The Importance of Security in Regards to Planning a Hospital Event

In my last blog, I discussed my passion for event planning which prompted me to research the management’s role in event planning. I eventually came across an article that explains that data security should be the highest priority for hospital events. Before reading this article, I never would have assumed that data security would be of the highest priority for an event. In the article, it is stated that “According to Cisco’s 2017 cybersecurity report, data breaches can damage your brand and hurt your bottom line. Cisco found that 40% of breached organizations lost more than a fifth of their customer base”. Losing a fifth of a customer base due to a breach in security is extremely concerning.

            It is critical that the individuals in charge of an event at a hospital are competent managers that can create an event that helps the organization and does not tarnish the image of the organization. When people sign up for events, they are giving out countless information about themselves often including their credit card numbers. It is crucial that possible attendees feel comfortable with sharing their information with the organization and if security is breached an event, attendees may lose the sense of safety they once felt within the organization. As, I continue my pathway towards my career, I will remember how important the safety of others information is when planning events because without attendees and donors, is there really an event?

check out the link I found!

https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/hospital-events-data-security-ds0c/

Event Planning for a Hospital

Ever since I was a senior in high school, I have wanted to be an event planner for a hospital. As a senior in high school, I had no clue what “a major in Health Management and Policy” was when my mother told me she thought she found “the perfect major for me”. In 2015, I began to research what a job with this major could possibly be. I am not someone who likes to just simply sit at a desk all day, and as someone who has struggled with math my entire life, a career in healthcare finance is as farfetched as they come. I eventually sat down with a family friend who is an event planner for a hospital and immediately knew that was something I was passionate in.

Since, I still knew very little about event planning for a hospital, I decided to do some research. I came across a website that lists 4 qualities of a “good event planner”. In the article, the four qualities include, communication, organization, being well connected, and possessing traits such as flexible and easy going. After reading the article, I knew that event planning would be a great fit for me because I love being social and one of my best traits is being easy going. I definitely need to work on my organizational skills but, being organized is a trait that I strive to have. After I graduate, I hope to find a job that can combine both my love for healthcare with my passion for event planning.

check out the link

https://careertrend.com/qualities-good-event-planner-37187.html

The CEO

As the semester is coming to a close, I have been thinking about possible career paths that I would like to pursue after college. I began to research the top of the list, the CEO. I began to wonder what pathway most hospital CEO’s follow to possess such a title and achievement in their career. In my research, I found that a lot of CEO’s followed completely different paths from each other. I did find some similarities though, I found that a lot of CEO’s first held the position of Chief Operating Officers and they often possessed a Masters in Healthcare Administration and Business Administration. Often, they have 15 years or more experience. Becoming a CEO is clearly not an easy path in any career but it can be extremely awarding.

Due to the fact, that the hospital Chief Executive Officer holds the highest position at the organization, it is essential that they are experienced. A CEO must understand the inner workings of the hospital and have a deep connection with the employees. I can understand why many of my classmates are already striving towards becoming CEO’s later in their careers and I believe this may be a pathway that I can strive towards as well.

check out the link

Becoming a Hospital CEO

Management in regards to Vaccinations

Recently, I worked alongside a fellow classmate on a research paper that discussed the importance of vaccinations in the United States. During my research, I learned that 10.9% of Americans are still uninsured and do not have access to vaccinations due to the fact that they simply cannot afford the immunizations. Also, I found that there is a stigma regarding vaccinations because some people lack correct information and believe things such as that “vaccinations can cause autism” which is utterly untrue and proven wrong. As I began to finish my research, I began to wonder what role healthcare manager’s play in regard to vaccinations. I believe that healthcare managers could provide more promotion for vaccinations in order to educate the public on its benefits. Also, hospitals should provide free or affordable vaccinations so the individuals who lack insurance can benefit from the vaccines and hopefully stay healthy. A huge part in eradicating disease, is ensuring that the population at large is receiving vaccinations. A free clinic or affordable prices for vaccinations would allow for a higher percentage of citizens of the United States to be immunized which would hopefully lower the risk diseases for the overall population.

 

Check out this link! http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/13/news/economy/uninsured-rate-obamacare/index.html

Increasing Patient Satisfaction by engaging employees

I recently read an article on Hospital and Health Networks that explains how senior executives can engage their hospital staff to help the organization grow.  The article discusses how Kennedy Health System in Cherry Hill, New Jersey was struggling with patient satisfaction. The article includes 7 steps in which the hospital can abide by which includes interviewing executives, evaluating communication tools inviting employees to participate, listening to the employees, incorporating experience, achieving CEO buy-in, and rolling out the changes. I believe the most important step is evaluating communication tools. The Kennedy Health System evaluated the patient satisfaction survey, magazines, and other documents that the organization publishes. Patient satisfaction is extremely important in any organization but especially important in hospitals. If patients leave a hospital feeling that their stay was less than satisfactory, then they will be less likely to seek care from this facility in the future. As a senior executive at a hospital, it is crucial to educate your employees and work together to make the organization succeed. By educating the staff on the importance of communication skills, the overall atmosphere of the hospital is likely to become more positive for not only the patients but also the staff.

heres the link!

https://www.hhnmag.com/articles/5310-seven-steps-to-engaging-your-hospital-staff

Crisis Management in Healthcare

Today in my management class, a speaker visited and spoke to the classroom about crisis management. She spoke about a conflict her hospital had to deal with and after class, I began to wonder what it would be like to have an administrative role at hospital when conflict arises. I decided to do some research of my own and found an article from Hospital and Health Networks. The article explains that every hospital has a reputation to uphold and when a conflict arises, administrators must be calm and be able to communicate with colleagues, patients, and the press. Not only is communication extremely important when dealing with a crisis but, “keeping the damage to a minimum” is also crucial. The reputation of a hospital is crucial for its existence. In the article, it was stated that “60 percent of patients surveyed in a recent study said a hospital’s reputation is very important when they are considering a hospital for future needs”. When a patient chooses where to receive their care, they not only think about doctors and location but they also think of which hospital has the best outcomes. For example, a hospital right near my house is known to not provide the best care, therefore many residents in my town opt to drive into Boston to receive their care. As an administrator in a hospital, it is key to be collected when crisis occurs and to be able to help fix the situation and help save the reputation of the facility in the eyes of the public.

check out the link!

https://www.hhnmag.com/articles/3974-managing-your-hospital-s-reputation

Monetary Incentives, beneficial or not?

This week at work, my boss announced that incentives will be given for those workers that make the most sandwiches per hour. The incentive would be one day off a month. After the announcement, I began to wonder if a monetary incentive would be better than just having a day off. As I began to chat with my coworkers, we all disagreed on whether or not we would prefer a monetary incentive. I decided to research incentives to figure out which is best because if I found monetary incentives were more beneficial then I would notify my boss regarding my findings.

               I found that there are countless pros and cons to monetary incentives. For example, it does not “require personalization” because regardless of an incentive, every employee is getting paid so those who receive the monetary incentive is just receiving more money. I also found that it can be used as a recruiting tool because outsiders will see the incentive as a possible reason to be employed there. Although there are countless pros to the incentives there are also many negatives. For example, an incentive can be “seen as entitlement” if this occurs, then other employees will feel as if the other employee is being favored. Also, the incentive program can create an unfriendly competition between the employees.

               Ultimately, I believe that incentives can be beneficial but a manager must figure out which incentive program works best for their employees.

check out the link! http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2015/01/14/pros-and-cons-of-monetary-incentives/

Long Term Care for the Future

This week in our Management class, a guest speaker visited the classroom. He came to discuss long term care and explain his career pathway to our class. Before the guest speaker came to our classroom, I had a preconceived notion about Long Term Care and felt it was not a career path in which I was interested in. My grandmother spent six months in a nursing home before she passed away in 2010 and since then I have always thought that long term care was boring and often smelly. I never felt positive entering her facility and I immediately would think about my grandmother’s illness. But, after hearing the guest speaker’s experience with long term care I believe that I would be interested in the field.

I decided to research long term care on my own and found an article that states that “It’s estimated that by 2030, the number of seniors 65 and over will grow by more than 75 percent to 72 million, accounting for one-fifth of the total U.S. population. To meet the health care needs of an aging population, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the health care management field to expand by 22 percent over the next decade”. Since more citizens of the US will be elderly by 2030, long term care is going to be extremely important. An influx of elderly citizens means that long term will have a much greater demand. A manager at a long term care facility will have to devise plans to extend their facility which is truly quite interesting. Although I was against long term care initially, after hearing from the guest speaker and researching on my own, I am now willing to look into long term care as a career.

check out the link!

http://programs.online.utica.edu/articles/roles-and-responsibilities-of-a-nursing-home-adm

Maine’s possible Medicaid Expansion

Last week in my Health Policy class I researched the Medicaid Expansion and how states were affected differently. I found it very interesting that some states benefited immensely from the expansion and others believed that an expansion would harm their state. I decided to research Maine this week for my blog topic because the state of Maine was the only state in the Northeast to opt out of the expansion.  On November 7, the state of Maine will vote once again on whether or not to expand Medicaid. A Harvard Medical School professor stated that “Medicaid expansion gives people an on-ramp for medication-assisted treatment, which is the gold standard for opioid treatment”. Maine has a severe opioid addiction problem and by expanding Medicaid, more addicts would be able to seek help.

Currently, some uninsured Maine citizens cannot afford treatment for their addictions. If the Medicaid expansion is passed after the November 7^th vote, Healthcare Administrators at hospitals around the state will have to make sure their hospitals are equipped for a possible influx of new patients struggling with countless illnesses including opioid addiction. The current Governor of Maine has vetoed the expansion five times but if the citizens of Maine vote in favor of the expansion, many more citizens will have access to affordable care.

check out the link!

Addicts may benefit from an expansion of Medicaid

The Role of Trauma Centers after the Las Vegas Terror Attack

As we all know, on October 1, 2017 the mass shooting in Las Vegas shocked the country and left many without parents, siblings, spouses, and friends. The local hospitals in Las Vegas were packed with injured and dying civilians. I researched an article featured on the New York Terms by Sheri Fink where she explained the chaos that erupted at the Las Vegas Hospital Trauma Center. One nurse, Toni Mullen drove 110 miles to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada once she heard the news of the tragic event. As she entered the hospital, she was faced with the task of helping the countless number of civilians with gunshot wounds. Mullen’s hospital was not the only hospital in the Vegas area that was filled with victims of the attack. At Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center 180 victims of the attack filled hospital beds by Monday morning. Each patient had to be “sorted in the lobby of the emergency room on a scale of one to five, with one being the most critical, a system used daily”. After reading this article I not only felt extreme sorrow for the victims but I also began to question how the healthcare administrators at these trauma sites dealt with the situation.

In class, we learn about administrators roles in the hospital and we discuss the day to day problems administrators face including billing or communicating better with physicians but, we often forget that hospitals can face situations like the after effects of a mass shooting. The physicians and nurses play the most important role of saving the lives of victims but the administrators also play a role. Administrators had to make sure gurneys and wheelchairs were available for the victims when they arrived and helping physicians decide which of the victims were needed to be helped first. A mass shooting should not be a problem in 2017, but sadly events like the Las Vegas shooting keep occurring in our country. It is up to our government to fix the gun policy but until then, it is up to physicians, nurses, and administrators to help save as many lives as possible.

Here is the article from the New York Times