Financial Strategies Needed to Fund Implementation of Sustainability Initiative

Financial Strategies Needed to Fund Implementation of Sustainability Initiative
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Financial Strategies Needed to Fund Implementation of Sustainability Initiative
Summary of the Sustainability Initiative Proposal
Hospitals in the United States of America (USA) waste approximately $5 billion annually in unnecessary and redundant testing, which is something that can be prevented. In particular, my sustainability initiative plan is to reduce the waste of resources and facilitate an efficient supply of the products needed by hospitals seamlessly. Hospitals can eliminate unnecessary or redundant testing by implementing electronic health records (EHRs), which is a system that is used to record individuals’ medical profiles. When patients visit healthcare facilities, physicians should retrieve their information from the EHR so that they can see whether they have been diagnosed with a specific health problem before recommending any test. In addition, hospitals should not order numerous resources when they are not intending to use them. The available products should be kept in an organized manner so that those with a short deadline to the expiry date can be used first. As such, this sustainability initiative will enable hospitals to save more money without affecting the quality of healthcare services provided to patients.
Three Financial Strategies to Fund the Implementation of the Sustainability Initiative
The first financial strategy that can enable a hospital to get funds and implement the sustainability initiative is focusing on the quality of healthcare services. Patients want to get quality medical services that are affordable. They are ready to pay for such services and are likely to return and refer their friends and families. That way, a hospital will increase its revenues and become highly profitable. The products ordered are likely not to expire since they are used and stocks replenished on time.
Hospitals should hire highly skilled and experienced healthcare professionals. That way, there will be no room for compromising the quality of healthcare services provided. These specialists should be handled well and their well-being prioritized. For instance, they need to be given enough time to rest and balance their life and work. Besides, physician burnout has adverse economic costs for hospitals since even highly experienced health professionals can make mistakes when they work for many hours without resting (Shanafelt, Goh, & Sinsky, 2017). As such, if physicians have adequate time to rest, they provide quality patient care, which is the primary determinant for individuals’ willingness to return to a specific facility for more services. In addition, a hospital will reduce instances of lawsuits, which can drain its finances.
The third financial strategy that can provide funds to implement my sustainability initiative is adopting an EHR and data analysis experts. Specifically, an EHR is appropriate since it records patient data and can eradicate unnecessary or redundant tests. Once a particular medical test has been taken, the laboratory results are posted in an EHR and can be retrieved by authorized personnel when the need arises. That way, physicians do not repeat tests that have already been performed. When it comes to hospital supplies, it becomes easy to organize products depending on their expiry date. As a result, these medical supplies will not go to waste, and the money that would have been used to buy other products is used to fund the implementation of the sustainability initiative.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for Each of the Financial Strategies
The strengths of providing quality medical services include patient satisfaction, increased referrals and rate of return, and emphasis on patient-centered care (Fix et al., 2018). Many people are likely to continue seeking patient care and even refer their friends and families when they are satisfied. In that light, the hospital generates more revenues. The opportunities of these financial strategies are increased growth and expansion, profitability, and the establishment of good relationships with supplies. A hospital that offers quality medical services is likely to grow and expand, meaning that it has to find reliable supplies that can distribute the needed resources on time. The weakness of this financial strategy is that it might take time to generate money enough to fund the sustainability initiative. Moreover, the primary threats are increased competition and the challenges of getting adequate medical experts.
Hiring highly skilled and experienced healthcare professionals has various strengths. They include increased patient satisfaction, revenues, employee motivation, job satisfaction, and decreased turnover rate. Medical specialists who provide quality services attract not only more patients but also other talented experts. The opportunities of this financial strategy are growth and expansion, increased hospital visits, and gaining a competitive advantage (Shanafelt, Goh, & Sinsky, 2017). When patients have been treated well and are satisfied with the services, they are likely not to consider other healthcare providers. However, the threats include how to retain highly skilled medical professionals and meet their financial demands. The primary weakness of this strategy is getting these medical experts since almost every other hospital is searching for them, and some large institutions are ready to pay these professionals high salaries and other financial benefits.
Furthermore, implementing an EHR and having data analysis experts is another strategy that can be used to generate funds to implement my sustainability initiative. The strengths of this approach include easy patient data retrieval, data accuracy, and credibility, elimination of wastage of resources, an...