Assignment 1: The Primary Care Clinic

Due Week 7 and worth 130 points

Select a city/town in the United states that fits the criteria noted below.  Use that city to frame your paper.  Imagine that you are the manager of a new primary care clinic located about twenty five (25) miles outside of your selected small city (population of 50,000). With five (5) family physicians, two (2) nurse practitioners, two (2) physicians’ assistants (PAs), and twenty (20) clinical support staff consisting of RNs, LPNs, and CMAs, the clinic provides primary care services to a diverse community of people living and working outside the city limits. Originally a rural area, the community has been growing and now includes promising opportunities in employment, education, and comfortable living spaces for young families. However, there are still many residents who struggle to make ends meet with older farms that have belonged to families for generations.   

Imagine that the city you selected includes two (2) large acute care facilities, and one (1) tertiary care facility that is known for its excellent pulmonary care. Both acute care hospitals provide the usual services such as labor and delivery, outpatient surgery, chronic disease care, etc., and have fully equipped ancillary departments, such as lab and radiology. Up until this point, the residents have used the facilities’ emergency departments for routine illnesses and conditions when their private physicians were not readily available

Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:

1. Describe your chosen city, including its population, racial/ethnic make-u, infrastructure,median income, and the overall landscape.  You should be able to retrieve data on various cities online.  Analyze some of the key social, political, and economic factors that have led to the proliferation of urgent care facilities and primary care practices over the last 20-30 years.
2. Create a comprehensive mission statement for the clinic and discuss how it will facilitate the provision of quality services.
3. Analyze and discuss one (1) or more directions the clinic might take to grow its business. Determine what factors you would consider when deciding what services to provide in-house and which ones to affiliate with other institutions.
4. Decide how you will determine if the clinic is meeting its goals. Identify three (3) performance measurements you could use to evaluate the success of the clinic’s services. Begin by naming a goal, and then identify a quantifiable measurement you could use for each to determine if you are coming close or falling short of the goal.  You might want to consider using the SMART goal format. 
5. Determine how you would then address whatever opportunities for improvement seem to exist and what processes you would put in place.  Justify your decisions. 
6. Go to https://research.strayer.edu to locate and use at least three (3) quality resources (peer reviewed research articles, or papers from professional organizations) in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as quality resources.
7. This course requires use of new Student Writing Standards (SWS). The format is different than other Strayer University courses. Please take a moment to review the SWS documentation for details

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Analyze the critical management issues, purpose, functions, and performance measures of different departments within healthcare organizations.
• Examine the political, economic, and social forces that have influenced the organizational foundations of the United States healthcare system.
• Explain how public policy has shaped the development of the U.S. healthcare system.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health services organization management.
• Write clearly and concisely about health services organization management using proper writing mechanics.