How would this business memorandum look like ?

Directions Initial Post [Due: Wednesday at 11:59. P.M., CT.] You are the Assistant Director of The Community Health Network, a large multi-specialty practice located in Southwest Texas. This practice has been an integral part of the community for more than 30 years and employs 43 physicians and another 140 clinical and administrative personnel. When the practice was smaller, it experienced a healthy growth rate which averaged 13% annually. As the practice grew in size, it began to experience stagnant growth and now a bit of contraction in its' patient volume. The Network wants to put the business back on a growth trajectory and appears willing to embrace changes in its existing business model. There are 150K residents in the metropolitan statistical area (M.S.A.}, which can swell to 200K when factoring in work commuters. The largest portion of the population is between the ages of 38 and 50; however, the fastest growing segment of the population is between 51 and 65. The median family income is greater than that of many comparable communities across Southwest Texas. The practice includes general practitioners, endocrinologists, cardiologists, pathologists, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatrists, oncologists, geriatricians, pediatricians, EENT, and surgeons. The clinic has the capability of performing a full range of diagnostic testing and outpatient services, including a limited number of surgical procedures. The following are additional facts regarding the practice that you may find helpful: 1. Scheduling for annual physicals is done weeks in advance in order to better coordinate the required lab work. The providers have decided to schedule physicals in the conjunction with other visits, which is believed to cause disruptions in laboratory services. 2. Patients call for routine issues and expect to be seen within 48 hours. This is a contributing factor in the overbooking of providers and can unintentionally pull necessary resources from more urgent cases. 3. Scheduling is centrally performed. It appears that the schedulers aren't 100% comfortable with the time needed for each type of appointment, which is contributing to backlogs and patient and personnel dissatisfaction. If there is a doubt as to the time necessary to see a particular type of appointment, then the schedulers have been instructed to simply place the patient in an available time slot. The providers do not want any downtime, since much of their reimbursement is based on a fee-forservice model. 4. Patients are often called and asked to come in early if there is an open slot. 5. The staff have been known to express concerns over the lack of resources necessary to perform their job. 6. The schedulers are concerned about the lack of functionality within the current phone system and believe this leads to inefficiency and poor customer service. 7. Patient's have expressed concern that the hours of operation don't accommodate working professionals, since they are currently closed on the weekends. At present, the practice accepts clients from 9 am. (CT) to 6 p.rn. (CT), Monday through Friday. 8. The practice lacks technology, like a patient portal, that permits patients to book future appoints, receive the results from diagnostic testing, provide patient education materials, receive appoint reminders, and the like. The Executive Director of The Community Health Network, Ms. Diane Peterson, has asked you to come up with recommendations for how the practice can immaccess and quality while containing costs and WWQM- She has asked you to complete this important task, since she knows that you are earning your credential in the discipline of health services management and possess the requisite experience. Before you can develop well-informed recommendation, which is the take the form of a business memorandum to the attention of M5. Peterson, you will want to review relevant literature, operational facts about the practice, and demographic trends, while concurrently maintaining a focus on the business' short and long-term goals. While the practice is willing to entertain changes to its' current business model, you should remain mindful that the rm doesn't have unlimited resources. Suggestion: You might want to consider recommendations that are low-cost or no-cost. Remember, change doesn't have to happen all at once, but can be incremental in nature. It is often appropriate and advisable to begin with the "low hanging fruit", and then move on to more complex changes in the future