The Veterans Administration (VA) should constantly be monitoring the current healthcare environment for trends and new treatment methods for post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
By monitoring the current trends treatment the VA is able to modify, change or continue the current treatment methods being used on past and current veterans. These trends allow the organization to scan for external environmental data to assist in treatment plans and recovery methods for veterans. This monitoring would confirm or disprove the possibility of various trend directions.
These trends could be placed in various categories of economic, social/demographic and technological (Swayne, Duncan & Ginter, 2008).
Current outpatient treatment of PTSD by the VA has to be modified to treat a younger population of soldier and the VA has to monitor current trends in healthcare used by the private sector. The treatment methods have to be adjusted to not only treat PTSD but injuries as a result of combat. This dual-use by a more technologically educated group of veterans makes monitoring by the VA a must in treatment.
Also patients are choosing to use the VA for care due to the costs associated with receiving care from a private provider (Simpson, 2006).
This would prevent VA patients from seeking emergency room care therefore adding to the ever increasing healthcare costs. Another area that requires an environmental analysis is providing care to the many diverse groups of veterans. The military is becoming one of the most diverse employers and the VA must explore various ways of getting more of these groups to seek care through the VA.
The Essay on Democratic and Republican main constituencies and the current trends
The two great political parties are one of the major political systems that were not envisaged by the founding for fathers. The two features that were constituted encompassed constitutional frameworks that encouraged the two party developments. The Electoral College, which was at least modified by the twelve amendments along with the single member district which, while not mandated ...
Within the VA’s strategic vision and mission it addresses providing care to all veterans while demonstrating the value of VA care to the nation. (Fine, Demakis, 2003).
An environmental analysis could provide useful data on trends in economic changes which address costs, demographic changes as well as competitive changes in healthcare. Although the Affordable Care Act does not affect veteran care, the stewardship of the VA healthcare system should be monitored for costs. The risks of not monitoring costs of care are budget cuts, poor technology and management of the veteran healthcare system.
Although the budget is funded by the government, financial cuts do occur depending on the political party in office. These stakeholders want to see that there is a valid return on investment in the veteran healthcare system while providing quality care (Swayne, Duncan & Ginter, 2008).
Rural healthcare requires an analysis of environment to determine the factors that affect healthcare delivery to veterans. This analysis could address what types of changes would affect healthcare in rural areas in the future. One factor affecting care in rural areas is the recruitment of providers.
What safety net would the agency have in place to address providing care to veterans in those rural areas? Nurse practitioners could be an option as well as offering residents better tuition assistance as many have acquired large amounts of educational debt (Simpson, 2006).
Community based outpatient clinics provide a method of mitigating expenses that may be incurred by providing care in rural areas. An environmental analysis would provide some insight as to how the agency may provide care to veterans in those areas.
This analysis may provide a look into resource allocation needs, what metrics are needed to measure effectiveness of the programs and how will quality be measured. The community based outpatient clinics would provide needed access to veteran who may be located in areas without a VA hospital (Liu, et al. , 2010).
The Term Paper on State Health Policy Analysis
It is projected that health reforms by the federal government will help states reign in health cost and slow the growth by 1% in all states by 2020. This would save $2571 per year per family under an employer sponsored plans for family coverage. It is thought that if the states and federal government can control growth by 1. 5 percentage points many agree in the insurance industry would save $ ...
Conclusion Environmental analyses are vital to the strategic planning of the VA. Accessing the trends, forecasts, monitoring and scanning the environment will only mitigate risks and prepare the organization for changes in the future.
Although the VA has a niche market the organization must address trends in healthcare insurance as this will affect veterans who can afford to make a choice of where they receive care. By analyzing this area the VA can maximize an opportunity to capture those veterans who are financially able to choose another healthcare provider. This may be done by offering those veterans a better option of quality healthcare in an environment they are familiar. References Fine, M. J. , & Demakis, J. G. (2003).
The veterans health administration’s promotion of health equity for racial and ethnic minorities.
American Journal of Public Health, 93(10), 1622-4. Liu, C. , Chapko, M. , Bryson, C. , Burgess, J. , Fortney, J. , Perkins, M. , & … Maciejewski, M. (2010).
Use of outpatient care in Veterans Health Administration and Medicare among veterans receiving primary care in community-based and hospital outpatient clinics. Health Services Research, 45(5 Pt 1), 1268-1286. Swayne, L. E. , Duncan, W. J. , & Ginter, P. M. (2008).
Strategic management of health care organizations. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. Simpson, S. A. (2006).
Safety net lessons from the veterans health administration. American Journal of Public Health, 96(6), 956-956.
