WGU D030 Service Plan Brief for Psychiatric/ Mental Health Service Line Sample Paper
Introduction
Healthcare institutions are always constantly seeking expansion and holistic patient care. They are constantly seeking growth to accommodate the ever-changing patient needs. Changes are also necessary to enhance patient satisfaction and care for complex healthcare needs. This paper focuses on a proposal to introduce a new service line, the psychological and mental health services department, to promote healthcare equity.
Importance
Recently, the healthcare institution has increased its service delivery exponentially. However, psychological/mental health patients are referred to other healthcare sectors, and patients with mental health problems often develop care complications due to a lack of adequate mental healthcare services. The World Health Organization voiced concern because of the exponential rise in mental health issues.
Global mental health burdens account for a significant disease percentage among all age groups, and one out of ten people suffers from a mental health disorder (Osborn et al., 2020). Adolescents, young adults, and geriatrics are the most vulnerable groups. Starting the new service line will reduce the incidences of mental health complications and greatly reduce the distance they travel to get mental health services, thus patient satisfaction. Thus, the new service line will lead to a healthier society.
Market Analysis (See part B in the task requirements)
The new service line will target mental health patients of all ages. The catchment population for the hospital is 400,000 people and ill thus, target at least 40,000 people with mental health issues. The hospital services as the district referral center and patients from other facilities will be referred to the institution depending on the quality of services it will provide. However, the hospital line will face completion from an established private hospital that focuses on only mental health: Gertrude Mental Health Hospital. However, larger public healthcare facilities are far from the hospital and do not pose significant competition.
SWOT Analysis
(Use the following table in your response to part C in the task requirements)
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Excellent and able leadership that is democratic and supports innovation | Inadequate funds to start and run the new service line |
| Culture of teamwork/ interdisciplinary collaboration/ supportive staff | Inadequate skilled staff/ staff shortages |
| Availability of adequate land to set up facilities | Unavailability of physical facilities/ built structures |
| The hospital has two mental health APRNs serving in leadership positions in other areas | Inadequate technology |
| Opportunities | Threats |
| There are no public hospitals around offering mental health services | There is an established private hospital offering mental health services only |
| The hospital is the district referral receiving patients from smaller healthcare facilities in the district | Poor technological advancement to match the current practices |
| Availability of donors and willing stakeholders | The hospital is located in a suburban region, thus geographically disadvantaged |
| Favorable government policies that allow for expansion of healthcare services | Poor cultural connections |
SWOT Analysis Results
Excellent leadership skills ensure synchrony of activities and enhance an innovation’s success. Healthcare leaders will use problem-solving and critical thinking skills to remedy the staff shortage and unavailability of staff. The leaders will also negotiate with stakeholders and donors to ensure adequate funding for the success of the new service line.
Donor funding in healthcare is integral in overseeing change projects and innovations and should be adequately leveraged (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2017). The hospital will also leverage the opportunity of lack of potential competition from public hospitals and strengthen their referral system from small hospitals to enhance competitive advantage over the private hospital. It will thus focus on strategies to enhance competitive advantage, such as marketing.
The hospital will also use favorable government policies to market the new service line to gain a competitive advantage. In addition, the company will also utilize strong multidisciplinary teams to sensitize the communities, leverage diversity, and strengthen their interaction with the community. The step will help build trust and stronger cultural connections. The cultural environment greatly determines the success and acceptability of its services (Phillips et al., 2020).
Cost-Benefit Analysis
| Category | Description of the Service Plan Costs |
| The Organization | Employing nurses, qualified medical doctors, and a psychiatrist |
| Purchase of drugs and equipment | |
| Building of physical facilities | |
| Operations | Licensing and approval of the services line |
| Accreditation by reputable organizations | |
| Marketing costs | |
| The Client/Patient | Added healthcare costs to meet the financial needs |
| Healthcare access/ consultation fees | |
| Medications purchase and other therapies costs | |
| The Staff | The added workload of managing another service line |
| Some staff will have to work in areas of less expertise due to the staff shortage | |
| Increased staff shortage in other departments after staff are deployed to the new service line without employing adequate staff | |
| Technology | Purchase of advanced technological therapy and diagnostic equipment |
| Installation and maintenance costs of equipment | |
| Costs of personnel to operate technological equipment |
| Category | Description of Service Plan Benefits |
| The Organization | Increased services delivery |
| Better healthcare reputation to services inclusivity | |
| Revenue for organizational operations | |
| Operations | Accreditation by recognized organizations |
| Improved organizational reputation | |
| Improved services delivery | |
| The Client/Patient | Increased geographical accessibility to services |
| Access to complex mental healthcare services | |
| Improved health outcomes | |
| The Staff | Creation of job opportunities creation |
| Enhancement of job satisfaction | |
| Creation of room for professional development and career growth | |
| Technology | Encouragement/increased of innovation |
| Better healthcare technology in other areas from accrued revenue | |
| Increased revenue from using better healthcare technology |
Risk Assessment and Strategies
| Risks | Overall Results and Strategies for Minimizing the Risks |
| Inadequacy of funds | The risk is highly likely to occur and has a high degree of risk and can cause a permanent halt of the plan. The healthcare institution should prepare an all-inclusive budget and ensure all funds are available for the planned activities. Adequately planning the source of funds will also be quite important. D030 Service Plan Brief for Psychiatric/ Mental Health Service Line |
| Competition from private institutions | This risk has moderate consequences and has a high risk of occurrence. Strengthening the referral systems from the small healthcare facilities and marketing using appropriate billboards and social media channels will provide a competitive advantage. |
| Misuse of resources and embezzlement of funds | The risk has moderate consequences and a high risk of occurrence. Interventions to prevent it include critical appraisal and approval of the budget, constant interim reports on progress, and keen directing and controlling are required to avoid misuse of resources (Schmidt, 2020). |
| Lack of interprofessional collaboration | The risk has severe consequences and a moderate risk of occurrence. Interdisciplinary can fail due to lack of inclusion in decision making and disrespect to members. Enhancing open and professional communication improves team collaboration and enhances the success of innovations (Reeves et al., 2017). |
| Ineffective adaptation to change | The risk has moderate consequences on the organization and has a high risk of occurrence. People are often reluctant to change. Healthcare leaders must enhance employees’ effective change management models and leadership strategies to ensure the organization adequately adapt to change to prevent the failure of an innovation. (Galli, 2018) |
Financial Projections
The project revenues will decrease drastically with the project’s initiation to completion of the new service line (9months). The revenues will start rising gradually after the mental health services are rendered.
Payers
The major source of income is the donors. The available organizational resources are not adequate to cater to the plan’s needs. Donors and the organization are the initial payers. After services delivery begins, the patients/ clients will be the major source of finances through paying for the healthcare services.
Graph
Operational Expense Budget
| Category | Description and Cost ($) of Each Type of Expense |
| Personnel Expenses | One psychiatric/mental health APRN – $90 000 annual recurrent budget |
| 8 registered nurses- $60,000 annually | |
| 1 medical engineer- $55 000 | |
| Other-than-Personnel (OTP) Expenses | PMH drugs- $500 000 |
| Psychiatric/mental health department complex- $5M | |
| Physical exercise equipment such as yoga mas, weighted blankets, bicycles, weights, treadmills for psychological rehabilitation- $200,000 | |
| Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) machines and other devices such as the Deep Brain Stimulator, Vagus Nerve Stimulator, Electroencephalography, and Transcranial Magnetic stimulators () – $1M | |
| Marketing and public sensitization- $300,000 |
Pie Chart
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
| Service Plan KPIs | Measurement and Frequency | |
| Structure: | Cost Variance is an indispensable KPI and is most appropriate for this plan. It measures the difference between the planned and actual budgets, which would help show if money is being used on planned activities and variation from planned and actual activities (Rathnayake & Ranasinghe, 2020). The structure KPI will help determine the necessary structures and equipment for the plan to succeed. D030 Service Plan Brief for Psychiatric/ Mental Health Service Line | |
| Process: | Progressive reporting is one of the key performance indicators. It enables the business management team to determine the necessary resources. They help track progress and detect deviations and prevent them early (Prado-Prado et al., 2021). | |
| Outcome: | Return on Investment. Return on investment is an ongoing process to determine the profitability of innovations. The ROI will first be measured after a year and then computed yearly to determine the profitability of the new services lien |
Future Decisions
Cost Variance helps indicate how the company has acquired assets and aligns with the original plan. It also helps determine which assets can be acquired using simpler methods. They are good to show progress and also make adjustments to the plan. Advanced reporting (progressive reports) is an indispensable tool in indicating the progress and ensuring all activities and plans are running as was planned.
Advanced reporting is also integral in ensuring every phase is complete before beginning another phase. It also ensures that all resources are used according to plan. Any deviations are easily noted and corrected, or justified. The return on investment will help determine the profitability of the plan. It will also help determine whether to continue with the service or not. In addition, services that are profitable or making losses can be optimized using the return of investment key performance index
Improvement Strategies
Staff training is an effective strategy in improving staff performance. Knowledge and skills are important in role execution. They also increase proficiency, accuracy, and confidence when carrying out tasks (Forbat et al., 2017 D030 Service Plan Brief for Psychiatric/ Mental Health Service Line). Training minimizes task performance errors and delays when staff does not have sufficient knowledge and skills.
Promoting open and professional communication is an effective strategy in promoting interprofessional collaboration. Open communication ensures all professionals are adequately involved in decision-making, promoting collaboration. In addition, good information sharing minimizes the risk of errors and associated consequences. Professional communication enhances understanding and respect among interdisciplinary team members (Cazeau, 2021). Hence, staff training and professional and open communication are vital strategies in promoting staff performance and interprofessional collaboration.
Tasks and Timelines
| Task | Task Owner Title | Timeline |
| Writing of the service line proposal | Nurse Manager | 1 month |
| Contacting the stakeholders and donors | Medical Superintendent | 1 week |
| Communicating the project to the hospital staff | Human Resource Manager | 1 day |
| Collecting and responding to staff concerns on the plan | Unit In-charges | 2 weeks |
| Budgeting | Head of Finance Department | 1 month |
| Budget Approval | Service Line Committee | 1 week |
| Marketing | Relationships Manager- Healthcare Informatics | 1 month |
| Healthcare staff briefing | Nurse Manager | 1 day |
| Approval of the service line proposal | Hospital Management Board | 1 week |
| Approval by the regulatory bodies | State Ministry of Health | 1 month |
Executive Summary
The proposed service line is a psychiatric/mental health department providing services to patients of all ages. The catchment population is quite vast, considering referrals from smaller hospitals that do not offer mental health services. The major competitor is a private mental health hospital but no significant threats from public hospitals. The threats will be mitigated using strategies such as marketing.
The hospital leadership offers a good environment and support for innovations and creativity. In addition, there are already two PMH-APRNs who will be integral sources of information to ensure all mental health services are included in the planning and budgeting. Lack of finances and adequate staff are the major weaknesses and threaten the plan’s success, but the donors and other stakeholders will be integral in financing the plan.
These funds will also be used to upgrade to the current technological requirements in caring for mental health patients. The service line will relay more benefits than costs to the organization, staff, patients, operations, and technology. It is a feasible and achievable plan that will bring results within the next year. The potential risks are manageable using simple leadership strategies and do not significantly threaten the plan’s success.
D030 Service Plan Brief for Psychiatric/ Mental Health Service Line References
Cazeau, N. (2021). Interprofessional Communication: Integrating Evidence to Enhance Systems During a Pandemic. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 25(1), 56-60. https://doi.org/10.1188/21.cjon.56-60
Forbat, L., Simons, J., Sayer, C., Davies, M., & Barclay, S. (2017). Training pediatric healthcare staff in recognizing, understanding, and managing conflict with patients and families: findings from a survey on immediate and 6-month impact. Archives of disease in childhood, 102(3), 250-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2016-310737
Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMR.2018.2866860
Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2017). Financing healthcare. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare
Osborn, T. L., Wasil, A. R., Weisz, J. R., Kleinman, A., & Ndetei, D. M. (2020). Where is the global in global mental health? A call for inclusive multicultural collaboration. General psychiatry, 33(6). https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2Fgpsych-2020-100351
Phillips, J., Richard, A., Mayer, K. M., Shilkaitis, M., Fogg, L. F., & Vondracek, H. (2020). Integrating the social determinants of health into nursing practice: Nurses’ perspectives. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(5), 497-505. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12584
Prado-Prado, J. C., García-Arca, J., Fernández-González, A. J., & Mosteiro-Añón, M. (2020). Increasing competitiveness through the implementation of lean management in healthcare. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(14), 4981. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17144981
Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000072.pub3
Schmidt, C. (2020). Why risk management frameworks fail to prevent wrongdoing. The Learning Organization. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-10-2019-0150
Rathnayake, A., & Ranasinghe, M. (2020, July). A KPI-Based Performance Measurement Framework For Sri Lankan Construction Projects. In 2020 Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon) (pp. 348-353). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/MERCon50084.2020.9185304
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