3 Exercises to Increase Happiness at Work

How often do we hear that a friend or family member is unhappy with their job? But happiness in one’s work may have more to do with perspective than the actual job.

A recent survey completed by the Conference Board research group reported that more than have of U.S. workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.

There are three key traits that could contribute to job happiness and how we can incorporate these traits into our jobs via ‘job crafting.’

1.       The desire for control over our lives.

2.       Making positive connections with other people.

3.       Deriving meaning from work.

Job crafting is a term used by Yale psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton professor at the University of Michigan. ‘Job crafting’ is taking control over the aforementioned traits to increase job satisfaction.

Dutton and Wrzesniewski recommend three exercise to increase job satisfaction.

1.     Identify the good and bad parts of your job.

Take an inventory of what you like and dislike about your job and other things you would like to integrate into your work. Setting goals and focusing on the positive can do wonders in snowballing positive focus.

2.     Build better relationships with your colleagues.

You spend a lot of time with coworker so why not invest a little effort and time and make some friendships? Having friends can make even the most difficult of work better.

3.     Look at your job in a new way.

Changing your mindset towards your work can make a difficult job more meaningful. Your job can be as full of purpose as you want to make it.

From a health care management perspective helping employees and staff enjoy their job and look at it from a new perspective can help hospital moral. Health care management and healthcare in general can be taxing and difficult work but integrating these three exercises can really turn a health culture around.

Share your Thoughts:

Could you use these exercises in your own health care management field to increase job happiness? How do you think you could best implement these exercises into employee and health care management culture?

Thank you to Baylor University MBA in Healthcare program for focusing on a culture of happy health care management.

Sources:

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/09/13/love-your-job?WT.mc_id=Email|DailyBriefing+Headline|DBA|DB|2016Sep13|OldDB2016Sep13||||&elq_cid=1339315&x_id=003C000001tclvqIAA

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Rural Healthcare in Crisis

Health Management in Rural America is struggling to meet the increase in Medicaid patient demands. In Northern California the amount of Medicaid patients doubled to approximately 40,000 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA requires Americans to sign up for healthcare insurance or be fined annually.

What rural healthcare networks especially those that serve low-income individuals and families are seeing is an increase in demand for services but not enough nurses and physicians to meet the demand.

In rural Northern California some health centers have had to stop accepting new Medicaid beneficiaries which causes the patients in some cases to have to travel long distances for primary care or use local emergency departments for regular or preventative care.

It’s a tug of war of resources affecting patients, physicians, hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms and even potential health care providers looking into the career of health management.

Share your Thoughts:

How would you as a health manager deal with the increase in Medicaid recipients in a rural area? What could you see as potential solutions and barriers? Does your State participate in the ACA Medicaid expansion, if so what effects have you seen?

Thank you to Baylor University MBA in Healthcare for the skill to brainstorm and help problem solve complex health management questions.

Sources:

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/08/05/medicaid-expansion-straining-rural-providers?WT.mc_id=Email|DailyBriefing+Headline|DBA|DB|2016Aug05|ATestDB2016Aug05||||&elq_cid=1339315&x_id=003C000001tclvqIAA

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Hospitals Expect More Negative Margins for Medicare Reimbursment

Medicare reimbursement rates have always been a big focus for healthcare managers and administrators because it is an area where hospitals/clinics can potentially hemorrhage money. Medicare reimbursement is not dollar for dollar for procedures that are carried out so healthcare management is always mindful of how they can improve their hospitals to qualify for the best reimbursement rates. However according to Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) hospitals are expected to see a negative 9 percent average on their Medicare margins. This compared to negative 5.8 margins in 2014.

So why are these margins falling? The results from MedPAC point to declining Medicare reimbursement and the implementation of other federal policies for example the move towards value-based payments and 0.8 percent payment reductions to recoup improper overpayments related to coding errors.

What can healthcare management do to help lessen their losses and the pressure they feel with all the changes occurring in the healthcare industry?  Here are a few suggestions listed by the Advisory Board Company:

• ·         Instill greater employee accountability for benefit costs
• ·         Accelerate the transition to ICD-10 coding
• ·         Build clinical model for population health
• ·         Implement Best-in-Class CDI programs
• ·         Gain new patients with Convenient Offerings
• ·         Standardize care across Clinics and Sites of Care

Hopefully by considering new strategies to lessen losses healthcare management can alleviate some of the strain placed on health facilities by dropping reimbursements.

Share Your Thoughts:

How do you view the issue of declining Medicare reimbursement margins? How would you solve the problem in Healthcare Management? What role do you see physicians and clinical healthcare professionals playing in the Medicare reimbursement margins?

Thank you to Baylor Healthcare MBA for introducing early on the strengths and struggles seen daily by healthcare management.

Sources:

https://www.advisory.com/research/financial-leadership-council/resources/margin-intensive/margin-intensive-infographic

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/05/02/medicare-margins-projected-to-decrease

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Hospital Transactions up almost 20% in 2015

In 2015 the amount of hospital structure changes, or ‘hospital transactions’ i.e. mergers, acquisitions, joint operations and joint ventures has increased by 18% in 2015. It should also be pointed out that the increase in hospital transactions increase by 70% since 2010. Of the 112 transactions in 2015 83 of them were in the not-for-profit being acquired.  

What has caused the increase in hospital transactions so dramatically since 2010? Many would point to the changes with healthcare reimbursement brought on by the Affordable Care Act.

Some smaller community hospitals feel the financial stress of needing to provide more services to patients at a reduced Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rate as well as an increase in free services covered under the umbrella of the Affordable Care Act. Larger hospital companies are buying up these smaller hospitals as they have a greater ability to afford these financial changes.

Share your Thoughts:

Do you think patients will benefit from the increase in healthcare transactions? How should healthcare management change or improve based on these changes? How do healthcare managers succeed and adapt to these changes?

Thank you to Baylor University MBA in Healthcare Program for the knowledge to navigate through an ever changing Healthcare system environment.

Sources:

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/01/25/number-of-announced-hospital-transactions-jumps-nearly-twenty-percent-in-2015

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