Discussion:Considerations for Healthcare Delivery

Current and Future Considerations for Healthcare Delivery
Current and Future Considerations for Healthcare Delivery

Imagine that you are an administrator in a health services organization, and the CEO of your organization asks you to assess and report on developments that are likely to affect the organization’s success. What will you discover as you investigate changes in your community and the broader health care landscape?

In preparation for this Assignment, review your completed Week 3 Assignment, including any feedback you received from your Instructor. Select one organization from that Assignment on which to focus for this Assignment (i.e., imagine that this organization is the one in which you work).

Use the Learning Resources provided in this week, as well as previous weeks, and locate additional sources through the Walden Library and credible websites to conduct your research. Use the following questions to guide your investigation:

· What are the prevalent health concerns in this community?

· What are the key issues related to cost, quality, and access that affect the organization and the people this organization serves?

· Which organizations in this area are business competitors and/or which organizations use highly effective practices or strategies that this organization may learn from or adopt?

· How will demographics and health reform likely impact the organization, as well as the broader community, in the next 5 years?

Discussion:Considerations for Healthcare Delivery

Discussion:Considerations for Healthcare Delivery

Next, review the information on business writing included in the Learning Resources. Consider what the central point of your memo should be. For instance, is there a critical challenge the organization is likely to encounter? Does the information you have gathered suggest the need for a particular course of action or a new business direction? If so, use this memo to inform and influence the CEO. If not, share the findings of your research with the assumption that the CEO will use this information as a launching point for future discussions.

The Assignment

Write a business memo in which you address:

· Prevalent health concerns in the community

· Issues related to cost, quality, and access that affect the organization and the people it serves

· Organizations in the community that are business competitors and/or from which you can learn highly effective practices or strategies

· Ways in which changing demographics and health reform will likely affect your organization and the broader community in the next 5 years

General Guidance on Assignment Length: Your Assignment should be 3–4 pages, double-spaced (or 1–2 pages single-spaced), excluding a title page and references.

· Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2015). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

o Review Chapter 13, “Health Policy” (pp. 510–531)

o Review Chapter 14, “The Future of Health Services Delivery” (pp. 538–564)

· Buescher, B., & Viguerie, P. (2014). How US healthcare companies can thrive amid disruption. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems_and_services/how_us_healthcare_companies_can_thrive_amid_disruption

· The OWL at Purdue University. (2015). Sample memo. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/590/04/

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.