Introduction

It is the desire of every organization to have high levels of efficiency and profitability. Therefore, a business case is an essential tool that justifies the need to undertake a particular project. It is helpful in the evaluation of the costs and benefits of a particular program. Moreover, it helps in determining the risk of undertaking a particular initiative. The business case is also helpful in the justification of the preferred solution. The tool is utilized in healthcare organizations by stakeholders to enhance proper decision-making. A business case is a tool for monitoring performance while increasing the organization’s adherence to its policies (Shah & Course, 2018). Therefore, the primary purpose of this essay is the analysis of a business case for the proposed Acute Hospital Care at Home Program developed due to the Capacity Management process.

Economic Opportunities and Risks Associated with a Proposed Initiative.

The primary economic opportunity for using at-home hospital care is that it helps in saving the cost of healthcare services, especially for Medicare and private payers. In this way, the program allows the patients to have flexible payments, thus increasing their access to healthcare services. Research provides that healthcare organizations that have implemented the program have reduced healthcare costs by approximately 30% (Walker, Howard & Morton, 2017). Moreover, the hospitals have increased their admission capacity and has also increased the quality of patients’ health outcomes.

The Acute Hospital Care at Home Program also reduces congestion in the hospitals thus minimizing the waiting periods. There are also various risks associated with the program. The primary risk is the situational variable risk. It is challenging for the healthcare providers to care for the patients in home care settings. Most of the patients do not adhere to their treatment plans unless compelled by a healthcare provider in the hospital. This may pose a major challenge on the patient’s health outcomes (Metwally, Ruiz, Metwally & Gartzia, 2019). Additionally, the hospital provides a safe environment for healthcare. Providing the services at home may impair the patients’ safety due to lack of treatment plan adherence.

Ethical and Culturally Sensitive Solutions.

The most epic risk of the healthcare setting is the situational variable risk. Therefore, the most effective way to prevent the risk is through integration of a health behaviour situational model to propel the interaction between the patients and the healthcare providers. However, embracing cultural competence is also an effective way of curbing the problem. It is important to note that cultural competence enable the healthcare providers to understand the cultures of the patients hence improving their health outcomes (Metwally, Ruiz, Metwally & Gartzia, 2019). The cultural competence also enables the healthcare providers to understand cultural diversity and its impact in providing the healthcare services. In many instances the healthcare professionals have failed to understand the cultural requirements of specific patients thus leading to medico-legal cases.

The primary cultural issues that impacts the provision of the healthcare services include; language, behaviour, attitude and communication methods. The proposed initiative will have positive impacts on the health of the community. Regarding economic growth, payers such as the Medicare will have an input in the health of the community thus saving the healthcare costs (Park, 2017). The at-home hospital care requires a lot of considerations before its actual implementation. The patients’ information should depict high levels of integrity, confidentiality and integrity. In many cases, the patients provide wrong information about their health progress hence leading to lack of integrity.

The Economic Costs and Benefits of the Proposed Initiative over a Five-year Period

The most effective way to measure the economic costs and benefits of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program is through Cost-benefit Calculations and Analysis. It is important to note that the analysis focuses on the costs saved through implementation of the proposed initiative. The cost-benefit analysis does not serve as a warning against particular aspects of the proposed initiative. After the implementation of the initiative, the net benefit remains $20,000 after a period of five years, hence indicating that it is an excellent project for the healthcare organization to undertake. A cost-benefit analysis of the proposed initiative indicates that the program is less costly and has profound benefits to both the patients and the healthcare organization (Louise, Ackers, Chatwin & Tyler, 2017). The initiative also improves patient satisfaction due to improved quality of the healthcare services. Consequently, the hospital will also generate more revenue while reducing its expenditure thus promoting its viability.

Essentially, the results of the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed initiative should be applied in decision-making. The results can be used in balancing health gains against the costs of the interventions, hence providing a rationale for allocating healthcare resources. Additionally, the cost-benefit analysis findings can also be utilized in making decisions about how the program should be guided and managed (Louise, Ackers, Chatwin & Tyler2017). In this, the hospital’s leadership can establish the types of projects they should undertake to maximize their viability and efficiency. Decision making is an essential aspect in the management of healthcare organizations and should be prioritized.

Ethical and Culturally Equitable Ways of Keeping Costs under Control

There are specific costs in healthcare that can be controlled and reduced. The costs include; administration costs and medical supplies costs. An example is that it is possible to reduce or control the cost of the medical supplies by minimizing the number of medical supplies annually and limiting the number of patients utilizing the supplies by implementing at-home hospital care (Shah, & Course, 2018). Consequently, it is possible to reduce and the administrative costs by promoting at-home hospital care rather than caring for the patients directly from the health facility.

The most effective way of maximizing the benefits of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program initiative is through instilling the Medical Case Management Culture. Moreover, controlling and reducing the costs should accompany the instillation of the Case Management Culture. It is important to note that the Medical Case Management has profound positive impacts such as coordinating the patients’ care and offering effective treatment plans. It also helps in the monitoring an evaluation of the treatment process. It is vital to consider the ethical responsibility of cost reduction to ensure ethicality in the entire process ((Metwally, Ruiz, Metwally & Gartzia, 2019). In this way, the organization ensures that it follows the ethical principles of reducing the costs.

Relevance and Significance of the Qualitative and Quantitative Economic, Financial, and Scholarly Evidence.

The scholarly evidence applied in this case has profound significance and relevance to the hospital because it indicates the success of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program in other healthcare organization. Therefore, it provides evidence-based information with accurate data showing the benefits of implementing the initiative. The utilized scholarly evidence also promotes the application of evidence-based practice in implementing healthcare programs. The patients’ health outcomes rely on the feasibility of the proposed initiative. Therefore, by utilizing the scholarly evidence, the healthcare providers understand the technique for implementing the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program in other healthcare organization. Consequently, the economic and financial scholarly evidence serve as decision making tool vital for the analysis and assessment of future trends in the organizational costs. Additionally, it helps in evaluating the viability of the proposed program.

Conclusion.

Conclusively, the business case provides a framework that ensures effective implementation of the healthcare initiatives. Regarding the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program initiative, it is important because it reduces the costs of healthcare and improves the patients’ health outcome. The implementation of healthcare projects require evidence from various sources. The scholarly sources used in this case provide evidence-based data on the advantages and limitations of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program based on data from other healthcare organizations. Ethical and cultural consideration are key to the success of any healthcare organization. Therefore, the proposed initiatives must follow the ethical and cultural requirements

References

Park, C. S. Y. (2017). Optimizing staffing, quality, and cost in home healthcare nursing: theory     synthesis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(8), 1838-1847.

Shah, A., & Course, S. (2018). Building the business case for quality improvement: a framework                            for evaluating return on investment. Future healthcare journal, 5(2), 132.

Walker, R. C., Howard, K., & Morton, R. L. (2017). Home hemodialysis: a comprehensive review of patient-centered and economic considerations. ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research: CEOR, 9, 149.

Louise Ackers, H., Ackers-Johnson, J., Chatwin, J., & Tyler, N. (2017). Healthcare, frugal innovation, and professional voluntarism: A cost-benefit analysis (p. 141). Springer Nature.

Metwally, D., Ruiz-Palomino, P., Metwally, M., & Gartzia, L. (2019). How ethical leadership shapes employees’ readiness to change: The mediating role of an organizational culture of effectiveness. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2493.