Proposed Core Team of Change Champions
Effective nursing leadership is an important part of change management (Marquis & Huston, 2017). Particularly, effective leadership is essential in assembling a core team of change champions. According to Sare and Ogilvie (2010), managers could use different strategies to develop these core teams. However, for this project, the chosen strategy would be the pursuit of a common goal, which is to reduce healthcare costs. Therefore, people who have the expertise to achieve this goal would be included in the core team.
Nesse, Kutcher, Wood, and Rummans (2010) emphasize the role of stakeholder involvement in change management. Indeed, stakeholder involvement is required to achieve employee buy-in (McMurray, Chaboyer, Wallis, & Fetherston, 2010).
Stakeholders who should be included in the change process include employees, government agencies, hospital administrators, and insurance companies. This list is broad because the proposed changes are systemic. The contribution of insurance companies and governments in the change management plan is essential because both stakeholders support the demand side of the healthcare model (McMurray et al., 2010). Comparatively, hospital administrators and health practitioners address the supply side of the healthcare delivery framework.
The involvement of the four key stakeholder groups mentioned above should be done from the onset of the change management process. Stated differently, all four stakeholders should be part of the core decision-making team. As proposed by Donnelly, Shulha, Klinger, and Letts (2016), their participation should be democratic. In other words, all the stakeholders should be given equal voting power on all significant decisions that the steering committee makes. This means that their inputs would be sought at all stages of the change management plan.
Evaluation Plan
It is important to evaluate the change management plan because it is the only way to make sure that project milestones are achieved (Høstgaard, Bertelsen, & Nøhr, 2017). The evaluation plan will review four key performance indicators (KPIs), which include financial performance, patient satisfaction levels, the adoption of innovative practices, and internal organizational perspectives. In the financial assessment section, the return on investment (ROI) will be the main evaluative criteria.
This financial metric will assess the feasibility of implementing proposed changes based on their ROI. Patient satisfaction levels will also be used to evaluate the progress of the proposed changes because they should not inconvenience patients or cause dissatisfaction. As suggested by D’Ostie-Racine, Dagenais, and Ridde (2016), a high patient satisfaction rate would signify good performance.
The ease of embracing an innovative culture will be another KPI and it will be reviewed by surveying the attitudes of health practitioners toward the proposed changes. Generally, the adoption of an innovation culture would signify positive performance, while low levels of innovation could imply poor project performance. Lastly, from an internal organizational perspective, the hours spent with patients would be used to assess the impact of the proposed changes on the system.
The refreezing stage will be incorporated into the change management plan by creating a new identity for the new health payment model. For example, Obama Care is synonymous with affordable healthcare. It is vital to seek a similar identity to solidify the gains made in the change management process. Broadly, the proposed evaluation plan will be implemented annually, as proposed by Sridharan and Nakaima (2011), because yearly reviews provide adequate time to implement changes and observe their effects.
Executive Summary
The rising cost of medical services is a significant problem affecting the healthcare sector. Concisely, it limits access to quality services for millions of people who are unable to pay for such services and causes financial strain to thousands of families who are struggling to pay their health insurance premiums (SSI Group, 2018). Stakeholders have deliberated on how to reduce the cost of healthcare but their discussions have not yielded substantial gains in this regard (Hazra, Rudisill, & Gulliford, 2017).
Consequently, the proposed change management plan is designed to improve efficiency in the delivery of care. This plan should include several stakeholders who are involved in the systemic delivery of healthcare services. They include healthcare practitioners, government agencies, insurance companies, and hospital administrators (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2017). These players should be involved in all stages of decision-making and their collective inputs should create a concerted effort in promoting effective healthcare management (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2017).
The change management plan will be evaluated annually by assessing four key performance indicators. They include a financial assessment of project plans, patient satisfaction levels, the adoption of innovative practices, and internal organizational perspectives. These areas of review focus on evaluating patient outcomes, assessing the effectiveness of healthcare management, and analyzing the financial cost of making the changes.
The goal is to make healthcare systems more efficient and affordable to patients. In other words, the proposed healthcare changes should reduce the cost of healthcare for millions of people who are struggling to get affordable and quality care. Its proper implementation could potentially improve the quality of life for millions of people (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2017).
References
Donnelly, C., Shulha, L., Klinger, D., & Letts, L. (2016). Using program evaluation to support knowledge translation in an interprofessional primary care team: A case study. BMC Family Practice, 17(1), 142. Web.
D’Ostie-Racine, L., Dagenais, C., & Ridde, V. (2016). A qualitative case study of evaluation use in the context of a collaborative program evaluation strategy in Burkina Faso. Health Research Policy and Systems, 14(1), 37. Web.
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2017). National health expenditure projections 2017-2026. Web.
Hazra, N. C., Rudisill, C., & Gulliford, M. C. (2017). Determinants of health care costs in the senior elderly: Age, comorbidity, impairment, or proximity to death? The European Journal of Health Economics, 19(6), 831-842. Web.
Høstgaard, A., Bertelsen, P., & Nøhr, C. (2017). Constructive eHealth evaluation: Lessons from evaluation of EHR development in 4 Danish hospitals. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 17(1), 45. Web.
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
McMurray, A., Chaboyer, W., Wallis, M., & Fetherston, C. (2010). Implementing bedside handover: Strategies for change management. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19(17), 2580-2589.
Nesse, R. E., Kutcher, G., Wood, D., & Rummans, T. (2010). Framing change for high-value healthcare systems. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 32(1), 23-28.
Sare, M. V., & Ogilvie, L. (2010). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Sridharan, S., & Nakaima, A. (2011). Ten steps to making evaluation matter. Evaluation and Program Planning, 34(2), 135-146.
SSI Group. (2018). Rising healthcare costs impact patients and providers. Web.