Question

Piedmont Overlook Care Organization Case Study

Piedmont Overlook Care Organization (PPOCO) is a group of medical facilities that provide healthcare services across the Southeast. PPOCO first offered services in 1986 to address medical service needs in the local community. The goal was to provide comprehensive healthcare. It was also the goal to provide services beyond the traditional operating hours of primary care and other doctor offices. PPOCO focuses on total wellness that incorporates an integrative approach to optimize quality patient care.

The mission of POCO is to promote community health by offering a collaborative approach to enhance healthy lifestyles, with cost effective, quality care. POCO is made up of 5 facilities with 10 specialties, 25 doctors, 4 directors, and a number of clinical staff and employees. Over 35% of Overland patients are uninsured.

Organizational Challenges

There has been a rapid growth of healthcare needs in the served areas of Overland Care in the past five years, which is fueled by patient demand for convenient, affordable care. Patients are looking for accessible healthcare that provide access to specialty services with minimal out-of- pocket costs. However, there are some current challenges that both reflect the Overland community and national trends.

•           Growing, over-saturation of emergency room services 

•           Growth in patient volume is driven by demographic trends 

•           Population of aging patients (over age 65) growing at significant rates 

•           Cost of treatment for the POCO continues to rise – yet patient costs remain the same 

•           Insurance costs rising – uninsured patients numbers rising 

•           Financial profits for POCO down by 12% each year, for the past 4 years 

•           POCO collections for patient balances are increasing 

•           Compliance audits reveal issues with patient confidentiality and privacy 

•           HIPAA training not completed as part of new employee orientation 

•           Customer satisfaction rates steady but some significant flags related to ethics. 

•           Technology system and electronic health record upgrades needed – interoperability not 
complete. 


You schedule a meeting with a core group of managers. The purpose of the meeting is to review the project and gather additional feedback from the managers. During the meeting, several managers make comments regarding distribution of work and employee perspectives based on stereotypes. It was also discovered that there are many personality conflicts and issues with subordination. You encountered the conflict and degradation comments, first-hand during the meeting.

For this part of the project you will complete a summary to assess team performance, feedback mechanisms, and organizational culture. You will describe how your performance improvement model can help analyze data, check performance results, identify additional changes, and evaluate feedback.

Answer 1

Firstly, you must begin with assessing the current status of performance of all employees both individually and team-wise. In addition to this, feedback should be collected from patients which would include their suggestions and expectations for further improvements. After this, we can proceed with data analysis to understand the effectiveness of the organization. A value stream map of internal and external processes will help uncover the various lacunae in the process. Thereby, one can charter an improvement plan in order to overcome these loop holes. They would essentially include processes or procedures which are wasteful and time-consuming in nature. Such wasteful activities lead to unnecessary costs and errors. Thereby eroding the profitability margins and increasing the prices, which the patients have to ultimately endure. One can use Fish-bone diagram to ascertain the probable causes and then analyze and prioritize by Pareto analysis or Correlation diagram.

In addition to the above, ensure the performance appraisal system is in place and active. This would ensure all employees are aligned with the goals and mission of the organization. Also, trainings should be an integral part of the schedule, to ensure employees are acquainted with all the new techniques and concepts. Also, this will help them be more pro-active than reactive in the services they provide to your customers. Thereby improving the patients' value for money greatly.