A Feasibility Study of Constructing a Skilled Nursing Facility in Florida

In the case that the general evaluation, development, as well as, management of a patient’s care requires highly skilled services, then there is the need for the involvement of both technical and on the other hand professional workers in the delivery of required care to the patient. Therefore, Papathanasiou, Kleisiaris, Fradelos, Kakou, and Kourkouta (2014) explain that a skilled nursing facility is one that is responsible for providing medically required services from a broad array of medical professionals. Such encompass nurses, audiologist, physical therapists and even speech pathologists. These highly skilled practices are essential since they aid in the recovery of the patient and promotion of the safety of the employees by giving the necessary care. Thus, this research will concern the construction of a hypothetical skilled nursing facility called Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care and which according to the research will be situated in Florida.

Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care is an institution that stands in a generally large area. The facility has a bed capacity of two hundred and fifty. Female beds are one hundred and fifty while male beds make up one hundred. Worth noting is that at any given time, this skilled nursing home is always three-quarters full with clients having different array of challenges. The size of the land that the facility sits on is about two hectares. This is inclusive of a senior’s living community. The seniors' home consists of one hundred and eight units of housing. It has been included in the facility since it is the elderly individuals that are mostly experiencing the health concerns that need highly skilled services. Even though this might seem to be extensively large, it has enabled it to rapidly expand its facilities consequently creating more room for patients over the years. Thus, going by the sizes of other skilled nursing facilities, Mercy Home of Skilled Care can be said to be extensively large coupled with the variety of services it offers.

As a skilled nursing facility, Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care has continued to meet the needs of several Americans thus contributing to their wellness. The facility provides a post-surgical outpatient treatment at its outpatient clinic. This is in addition to the provision of these services in its inpatient clinic with the rehabilitation ranging from short to long-term. The facility boasts of a team of both registered, as well as, licensed nurses in addition to occupation and speech therapists. Some of the services that are offered by Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care encompass independent and assisted living and memory care. It is usually a good choice for individuals who require help with common chores but have a desire of retaining their independence to a particular sense. Besides, it accommodates people who are badly infirmed and require help with their daily operations and must have constant accessibility to medical services. These persons usually need attention on a consistent basis. Lastly, the skilled nursing facility also offers care to people who are healthy and independent but want to live around those that the skilled care is being provided to in a bid to boost their recovery process.

Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care is a private entity. As a result, the services offered at the institution are paid for by the clients before they can finally access them. The fees often depend on the level of technicality of the condition of the patient in addition to other factors such as the length of stay within the facility. Besides the payment, the company often participates in charity work in a bid to give back to its society. Thus, there are those individuals that have successfully gone through the facility and recovered without making any form of payment. On other occasions, the government has also provided resources to this facility that have contributed to a reduction in its operating costs such as machine repairs. This often translates to affordable costs of the skilled care as required by clients. Consequently, more people will receive the intense medical care.

Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care operates under an organizational type referred to as the functional structure. It is a structure that divides an entity depending on the specialties available. For instance, the types of care offered by this facility can be divided into stroke recovery, Parkinson’s care, custodial care, general wound care and rehabilitation, and acute medical conditions. This type of structure is advantageous to the facility since different personnel has a dedication towards a single function. Additionally, a clear definition of these roles and expectations reduce confusion regarding the level of service offered to the clients. The specialization that the functional structure has brought about in the facility has led to an in-depth knowledge in the field of skilled nursing care. Even though this structure has worked for Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care very well, it is worth noting that the bureaucracy levels that comes with it has usually made it a bit difficult responding to the market changes such as the introduction of new and better technologies.

Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care has invoked the notion of culture as a lever for the achievement of performance improvement and the best quality healthcare. Organizational culture usually deals with workers’ engagement. For this facility, it has a chock of fully dedicated individuals having a heart for service. It has been brought about by the otherwise completely functional culture of the healthcare institution. Some of the shared beliefs of the institution encompass a quick recovery of patients, timely intervention and provision of utmost care to the patients. These have brood a significant client within Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care. For instance, the institution has performance accelerators such as the number of lives that have been restored because of the skilled care offered, consequently contributing to the better delivery of results with the management also being able to sufficiently track the results. Therefore, Schneider, Ehrhart, and Macey (2013) note thata positive culture and climate of a facility will lead to a general improvement in the quality of the healthcare.

The facility has an effective organizational leadership that has incorporated doctors into its administrative structure. The engagement of doctors and development of medical leadership within the company has been integral in aligning clinical and managerial goals while also focusing on the improvement of the quality of care. The chief executive officer for the facility is responsible for the daily activities of the hospital. However, the board of the facility also plays a fundamental role in its leadership. This is because the CEO is directly answerable to them. For Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care, its primary stakeholder is the patients. This is because it is the group that pays for the institution's systems while also being its end-users. Other stakeholders of the facility include the government, medical practitioners and other support staff, professional licensing associations and protective societies. Others include students of health care and labor unions.

The facility notes that patients’ care encompasses several different individuals who need to share the information of the patient while also discussing their management(Weel-Baumgarten, 2018). For this reason, Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care has integrated a top-down method of communication in its system. It is a type of communication that puts emphasis on managerial hierarchy, as well as, the systematic information transfer from the entity's top-level management to the other company employees. The managers of this institution usually provide the guidelines and the methods of caring for the different patients having the various ailments in its facility. There is a clearly defined structure of the workers and as a result, everyone knows his or her immediate supervisor. It is through this structural arrangement that the top-down communication flows to employees(Brandes and Darai, 2014). Additionally, every specialty often has the correct information to perform their activities. Such encompass the workers to be in a shift and also the allocation of the patients to every nurse who would be taking care of him or her.

The skilled nursing facility is located in the state of Florida. The state is bordered by both the Atlantic and the Mexican Gulf on both of its sides. Florida is credited with having several beaches. Its local area is in Miami which is an international city within the Florida state. The area has a large Cuban influence on the life of its inhabitants.

As a demographic of Florida, the population was estimated to have reached twenty million as of 2010 as per the last census(Deyrup and Belmont, 2013). As a result, it is widely expected that the population of the area has widely increased. This would also mean that there are more people that are seeking the services of Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care. Whites form the largest race in Florida. They are then followed by people of the African American origin. The massive population increase in Florida is mostly because of migration from within America itself while others from overseas. English is the language that is predominantly spoken. It is followed by Spanish then French. These demographics are integral in the efficient compression of the location of the facility.

In conclusion, the research has discussed a hypothetical skilled nursing facility called Mercy Home of Skilled Nursing Care. The facility provides a highly skilled level of care that is responsible for aiding the recovery of patients and safety of the employees. The institution covers two hectares of land and has a bed capacity of two hundred and fifty. Some of the services it offers include post-surgical, general wound care, independent and assisted living and memory care. The facility is a private one and therefore the clients have to pay for the services before they can be offered. The research has also noted that the organization practices a top-down type of communication. The facility incorporates doctors in its administration. Its stakeholders include government, patients, medical students and labor unions.