Part 1: Simulation for Performance Improvement
As you have examined this week, simulation as an analytic tool can assist healthcare administration leaders execute important improvement initiatives. Simulations can be used to determine the impact of hospital outbreaks, shortages in staff, potential disaster events, or even financial challenges that might impact healthcare delivery for a health services organization. As a current or future healthcare administration leader, the ability to use simulation as an analytic technique will help you execute sound decision making to tackle healthcare administration challenges.
For this Discussion, review the resources , and consider those issues that might most affect healthcare administration practice. Consider how those issues might be addressed through the process of using simulation as an analytic technique, and reflect on how you might apply the process of simulation to address these issues.
Explain in 2 or 3 paragraphs of how simulation might be used to improve performance in your health services organization or one with which you are familiar. Be specific, and provide examples.
Part 2: Assignment: Simulation in Health Care
Sometimes, challenges or issues in healthcare delivery are not prescriptive in nature and cannot be solved using pure optimization. Simulation provides healthcare administration leaders and decision makers a method to evaluate problems using probabilistic components. For example, a primary care queueing problem might logically follow a Poisson process and be modeled using simulation techniques.
For this Assignment, review the resources, and examine the different simulation techniques highlighted. Reflect on how these simulation techniques might apply to specific challenges or issues for healthcare delivery. Then, complete the assigned problems for the Assignment.
The Assignment: (3–5 pages)
- Complete Problem 40 on page 876 of your course text.
Note: You will be using Excel and @Risk for this Assignment.
Albright, S. C., & Winston, W. L. (2015). Business analytics: Data analysis and decision making (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
- Chapter 15, “Introduction to Simulation Modeling” (pp. 812–879)X
Required Media
Part 3 The Affordable Care Act
QUESTION a:The Affordable Care Act: Variability by State
The costs of implementing provisions called for under the PPACA, and the benefits from the legislation, vary from one state to another. The degree to which your health care organization must adhere to guidelines of the ACA may affect the extent of the type of health care services offered, the types of patients served by your facility, and how health care costs are maintained. As a current or future health care executive, you must consider how to balance operations of your health care organization within the context of the ACA and in providing high-quality, low-cost health care.
Review the resources. Search for the cost of implementing the ACA for a health care organization in your state. Reflect on the benefits of implementing the ACA for a health care organization in your state. How might your health care organization, or one with which you are familiar, be affected by ACA mandates?
Describe in 2 or 3 paragraphs the costs of implementing ACA provisions in your state. Then, explain the benefits of the ACA in your state. Explain how the costs and benefits of the ACA may impact you as a current or future health care executive and your health care organization or one with which you are familiar. Be specific and provide examples.
QUESTION b: Population Health and the Affordable Care Act
Earlier in this course you examined how health care organizations are beginning to look at value-based care, which often encompasses care across the continuum of health care services. You also considered how this was associated with new payment methodologies. Care across the continuum links to population health, which describes the outcomes of the health of the population, and to new payment methods through the ACA.
As a health care executive for a hospital, you have been responsible for caring for the patient in your hospital bed. In the last couple of years, your role has likely expanded to include determining how to keep patients from being re-hospitalized. With the implementation of the ACA, your role is expanding further to encompass population health.
Review the resources and reflect on your role as a health care executive in implementing ACA provisions related to population health strategies. Reflect on the considerations you should keep in mind to fully comply with and enact population health strategies in light of ACA legislation.
Explain in 2 or 3 paragraphs how you as a hospital chief executive officer (CEO) might create a population health strategy based on ACA foci. Be specific and provide examples.
Required Readings
DiMichele, T. (2016). Obamacare facts: Facts on the Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from
Kliff, S. (2013). The cost of Obamacare varies wildly by state. Retrieved from
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2015). Reform by the numbers. Retrieved from
Shaw, F. E., Asomugha, C. N., Conway, P. H., & Rein, A. S. (2014). The patient protection and Affordable Care Act: Opportunities for prevention and public health. The Lancet, 384(9937), 75–82.
Stoto, M. A. (2013). Population health in the Affordable Care Act era. Retrieved from
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As a medical professor responsible for designing college assignments and providing feedback to medical college students, I am well-aware of the significance of simulation as an analytic tool for healthcare administration leaders. The use of simulation can help leaders to execute important improvement initiatives and tackle healthcare administration challenges.
Part 1: Simulation for Performance Improvement
Simulation can be used to determine and analyze various critical issues that might most affect healthcare administration practice, such as hospital outbreaks, shortages in staff, potential disaster events, or even financial challenges that might impact healthcare delivery for a health services organization. The process of using simulation as an analytic technique helps healthcare administration leaders execute sound decision making and improve performance in their health services organization. For instance, simulation can be used to improve the patient flow process to ensure efficient delivery of services, staff utilization optimization, and improve wait times. It can also be used to evaluate and predict the impact of different scenarios, such as a sudden increase in demand or staffing shortages. Simulation helps healthcare administration leaders to identify the best solutions to tackle healthcare administration challenges specific to their organization.
Part 2: Assignment: Simulation in Health Care
Simulation provides healthcare administration leaders and decision makers a method to evaluate challenges using probabilistic components. In problem 40 on page 876 of the course text, we apply simulation techniques to model and estimate a bicycle manufacturer’s operations’ performance. Simulation modeling can help healthcare leaders to evaluate a wide range of complex scenarios that cannot be solved through pure optimization. Simulation techniques such as Monte Carlo can help predict outcomes and estimate values with a degree of uncertainty. Therefore, healthcare administration leaders can use simulation to make sound decisions that optimize limited resources, improve patient outcomes, and assure operational efficiency.
Part 3: The Affordable Care Act
a. The Affordable Care Act: Variability by State
The costs of implementing provisions called for under the PPACA vary from one state to another. For instance, California had to spend $1.1 billion in 2016 to implement the ACA provisions, while Texas had to pay $400 million for the same year. In contrast, the benefits of implementing the ACA for a healthcare organization in a state may include a broader coverage of patients with insurance plans, increased revenues through Medicaid expansion, and more revenue streams for healthcare providers. The ACA mandates may affect the way healthcare organizations deliver health care services, the types of patients they serve and regulate health care costs. As a healthcare executive, I need to balance the organization’s operations within the context of ACA and ensure the delivery of quality, low-cost health care.
b. Population Health and the Affordable Care Act
As a health care executive, I need to create a population health strategy based on ACA foci. It may include improved care transitions, patient engagement and empowerment, transitional care management, advance care planning, and improving care coordination to reduce readmissions. To fully comply with ACA legislation, I should consider cybersecurity, patient confidentiality, financial management, workforce strategies, and stakeholder engagement. As a hospital CEO, I need to invest in the training and development of staff to ensure that they are familiar with population health strategies, actively incorporate them into their work, implement electronic health records (EHRs) and other technologies that support population health, and improve patient outcomes.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, simulation techniques are valuable tools for healthcare administration leaders as they predict outcomes and estimate values with a degree of uncertainty. ACA mandates significantly affect healthcare organizations in different ways and drive the need for a population health strategy that focuses on substantive health care delivery, improved quality of care, and low health care costs. Healthcare executives must be aware of ACA provisions and the costs and benefits of their implementation to make sound decisions, improve patient outcomes, and ensure efficient healthcare delivery.
