United Health Group Readiness in Meeting the Needs of Citizens in the Next Decade
Research a health care organization or network that spans several states with in the United States (United Healthcare, Vanguard, Banner Health, etc.). Assess the readiness of the health care organization or network you chose in regard to meeting the health care needs of citizens in the next decade.
Prepare a 1,000-1,250 word paper that presents your assessment and proposes a strategic plan to ensure readiness. Include the following:
Describe the health care organization or network.
Describe the organization's overall readiness based on your findings.
Prepare a strategic plan to address issues pertaining to network growth, nurse staffing, resource management, and patient satisfaction.
Identify any current or potential issues within the organizational culture and discuss how these issues may affect aspects of the strategic plan.
Propose a theory or model that could be used to support implementation of the strategic plan for this organization. Explain why this theory or model is best.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
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United Health Group Readiness in Meeting the Needs of Citizens in the Next Decade
Name
Institution
Due Date
Health Organization Evaluation
Description
UnitedHealth Group is a multinational healthcare and insurance company committed to ensuring that the world gets to run a highly-performing healthcare system. The company’s mission tells a story of this commitment by noting that its sole purpose is “helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone” (UnitedHealth Group, 2021). The company makes it clear that it aims to reach even the poorest of persons in the world and offer healthcare solutions for the unique needs that people have. Some of the outspoken goals of the company are to ensure effective care to patients, reduce the cost of healthcare, achieve better health, provide a rationale for building better patient-physician relationships, build healthier communities, and create a society that is equitable in healthcare (UnitedHealth Group, 2021). The multinational company continues to shape the healthcare landscape of the world through its main segments, including UnitedHealthcare, OptumHealth, OptumInsight, and OptumRx (Reuters, 2021). Each of these segments deals with a single aspect of the multinational’s business. UnitedHealthcare deals with healthcare benefits and insurance, while Optum mainly deals with healthcare provision. OptumHealth is the multinational company’s branch that oversees care delivery: OptumRx ensures that pharmacy needs are dealt with. Lastly, OptumInsight ensures that the company has enough data and analytics to enhance the provision of care. Currently, UnitedHealth Group is under the leadership of CEO Sir Andrew Witty. Additionally, the company’s global reach continues to spread, and currently, it provides benefits to more than 130 countries globally as well as all the 50 U.S. states. With a workforce of over 85,000 nurses and physicians, the company appears quite serious and driven to attain its mission of a healthier society (UnitedHealth Group, 2021).
Organization’s Overall Readiness
UnitedHealth Group appears seemingly ready to meet the needs of citizens in the next decade. According to Zimlichman et al. (2021), healthcare organizations need to improve their hospital-at-home programs. The researchers believe that these programs help to increase patient satisfaction and lower the costs involved. UnitedHealth Group happens to be the most active healthcare organization when it comes to hospital-at-home programs. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization adopted its program and served people at home. Apparently, UnitedHealth Group performed “more than 4 million digital care visits” in April 2020 (UnitedHealth Group, 2021). Virtual care was found needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and only a few organizations were able to adapt to the changing needs of patients. The organization’s adaptation showcases a healthcare partner ready to adjust and offer its patients the best.
Another aspect that the organization has shown tremendous growth in entails personalized medicine. Personalized medicine is advantageous because it uses data to predict diseases and prevent acute sicknesses. Dangor (2019) reported that UnitedHealthcare would start pharmacogenetic testing coverage. Even though this is limited to DNA tests specific to psychiatric drugs, it is a start of showing UnitedHealth Group’s commitment to personalized medicine. However, more is needed to be done by the organization to be successful in shifting its focus from cure and rehabilitation to prediction and prevention.
One area that the organization needs to focus on greatly is shifting its operations from its hospitals. Currently, healthcare organizations have centralized care in their health centers, which is a major disadvantage to those who cannot access such centers. However, new technologies will be needed to decentralize care to the communities and other marginalized areas in the next decade. Advancements in surgical navigation, telemonitoring, and augmented reality are key to this goal being achieved. As Zimlichman et al. (2021) indicate, “Telemedicine services will enable clinicians to deliver chronic disease management programs not anchored to a hospital or clinic.” UnitedHealth Group needs to invest and prepare for a different world with patients who demand more than is available.
Strategic Plan to Address Network Growth, Nurse Staffing, Resource Management, and Patient Satisfaction
To address network growth, there is a need for UnitedHealth Group to work for the future and assess its position as a key element in helping address its users’ needs. Here, OptumInsight should come in handy in helping to craft data sets that predict future healthcare needs and how the organization can better equip ...