What advantages does integration afford Intermountain Healthcare?

Integration of Health Systems Assignment
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Integration of Health Systems Assignment

Integration of Health Systems
Note: Before completing this Assignment, please familiarize yourself with the Week 4 Assignment Rubric, located in the Course Information area of the course navigation menu.

Intermountain Healthcare is a high-performing integrated health system with facilities in Utah and Idaho. The health system has a long-standing clinical integration structure that encourages professional collaboration. Despite this, in 1999, many physicians at Intermountain Healthcare found it difficult to fulfill the needs of patients with co-occurring physical and mental health conditions. To efficiently and effectively address this issue, Intermountain Healthcare adopted a mental health integration model in many of its primary care facilities, as well as some of its specialty clinics and partner clinics. The team-based approach has improved the coordination of services, resulting in higher quality care at a savings of cost.

Consider the example above. What advantages does integration afford Intermountain Healthcare? Do other integrated health systems experience similar benefits? Are there disadvantages to integration? If so, what are they?

To prepare for this Assignment, review the information related to vertical and horizontal integration presented in the Learning Resources.

Select one of the following horizontally integrated health systems:

National Surgical Hospitals
Select Medical Healthcare
Sunrise Senior Living
Labcorp
Quest Diagnostics
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
Also select one of the following vertically integrated health systems:

Kaiser Permanente
Mayo Clinic
Cleveland Clinic
MedStar Health
Memorial Hermann Healthcare System Houston
As an alternative, you may use Becker’s Hospital Review resource to identify a vertically integrated health system.

Using the Walden Library and credible sources on the Internet, research your selected health systems. Investigate the rationale for pursuing integration and the strategies each health system has used to achieve integration. Note information related to the size of each health system, settings/locations, and types of services it provides.

Based on your research, consider the ways in which the two health systems are similar to and/or different from one another.

Assess the business and health care-related implications of horizontal and vertical integration of your selected health systems. How does integration impact the management of your selected organizations and the patients/consumers they serve, especially in terms of cost, quality, and access?

Consider any applicable insights you have gained through the Discussion for this week.

The Assignment

Write a paper in which you:

Compare the horizontally integrated health system and the vertically integrated health system you have selected (e.g., size, settings/locations, and types of services).
Explain each health system’s rationale for pursuing integration and the strategies it has used to achieve integration.
Assess the business and health care-related implications of integration for your selected health systems, including how integration impacts the patients/consumers the organization serves.
General Guidance on Assignment Length: Your Assignment should be 3–4 pages, excluding a title page and references. Refer to the Week 4 Assignment Rubric for grading elements and criteria. Your Instructor will use the rubric to assess your work.

Required Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Readings
Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2015). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Chapter 9, “Managed Care and Integrated Organizations” (pp. 361–368)
Cohen, A., Klein, S., & McCarthy, D. (2014). Hill Physicians Medical Group: A market-driven approach to accountable care for commercially insured patients. Retrieved from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/case-study/2014/oct/1770_cohen_hill_physicians_aco_case_study.pdf
Cutler, D. M., & Morton, F. S. (2013). Special communication: Hospitals, market share, and consolidation. JAMA, 310(18), 1964–1970.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Sanford, K. D. (2013). Integration requires new roles and responsibilities. Healthcare Financial Management, 67(3), 56–60.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Summer, L. (2014). Research insights: Integration, concentration, and competition in the provider marketplace. Retrieved from http://www.academyhealth.org/files/publications/AH_R_Integration%20FINAL2.pdf
Use the following resources to select integrated health systems on which to focus for your Assignment. You may also use this list to develop background information as you research health systems in your area for the Discussion.

Rodak, S. (2013). 100 integrated health systems to know. Retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists/100-integrated-health-systems-to-know.html
Vertically Integrated Health Systems

Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://my.clevelandclinic.org
Kaiser Permanente. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://kp.kaiserpermanente.org/
Mayo Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.mayoclinic.org
MedStar Health. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from https://www.medstarhealth.org/
Memorial Hermann Healthcare System Houston. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.memorialhermann.org
Horizontally Integrated Health Systems

Labcorp. (2014). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from https://www.labcorp.com/
National Surgical Healthcare. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.nshinc.com
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.pfizerrxpathways.com/
Select Medical. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.selectmedical.com
Sunrise Senior Living. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/
Quest Diagnostics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.questdiagnostics.com/

Integration of Health Systems Assignment

Integration of Health Systems Assignment

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.