The One-Stop Shop: A Kaiser Permanente Case Study Review
Established in the 1930s by Henry J. Kaiser and Dr. Sidney as a health care program for construction, shipyard, and steel mill employees, in 1945 Kaiser Permanente (KP) opened enrollment to the public (Our History, 2016). Despite many challenges and set backs, KP has become one of the leading and largest healthcare providers in the United States (SPEC Associates, 2011; "Labor Management," n.d.). However, is KP ready to meet the health care needs of citizens in the next decade? This paper will delve into KP to assess their readiness as well as their strategic plans regarding network growth, adequately staffing nurses, managing resources, and ensuring high patient satisfaction scores. …show more content…
It is vital hospital organizations and networks are ready for the influx of patients with higher acuities. Kaiser has been one of the lead health care organizations who began to utilize electronic health records and patient portals. These portals allow patients the ability to access their medical records electronically from home or through apple and android apps on their phone or tablet (Otte-Trojel, Rundall, De Bont, Van de Klundert, & Reed, 2015).
Strategic Plans
Network Growth
As of May 2016, KP serves approximately 10.6 million people in 38 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices and facilities throughout eight states and the District of Columbia ("Fast Facts," 2016).
Adequate Staffing of Nurses
As the baby-boomer generation is getting closer toward retirement, an already fairly large nursing shortage will grow even lager. In fact it has been predicted that by the year 2020 there will be a nursing shortage of over 800,000 nurses (Huber, 2014). It is essential that health care organizations develop strategies on ways to increase nurse retention, job satisfaction, and recruitment of nurses (Ostermeier, …show more content…
178). The study also found that KP nurse-patient ratio of 1:4 on a medical-surgical floor was much lower than both Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals. While KP strives to keep their nurse’s satisfaction rate up as well as retention by creating health work environments, disagreements still arise between nurses and the organization. Most recently in March of 2016, 1200 nurses went on strike at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center for seven days related to claims of unfair wages, short staffing, and for improvement of patient care conditions (California Nurses Association [CNA], 2016). At present time, no formal agreement has been made public. Even with periodic strikes and nurse-organization disagreements studies have shown KP “hospitals were significantly less likely to report being dissatisfied or intending to leave their job. Kaiser nurses were eve less likely than nurses in Magnet hospitals to intend to leaver their job” (McHugh et al., 2016, p.
Established in the 1930s by Henry J. Kaiser and Dr. Sidney as a health care program for construction, shipyard, and steel mill employees, in 1945 Kaiser Permanente (KP) opened enrollment to the public (Our History, 2016). Despite many challenges and set backs, KP has become one of the leading and largest healthcare providers in the United States (SPEC Associates, 2011; "Labor Management," n.d.). However, is KP ready to meet the health care needs of citizens in the next decade? This paper will delve into KP to assess their readiness as well as their strategic plans regarding network growth, adequately staffing nurses, managing resources, and ensuring high patient satisfaction scores. …show more content…
It is vital hospital organizations and networks are ready for the influx of patients with higher acuities. Kaiser has been one of the lead health care organizations who began to utilize electronic health records and patient portals. These portals allow patients the ability to access their medical records electronically from home or through apple and android apps on their phone or tablet (Otte-Trojel, Rundall, De Bont, Van de Klundert, & Reed, 2015).
Strategic Plans
Network Growth
As of May 2016, KP serves approximately 10.6 million people in 38 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices and facilities throughout eight states and the District of Columbia ("Fast Facts," 2016).
Adequate Staffing of Nurses
As the baby-boomer generation is getting closer toward retirement, an already fairly large nursing shortage will grow even lager. In fact it has been predicted that by the year 2020 there will be a nursing shortage of over 800,000 nurses (Huber, 2014). It is essential that health care organizations develop strategies on ways to increase nurse retention, job satisfaction, and recruitment of nurses (Ostermeier, …show more content…
178). The study also found that KP nurse-patient ratio of 1:4 on a medical-surgical floor was much lower than both Magnet and non-Magnet hospitals. While KP strives to keep their nurse’s satisfaction rate up as well as retention by creating health work environments, disagreements still arise between nurses and the organization. Most recently in March of 2016, 1200 nurses went on strike at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center for seven days related to claims of unfair wages, short staffing, and for improvement of patient care conditions (California Nurses Association [CNA], 2016). At present time, no formal agreement has been made public. Even with periodic strikes and nurse-organization disagreements studies have shown KP “hospitals were significantly less likely to report being dissatisfied or intending to leave their job. Kaiser nurses were eve less likely than nurses in Magnet hospitals to intend to leaver their job” (McHugh et al., 2016, p.