The best future for the AFCHC lies within the organization’s ability to recognize the areas of weaknesses, threats, and the capacity to address these areas with effectiveness. The organization needs to develop some specific goals that will aid it in service provision as well as revenue generation. Identification of specific goals and recommendations for improving service provision and revenue generation are best developed based on the results section in chapter 7 of the case study. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth discussion of the specific goals the facility should consider in its service provision and revenue generation in order to have a good future.
First, it is worth noting that the results indicate some competitiveness in patients’ service in all health care services provided to the community. Specifically, screening and diagnosis of specific diseases are relatively good. However, there is evidence of challenges that the facility needs to address. The following goals are likely to improve service provision at the facility.
There seems to be a problem with making appointments with a good number of patients reporting that they were at one time unable to obtain an appointment when they wanted to do so. As such, it is recommended that the facility improves its front office services through implementation of an Information System that will automatically assign customers an appointment with the relevant department or professional (Bentley, 2004). The system will scan the details and the needs of the customer against the time schedule set for the department/profession. It will also scan the time schedule for the profession/department to determine the best time for the allocation of the appointment (Satin, Lindemann & Farrell, 2008). Once the system has settled on the best time, information will be emailed to the profession/department to ensure that they either accept the appointment or reject it. The information will also be sent to the customer.
Secondly, there seems to be a problem with the ability of the facility to provide emotional support, especially because family or living conditions are not effectively addressed. It is suggested that the facility should consider organizing training for the professionals in certain areas such as nursing section in order to provide them with additional knowledge on how to handle customers. Workshops held three days in a week could see the nurses get training on how to provide emotional support to the clients and their family. In addition, the facility must aim at working in close relationship with the family in its practice. It is recommended that the family provide one or two of its members who will be integrated in the teams working to provide health care services to the client.
It is recommended that the facility provides adequate information to the clients and their families, especially in regards to the explanation of the medical care process and procedures involved. The goal would be to ensure that at least some basic information about the process and procedure are provided to the client or a member of their families. This will ensure that clients are able to make decisions on either to accept the procedure or reject it, and provide them with information on what they need to do in order to ensure the process is successful.
Language barrier also remains a problem to the service provision at the facility. Given that the facility is community-based, there is some need for inclusion of multiple languages within its practice. The goal would be to ensure that every customer regardless of ethnicity obtains the best possible services from the facility (Grob, 2011). To achieve this, the facility needs to consider including other languages in its practice, which will be in addition to English and Spanish. For instance, the results indicate that the community includes people from various areas, and it would be good if some of their languages were included in the practice.
Generation of revenue remains one major challenge that Arroyo Fresco Community health center must address in order to achieve its goals. Given that the facility is a community-based health center, there is need for a concise system of revenue generation that will see the organization providing health care services to the community concisely and uninterrupted (Donaldson, 2005). To achieve this goal, the facility must work with local and national departments of health for funding. Secondly, it should seek to obtain some revenue from its clientele through implementing some charging system. Customers will have to meet a part of their bills, while their health care plans or the employers will meet other parts. In other words, there is need for partnership between the facility and other health care providers, the government and other agents.
References
Bentley, K. J. (2004). Supports for community-based meant health care: an optimistic view of federal legislation. New York: Cengage learning
Donaldson, L. (2005). Collaboration Strategies for Reforming Systems of Care: A Toolkit for Community-Based Action. International Journal of Mental Health 34, 90–102.
Grob, G. N. (2011). From Asylum to Community: Mental Health Policy in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Satin, D. G., Lindemann, E. B., & Farrell, J. (2008). Insights and Innovations in Community Mental Health. Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc.