of core values, identify 2-3 core values that you believe may be underlying values of how this organization operates. If you are generating these yourself, you might want to check out sample core values of other similar organizations to get ideas of content as well as style in which core values are generally presented. |
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| Comment on what you observed in this (these) statement(s) – are they consistent or inconsistent with how you saw this organization prior to assembling this information? Be thoughtful and insightful here. | |||||||||
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| Identify three key stakeholders of this organization in their environment (external to the organization). For each of the stakeholders, in a sentence, explain the role they might have with this organization. | |||||||||
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| Identify three key external forces that significantly impact this organization in their general external environment. For each force, identify how this external force potentially influences this organization. | |||||||||
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| If you have had exposure to this organization: What organizational culture characteristics do you actually observe in this organization? Do they fit? Do they seem pervasive? Are they strong? (I recognize you may have limited ability to assess these, depending upon your situation)? Do you see reinforcers (as language, rewards, etc.) supporting these cultural characteristics?
If you have not had exposure to this organization: Suggest some organizational culture characteristics that you might want to create, ones that would be supportive of this organization’s mission. |
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| Strategic Mini-Assessment | |||||||||
| Complete a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis includes an assembly of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that an organization should consider as it proceeds with its strategic analysis and goal setting.
For the organization you selected above, reflect on this organization and list some real or potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (3-4 bullets for each category). Look at each of these individually, not in the matrix of combining them. These are not generally posted on a website but rather part of an internal brainstorming process. If this is an organization that you have not worked with or for, then strengths and weaknesses as internal factors will be the most difficult for you to assess but make your best thoughtful guess from afar. I do understand that these could be best guesses for you about this organization. A full SWOT analysis is generally a process of first individual assessments and then team members sharing their thoughts regarding these SWOTs to result in a better assessment of the situation faced by that organization. |
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| · Strengths
o · Weaknesses o · Opportunities: o · Threats o
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| Now consider the SWOTs that you identified above and use them to populate the TOWS matrix (below). A TOWS Matrix brings together strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats into a 4 x 4 matrix to assist in developing specific strategies.
You will generate possible strategies for this organization as a result of the TOWS matrix (link each of these to the specific findings from TOWS). Identify any other possible strategies that emerge for you as a result of this analysis along with your own reactions and experiences with this organization. I know this isn’t an easy process, particularly for an organization where you have not had direct involvement. The expectation here is that you put one strategy in at least two of the four combinations of SWOTs. |
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| Field Notes | |||||||||
| You are encouraged to physically visit your selected organizations, if possible. If you cannot, it expected that you take a thorough virtual tour through your organizations’ websites and social media accounts. | |||||||||
| Customer Tour: Take a tour of your organization as a customer with a particular reason for visiting.
First, identify who you are and your purpose for visiting the organization (you may choose to represent yourself or any stakeholder perspective): |
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| After touring the organization physically or virtually, comment on the ease or difficulty you had in finding the information that you needed/where you needed to go for services. Were there adequate signs and/or directions; was the website laid out in a logical manner so that you navigate it easily? Please do offer suggestions for improvement. | |||||||||
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| Are there ample opportunities to find help? For example, are information desks or kiosks available; can you find live help on the website or does the website have a robust FAQ and/or search capability? Is there an opportunity to pose questions to healthcare experts? | |||||||||
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| Comment on the organization’s accessibility efforts. Are both physical spaces and informational offerings accessible to individuals with disabilities? Provide both positive examples and areas that could be improved. | |||||||||
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| How has COVID 19 impacted this organization? Investigate and share how the organization has modified its processes, services, or even their physical layout. What is missing or needs to be improved? | |||||||||
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| Overall, did you feel that the organization is committed to a customer-first philosophy? Provide examples why or why not. | |||||||||
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| Re-review the organization’s mission, vision, and values above. Now that you have visited the organization, share your thoughts on how well you believe the organization reflects the goals laid out in those documents. Provide at least three examples how the organization is or is not reaching their stated aspirations. | |||||||||
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| Reflect on this assignment and what you learned of particular interest in taking this structured approach gaining understanding about this organization. Comment on any “ah-ha’s” (learnings) you had about the organization or the course material in completing this assignment. | |||||||||
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Cite sources below (note I would expect only the mission, vision, etc. to have a reference here as the rest is not answered from other sources but your own observations and thoughts about this organization):
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