An action plan
An action plan refers to a detail of several steps that an organization takes to enable it to fulfill certain preset objectives (Handley, et al., 2006).This paper thereby creates an action plan for the implementation of the strategic plan within the following three years.
Objectives to improve profitability and quality of service delivery
According to their strategic plan, cross senior homes have three major objectives to improve the profitability and quality of service delivery. These are improving center scores, revision of employee contracts, and the increment of the center's incomes.
Improving center scores
For the first objective, the first year of the action plan should have Cross Senior Homesseeking to improve their international ratings. To do this, the center should start by focusing on service delivery on the terms of the patients. For example, the schedule of service delivery to the patient rather than on schedules convenient to the center. For instance, patients should not have to wait long lines to wait for consultation or lab results. In the second year, on the same objective, the center should improve on their adoption of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) (Piper and Tallman, 2016). This would be a prudent course of action since service delivery was already centered on the patient in the previous year. Therefore, patients would give positive scores to the center. The third year should focus on employee training on the ethical treatment of patients. This would be prudent since employees would also be rated on their performance and unethical practice may bring down the entire score of the center.
Revision of employee contracts
For the second objective, the current employee contracts increase turnover and worker loyalty. Therefore, in the first year, the most recommendable course of action for revising the employment contract would be advising the employees to join a worker's union (Handley, et al., 2006). Although unions may bully the center on how to treat their employees, workers who are ineffective unions are more effective at their jobs due to increased job security. The second year should have the center better tailor the employee's salary to the industry's average. This would ensure that the workers do not consider moving to other potential employers. This would reduce the turnover in Cross Senior Homes. In the last year of the action plan, the employment contract should ensure that opportunities for growth are included as a mandatory matter. For example, the contract should stipulate that their service provider licenses are renewed at appropriate times for the worker to continue working. This would indubitably improve the quality of service.
Increment of the center's incomes
For the last objective, in the first year, the center should introduce value-adding services to their normal practice. An example of such a service is a virtual center visit. These are online consultation programs where people caring for the elderly from home may have professional advice in times of need. In the second year, the center should improve on a strategy of collecting new patients (Handley, et al., 2006). This could be done by hiring collection agencies or marketing companies to make the center better known in the community. In the last year, the center should focus on managing their appointment schedules more effectively. This is since patients would not have to wait long lines and getting bottlenecks. Such a step would improve consumer loyalty and patient-to-patient recommendations thereby translating into better incomes.
Conclusion
Although Cross Senior Homes has several other objectives, they are all represented by the three major goals in their strategic plan. For example, accountability can be referred to as the objective concerning the improvement of the center's scores. The acquisition of better equipment is moreover related to the increment of the center's income. Therefore, the realization of the center's strategic plan is achievable by following the above action plan.
References
Handley, M., MacGregor, K., Schillinger, D., Sharifi, C., Wong, S., " Bodenheimer, T. (2006). Using action plans to help primary care patients adopt healthy behaviors: a descriptive study. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 19(3), 224-231.
Piper, L. E., " Tallman, E. (2016). Hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems: an ethical leadership dilemma to satisfy patients. The healthcare manager, 35(2), 151-155.
