Overview

Propose an economic initiative that presents an opportunity for improved care quality.

Master’s-level health care practitioners are charged with the responsibility of constantly scanning the external environment for shifts in supply of and demand for services. Concurrently, leaders must examine strategic fit with their organization’s directional strategy and determine if adjustments need to be made for current service offerings, updates in equipment, changes in staffing models, and a variety of other decisions. Each decision that is proposed must be evaluated in terms of the health care setting as a system, alignment with the mission and strategy, available internal resources, potential contract and payer source implications, and the short- and long-term economic effects at both the micro and macro levels.

Resources

Assessment Example

• Assessment 1 Example [PDF].

Suggested Resources

The resources provided here are optional and support the assessment. They provide helpful information about the topics. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The NHS-FP6008: Economics and Decision Making in Health Care Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.

Assessment Context

Review the following:

• Assessment 1 Context [PDF].

Assessment Instructions

In this assessment, you will propose an economic initiative that presents an opportunity for improved care quality.

Scenario

As an emerging health care leader, the senior management has requested that you independently research and explore one of the economic opportunities that may be available in your care setting. This may be offering a new service line, working to improve a service line already offered, retiring an outdated or unprofitable service line, or any other economic initiative that you believe will be of benefit to your care setting in the short and long term. One example of this is a recently launched partnership with a local bicycle sharing company. Your care setting partners with them to host healthy community events that offer free screenings for early detection of various health issues. This helps fulfill some of your care setting’s preventive and healthy lifestyle initiatives, while also potentially driving referrals to other services provided by your care setting. You have been asked to submit your proposal in the form of a 2–4-page executive summary that includes your proposed economic initiative, supporting economic data, and an analysis of the proposal’s benefits for your department and for the care setting overall.

Directions

You have been asked to ensure that your report addresses the following. Note: The bullet points below correspond to grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure your work is, at minimum, addressing each of the bullets below. You may also want to read the scoring guide and the Guiding Questions: Executive Brief: Proposal of New Economic Opportunity document, linked in the Resources, to better understand the performance levels that relate to each grading criterion:

• Propose an economic initiative that presents an opportunity for your care setting at both the micro (departmental, neighborhood) and macro (organizational, community) levels that you believe will provide ethical and culturally equitable improvements to the quality of care.
• Analyze the supply and demand for your proposed economic initiative within contexts relevant to your care setting.
• Explain relevant economic and environmental data that support your proposal and analysis.
• Communicate your economic proposal in a logically structured and concise manner, writing content clearly with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Effectively support your proposal with relevant economic data and scholarly sources, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.

Example Assessment: You may use the assessment example, linked in the Assessment Example section of the Resources, to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Additional Requirements

Your assessment should meet the following requirements:

• Length: 2–4 double-spaced, typed pages. Your proposal should be succinct yet substantive.
• APA format: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style.
• Resources: Cite 3–5 authoritative and scholarly resources. Be sure to include specific economic data and support as part of your cited resources.