United Healthcare Firms Readiness to Meeting Healthcare Needs

Description of the Organization

United Healthcare (UH) is an incorporated public firm in the US known for offering healthcare products and insurance services. The organization is based in Minnesota and was the second in terms of revenue and net premiums in 2019. UH had a revenue of close to $260 billion and consists of more than 80% of the groups total revenue (Bartosiewicz & Ró|aDski, 2019). UH is divided into four sections namely; United Healthcare Employer and Individual, which is responsible for providing benefits for the major national employers.

The other UH division is United Healthcare Medicare and Retirement, which is accountable for providing health services to individuals aged 65 and above. United Healthcare Community and State is another division also focusing on serving the economically disadvantaged and individuals without benefits in the US (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The last UH division is United Healthcare Global, which is popular because it serves almost seven million individuals with medical insurance, specifically from Peru, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, among other countries.

United Health Readiness to Provide Health Services

UH has significantly imposed some measures and policies to make the organization ready and relevant in providing healthcare. For example, the medical services openings are open to making sure emergency issues can be attended to effectively (Osakwe et al., 2019). The organization has imposed a working formula based on shifts where doctors and nurses have schedules for their working hours depending on the business level that UH has. Another measure to show UH readiness is seen from the employment of a sufficient number of experienced and qualified medical personnel (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The organization does not refer patients to other providers since they have all the experts within the healthcare facilities who deal with varying numbers of specialized medical services (Osakwe et al., 2019). Additionally, UH has expanded in more than 130 countries globally by forming collaborative bases with other key health service providers such as national government hospitals for the host country (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). The associations made in different make it easier to cover many health problems in many countries.

UH Strategic Plan in Dealing with Various Issues

Issue	Strategic plan
UH growth	It is expanding the organization by having United Healthcare Cover (UHC) enabled within the US and other countries such as Brazil and Chile. UHC aims at providing healthcare to people without incurring a huge cost. UHC has grown because it has covered several regions to address the most important causes of illness and death among the countries involved (Jain, 2019). The organization has heavily applied modern technology in the delivery of services by using automated machines such as e-ICU that can monitor patients without much attention from nurses and doctors.
Nurse staffing	UH employs qualified and experienced nursing personnel who have been certified by the relevant authorities. The organization has, however, provided training to improve skills for nurses (Boucher & Jordan, 2019). Additionally, the management has ensured that understaffing is mitigated by employing many nurses who can give clinical attention to several patients.
Resource management	The plan to address resource management has been executed through acquiring an online patient platform known as PatientsLikeMe to control the insurance policies in UH (Bartosiewicz & Ró\|aDski, 2019). Additionally, the organization procures drugs through an effective advanced method and offers the services to cover the cost and profit.
Patient satisfaction	UH has encouraged packages for different categories of clients based on personal capability. The less advantaged patients have a package that covers basic medical attention (Bartosiewicz & Ró\|aDski, 2019). Additionally, the organization has employed quality assurance personnel to ensure competency in services.

Table 1. UHs strategic plan about various healthcare issues

Current Issues That UH Faces Process of Delivery Quality Healthcare

The first issue is cybercrime that threatens the confidentiality and privacy of medical records in UH institutions. When unwanted persons access sensitive information, they can use the data against UH for their benefit, making the organization get a poor image from the society and potential prospects (Jain, 2019). The second issue is the cultural diversity evident among the workforce due to differences in training and other key backgrounds (Osakwe et al., 2019). Diversity is a barrier to effective, ethical behavior in hospitals, and therefore, it can lead to negligence in duty hence causing harm to patients. The last issue that UH has experienced is the dynamics in healthcare costs, such as the price for drugs (Jain, 2019). All people may not welcome the change in prices as some will have objective ideas.

Suggested Theory that UH Can Apply in Its Strategic Planning

Michael Porters Five Forces theory is a practical model that UH can apply in its strategic planning. The theory is one of useful tools because it analyzes the rivalry between competing healthcare providers, the bargaining power of patients, the bargaining power of health product suppliers, the threat of new drugs in the market, and the threat of new healthcare institutions entering the medical field (Osakwe et al., 2019). For example, most people prefer taking insurance covers for their health instead of paying for health services from individual pockets. Therefore, UH can ascertain the buyers power, in this case, patients who have weak power in the medical cost issues (Jain, 2019). UH can effectively analyze the potential shift in drug buying behavior through the analysis, hence improving the operational framework for obtaining profits.

References

Bartosiewicz, A., & Ró|aDski, A. (2019). Nurse prescribing-readiness of polish nurses to take on new competenciesA cross-sectional study. Healthcare, 7(4), 151.

Boucher, D., & Jordan, D. (2019). US healthcare international comparisons: what are we comparing. International Journal of Healthcare Policy, 1(1), 89.

Jain, S. (2019). Invisibility and modern medicine. Healthcare, 7(3), 100368.

Osakwe, Z., Larson, E., Andrews, H., & Shang, J. (2019). Activities of daily living of home healthcare patients. Home Healthcare Now, 37(3), 165-173.

Need help with assignments?

Our qualified writers can create original, plagiarism-free papers in any format you choose (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.)

Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.

Click Here To Order Now