Task 3 Service Line Development Case Study

Task 3: Service Line Development Case Study Health Policy and Legislation Service Line Development November 16, 2021 Current National healthcare trends and policy initiatives that may affect healthcare organizations. A. Trends One major trend being observed in healthcare at this time is the utilization of agency staffing. Full-time staff are leaving to take traveling agency positions due to the hefty salary and benefits being offered, causing critical staffing shortages in hospitals across the nation. Another trend that has emerged is the inability of supply chain to keep up with demand for medical supplies. This trend began with COVID and has yet to recover. 1. Impact The impact of agency staffing on Trinity Community Hospital would affect any of the three service new lines because the staffing shortages are across the board and impact hospital operations and the bottom-line. In order to develop one of these services lines, there would need to be staffing in place to be operational. If the hospital were already struggling to fill vacancies without these new service lines, the new service lines would only compound the issue and set themselves up for failure. Additionally, if the hospital is utilizing agency staff at this time, the cost of that is greatly affecting their bottom and could jeopardize the funds required to open the new service lines. The cost of agency staffing ranges from $100 to $300 per hour, with the staff signing on for a minimum for three months. That hourly rate is an extremely inflated cost to the hospital. Hospitals are attempting to compete with the agency staff pay by increasing their employees’ salaries, but cannot keep up with the rising rates. Without getting the national staffing crisis under control, the healthcare system as a whole is in jeopardy. The trend in supply chain shortages have severely affected healthcare. The medical supply shortage began in 2020 due to COVID, and has yet to fully recover. Items ranging from gloves, gowns, ventilators and testing reagents have observed extensive back orders. This could delay the implementation of the new service lines due to not having the required supplies available to treat the patients. Some of the larger items required for the new service lines could take months, if not longer, to arrive. It would not benefit Trinity if they opened one of the new service lines, only to have to cease testing or treating patients due to not having the supply they need. Additionally, due to the medical supply shortage the prices of those supplies have greatly increased, which again affects the hospital’s bottom-line. At my facility one case of gloves cost $66 pre-COVID. That same exact box of gloves now costs $220! Many facilities did not budget for these drastic price increases, and do not have the option not to use the items. 2. Legislation Legislation that may develop due to the aforementioned trends would be welcomed from the healthcare industry. There should be legislation in place regarding licensing of Medical Professionals in more states, and make it more difficult to obtain a license in the states that already require them. If there were more strict licensing requirements, then agency staffing would not be able to travel across the country so readily, making it less enticing. The legislation should also address the inflated hourly rate of the agency staff by capping it. Hospitals simply cannot continue to operate by employing agency staff for an extended period of time, particularly due to reimbursement decreasing every year. Nor can the hospitals afford to stay open and provide the required care to the patients without staffing in place. Additionally, there should be closer monitoring and more prudent legislation for price gauging. Consumers are regularly advised to report price gauging, but rarely hear of any action taken regarding the reporting. How could a case of gloves price increase that drastically in a month’s time and not be considered price gauging? The items what have experienced the drastically increased pricing are necessary items to provide basic patient care. These items should be more closely monitored to ensure they are affordable to healthcare facilities.