NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Paper details

Develop a 4–7-page business case for the initiative you proposed in Assessment 1 (attached below). Examine feasibility and cost-benefit considerations over a 5-year period, analyze ways to mitigate risks, and complete a cost-benefit analysis.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

Assessment Instructions

Develop a business case for the economic initiative you proposed in Assessment 1. Examine the feasibility and cost-benefit considerations of implementing your proposed initiative over the next five years. Analyze ways to mitigate risks and complete a cost-benefit analysis.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft business case to Smarthinking for feedback before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Requirements

The requirements for your business case, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, be sure to note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

•  Analyzes the potential economic opportunities and risks associated with a proposed initiative. Draws sound conclusions based on an astute comparison of clearly articulated risks and benefits. Reconciles conflicting data.
  • How do the potential opportunities benefit your organization or care setting?
  • How could potential risks pose a threat to the financial security of your organization or care setting?
  • How do the potential economic opportunities compare to the potential economic risks?
•  Proposes ethical and culturally sensitive solutions that address the risks associated with an initiative to the future economic security of the organization or care setting. Justifies proposed solutions and articulates underlying assumptions.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • Which risks are potentially the most significant for your organization or care setting?
    • How could you modify your proposed initiative to mitigate those risks?
    • How have other organizations and experts in the field dealt with similar risks?
  • How do ethics and equality factor into your proposed solutions?
    • Are your solutions unfairly burdening or disadvantaging any specific groups?
  • How will this proposal affect community health care delivery outcomes?
    • What makes this a great opportunity for economic growth?
    • What potential issues should be considered?
•  Analyzes the economic costs and benefits of a proposed initiative over a five-year period. Impartially examines potential negative implications or consequences of the initiative and provides clear, justifiable recommendations for using analysis findings in deciding on the feasibility of the initiative.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • Use the Cost-Benefit Analysis Template [XLSX] for your calculations. Add the worksheet to your business case as an appendix.
  • Does your analysis warn against specific aspects of your proposed initiative?
  • How would you recommend that your findings be incorporated into decisions about the feasibility of your proposed initiative?
•  Proposes ethical and culturally equitable ways of keeping costs under control, while maximizing the benefits of an initiative. Clearly articulates trade-offs underlying fully justified and effective strategies to control or reduce costs, mitigate risk, and maximize benefits.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • What costs are you most likely to be able to control or reduce?
    • How would you go about ensuring this?
  • How could controlling or reducing these costs affect the benefits of your proposed initiative?
    • What strategies could you employ to maintain or maximize these benefits, while controlling or reducing costs?NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • How do you plan to ensure that any cost controls or benefit reductions are ethical and equitable?
•  Justifies the relevance and significance of the quantitative and qualitative economic, financial, and scholarly evidence used to support a business case. Presents a persuasive argument strengthened by explicit evaluation criteria and a perceptive interpretation and synthesis of the evidence.
  • This criterion applies to any evidence you cited throughout your business case. Your evidence should be persuasive and relevant to your findings, proposals, and recommendations. Consider one or more of the following questions when citing support evidence:NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
    • How is the evidence relevant to your organization or care setting?
    • How is the evidence relevant to your proposed economic initiative?
    • How does the evidence illustrate a solution that has been successful in the past?
    • How does the evidence illustrate that an initiative or solution is likely to be a net benefit to the organization or care setting?
• Writes concisely and directly. Conveys precise and unequivocal meaning through clear and consistent use of active voice.
  • Proofread your document before you submit it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your business case.
•  Exhibits strict and nearly flawless adherence to APA 7th edition formatting of in-text citations and references.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:

• Format: Format your business case using APA current style. Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX]. An APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your business case. Be sure to include:
  • A title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • Appropriate section headings.
• Length: Your business case should be 4–7 pages in length, not including the title page and references page.
• Supporting evidence: Cite 4–5 authoritative and scholarly resources to support your business case. Be sure that your sources include specific economic data.

Note: Faculty may use the Writing Feedback Tool when grading this assessment. The Writing Feedback Tool is designed to provide you with guidance and resources to develop your writing based on five core skills. You will find writing feedback in the Scoring Guide for the assessment, after your work has been evaluated.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Portfolio Prompt: You may choose to save your business case to your ePortfolio.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
  • Analyze the potential economic opportunities and risks associated with a proposed initiative.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • Analyze the economic costs and benefits of a proposed initiative over a five-year period.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
  • Propose ethical and culturally equitable ways of keeping costs under control, while maximizing the benefits of an initiative.
• Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.
  • Justify the relevance and significance of the quantitative and qualitative economic, financial, and scholarly evidence used to support a business case.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization\’s resources and its ability to provide quality care.
  • Propose ethical and culturally sensitive solutions that address the risks associated with an initiative to the future economic security of the organization or care setting.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
  • Write concisely and directly using active voice.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Introduction

The Tiptop Medical Centre core services has been to provide emergency care with its Emergency Department (ED) being the center for its operations. Of recent, the management has thought of improving the emergency operations as a way of an economic initiative by establishing an interprofessional coordination office that will be responsible for the oversight and coordination of different departmental activities and teams that support the emergency department in its everyday operations. The coordination office will not only be responsible for the smooth running of the emergency operations but as well, it will be an improvement methodology that will see the facility increase its revenue earnings (Vile et al., 2017). This business case analysis will provide a detailed overview of the cost-benefit analysis and the financial implications of implementing the proposed economic initiative for the next 5 years. The case will also focus on the initiatives associated risks, as well as the ways to control costs and maximize benefits out of it.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Opportunities Associated with the Proposed Economic Initiative

To establish the risks and opportunities associated with the proposed interprofessional initiative at the Tiptop Medical Centre, an analysis of the environmental and economic factors was conducted in the due course. Having been situated along a major highway, the Tiptop Medical Centre primarily cares for the emergency cases mostly those which emanate from the accident-related events along the highway. Having distinguished itself as an emergency critical care center, and due to the preference rate of accidents recorded along the major highways, the Tiptop Medical Centre receives between 40-60 emergency cases a day as its location and capacity to handle emergency cases places it above the rest of the facilities within its locality.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

The proposed coordination office will give the facility flexibility in executing its emergency operations through reduction of delay and poor services that emanate from the poor coordination and reluctant of support department in offering the required services to the ED department (Vile et al., 2017). This means that with the office in place, the emergency cases will be handled effectively and the department maximum capacity of 80-100 patients a day can be achieved from what the department currently handles. This increase in patient turnover will be pushed by the supply emanating from a created demand through the provision of high-quality services through patient care management.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Moreover, the bettering of services will place the Tiptop Medical Centre at a level that is able to compete with other similar facilities in the region. With a targeted increase of daily patients of between 20-40 patients, the intended cost implication will be possible to be covered within the next 1 to 2 years, which is a reasonable economic initiative considering the project costs are planned to be drawnfrom the institutional reserves without much expected challenges in terms of management approval. With improved services, the facility will become a choice for many, creating a strong brand and sustainable revenue generation that will turn profitable within the estimated period (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2010).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Emergency services are crucial and the Tiptop Medical Centre has strategically placed itself as a top-notch facility within its locality by offering the much-needed critical care, especially to the majority of the road accident-related cases. As such, due to complexities and the professionalism that accompany emergency services, only one other facility within the radius of 7- miles that offers similar services as Tiptop Medical Centre. This creates a big opportunity for the facility’s future growth where through strategic implementation of the proposed coordination office, the facility will place itself at the competitive edge giving it the advantage of being the preferred choice for many within its locality when it comes to emergency cases (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2010).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Risks Associated with the Economic Initiative and Ways to Address Them

The interprofessional coordination office could not be thought well without first identifying the associated risks that come with the initiative. The most notable risk was the existence of a similar facility within the locality of a 7-mile radius that is also situated along the major highway with its operation having started a year ago. Previously, the Tiptop Medical Centre was the only facility within the area offering exclusive emergency services with a majority of the targeted cases being those emanating from the road accident-related events.  Since the inception of the second facility offering similar services, the number of patients at the Tiptop Medical Centre has been reducing with one factor being that they are getting services somewhere else (Hossam, 2018).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. Nevertheless, it was identified that most of the patients who seek the services with the identified competitor end up at the Tiptop Medical Centre for Intensive care unit (ICU) services if need be. This is as a result of the non-existence of the ICU facilitation within the competitor’s facility. As such, the Tiptop Medical Centre can take this advantage and better its services through improved coordination where a multidisciplinary approach will attract more patients as they will get comprehensive care as their status demand, which is not available at the competitors’ end (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2010).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

On the other hand, the single competitor identified had a low capacity in terms of patients they can handle in a single day. This is also a competitive advantage with the Tiptop Medical Centre as its capacity enables it to handle diverse cases at a go with a comprehensive care including the ICU facilities which is crucial in any emergency department as a majority of emergency cases demand critical and intensive care for the patients.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. Having an overall facilitation for all the requirements that emergency cases may demand is a great opportunity that offers the clients convenience and satisfaction which is crucial in the decision-making process for the facility of their choice (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2010).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Moreover, disseminating emergency services comes along with its own risks. The coordination office has been cited as the nerve center, which will greatly reduce these risks. As such, the patients presented at the ED department are usually delicate with critical conditions that require interprofessional collaboration to offer the much-needed intensive care. As such, cases of fatality, negligence, misdiagnosis and conflict with family and relatives are common within the department and on that note, the proposed interprofessional coordination office will be bestowed in ensuring that these cases are kept at a minimum and when they occur, they are handled professionally using the set policies and standards of operations that strive to provide the best possible care to the patients as presented within the facility.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. This will be achieved through the interprofessional coordination office engaging itself in the proper planning, good communication, and application of treatment ethics and standards that ensure dignity and respect for the patient and staff rights within the facility (Olsson et al., 2017).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Economic Initiative

The cost-benefit analysis is used to measure the economic viability of a given project. With the proposed establishment of the interprofessional coordination office, there carries with it some costs which will be born entirely by the Tiptop Medical Centre through its capital revenue reserves. To give a clear picture of the economic feasibility of the setting up of the said office, a 5-year period estimation cost will be analyzed using the present value discounted rate which has been dictated by the estimated returns in relation to the projected increase in patient, as well as revenues.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. The estimated total cost for the project as herein indicated will be $100, 000 being the cost for minor renovations, equipment purchases and setup, as well as office furniture. The cost is expected to be drawn from the facility’s reserve as the office space is already available and as such, there is no land or construction costs as this would have pushed the costs beyond what the reserves can accommodate without jeopardizing other operational financing to keep the facility in operation (Smith, 2018).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

The estimated operation costs will include the salaries for the office staff, insurance covers, utilities in form of electricity water and internet, administrative expenses and marketing activities related costs. The management and daily running of the office will comprise of one full-time medical superintendent/ physician who will act as the chief coordinator of the existing collaboration teams.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. The level 2 management staffs will be drawn from the departmental levels with representatives for the departmental heads or departmental chiefs themselves. Due to the technicalities and the coordination of the interprofessional teams, there will be a requirement to hire two full-time nurses and 4 medical assistants with extensive knowledge in team leadership to assist the management in the coordination activities and team oversight for proper running of the coordination office. A medical receptionist will also be crucial for the front office coordination and filing purposes.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

The salaries for these staffs will be projected according to the statistics by the U.S. bureau of Labor statistics which estimates the physician salary to be around 230, 000 per annum, 35, 000 for a registered medical assistant, 110,000 for a full-time registered nurse, and 30,000 for a medical receptionist on an annual basis (Buerhaus et al., 2007). NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.From the 3^rd year to 5^th year, there will be considered additional costs for hiring one registered nurse and one medical assistant each year to cater for the patients increment and demand for the coordination activities within the office. according to the WorldatWork’s survey data, the salary increment percentage from 2018 had hit over 3% annually, with 2020 projections standing at 3.3% (WorldatWork, 2020). From these projections, the salaries of the staff at the coordination office will attract an increment of 3.5% per annum as a flat rate for the next 5 years.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Basic utilities will attract an annual increment of 6% with insurance costs estimated to go up from the 3^rd year due to the additional hiring of the extra staff. The 5-year period estimated costs utilized a 12% present value discount with a total gross revenue estimated earnings of $5,153,910 (Illés, 2012).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. With an estimated average increment of 160 patients per week with each estimated to spend around $150, the total revenue projections per annum will be 1,248,000 with an estimated national average revenue growth in the healthcare sector of 5.5%. The total net benefits translate to $1,162,680.95 over the 5-year period, making it a viable venture in economic terms(Smith, 2018).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Ways to Control Costs and Maximize Benefits

The interprofessional coordination office has some additional associated costs that most of them will be the recurrent expenditure on utilities as well as operational costs. The management of Tiptop Medical Centre will be bestowed with keeping check on these expenses to ensure that their utilization is per the institutional policies to maximize benefit. To ensure maximum benefit, there should be a regular audit of the patient increment to ascertain the impact of the established office as well as the effectiveness of the current strategies that the institution applies in attracting more clients (Hossam, 2018).NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Client satisfaction is at the core center of the service provision and with the existence of interprofessional teams, the service quality is expected to be on top-notch. However, these can only be ascertained by the client satisfaction level. With this notion, the interprofessional coordination office should embrace frequent client surveys that will be essential in the team planning and management for the betterment of the emergency services offered (Vile et al., 2017). This can be done in a simple way of filling a form with service-related questions or digitally through a mobile phone survey with rating and comment regarding the services. This will establish the gaps within the service delivery and assist in strategizing on how to fill them in the future.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.

Conclusion

In a recap, the interprofessional coordination office will be a crucial coordination center that will smoothen the ED department operation at Tiptop Medical Centre, which will greatly assist the facility both in increasing revenues, as well as smoothening the service delivery for the overall well-being of the patient.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care. The economic benefit analysis has revealed that the initiative of setting up the coordination office is economically viable and will greatly assist in improving the service quality which will further push the patient turnover and eventually maintain the facility at the competitive edge. Regular evaluation of the office operations by the management as well as frequent customer surveys that establish the level of satisfaction has been the recommended actions that will maximize the office benefit for the overall facility performance in terms of service delivery.NHS- FP6008 Economics and Decision Making in Health Care.