Brief Background

The company X belongs to the healthcare industry. At present, there is a trend on diversity programs being launched left and right by competitors.

According to literature, health care was formerly referred to as medicine or health sector which means the treatment and prevention of illnesses and diseases. By definition, health care, with the spelling variant healthcare is the prevention, treatment and management of illness. Moreover, it is the preservation of mental and physical well being via services offered by the medical, nursing and allied health professions. To quote World Trade Organization (WTO), “Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations.^” Organized provision of such services may constitute a health care system inclusive of a governmental organization. Health care consists of different goods and services compared to other industries for its output less specified for its consumers. The main product of medical care is its effect on health. Further, a third-party payment and government intervention are omnipresent.

In the global arena, healthcare is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries. It consumes over 10 % of gross domestic product (GDP) of most developed nations, health care can form an enormous part of a country’s economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3% GDP of the United States. The health care costs rise rapidly and continuously throughout developed countries. By 2010, US health care expenditures are projected to increase to almost $3 trillion dollars from $2.17 trillion in 2006.

Situation

Company X is behind this current development in the industry. Recently, company X CEO noticed the latter and started to pressure the senior HR professional. Due to this, the senior HR professional delivered and presented a diversity program to the senior executive staff. However, the senior executive staff is seemingly uninterested and focused on bottom-line costs.

Since the early 2000s, efforts to attain diversity in the delivery and administration of health care products have been receiving enormous attention. Hospitals, private practices, advocacy groups, government agencies, insurance carriers and employers among others have been concerned in the creation of a health care system which recognizes and responds to racial, cultural, socio economic and generation diversities present worldwide. The long lasting fad posted by the numerous firms’ development of countless diversity programs affect all players in the health care industry. Along with it comes the challenges to companies inclusive of coming up with competitive diversity programs and additional budgets to finance these.

Point of View

This paper uses the standpoint of the senior HR professional.

Statement of the Problem

The personnel in-charge of the diversity program needs not only to persuade the company X

CEO but also other officers. As the senior HR professional of company X in the healthcare industry, how could you convince the buy in from the senior executive staff of your diversity program? Further, what you believe could be barriers to having this plan succeed?

Analysis

To be able to give recommendations and execution plan, thorough analysis of the given situation should be done. In lieu of this, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are to be scrutinized. Following is the SWOT table for to address current scenario faced by the senior HR professional at company X.

Strengths Trust manifested by the CEO Significant task assignment	Weaknesses Other company officials to win over Lack of buy in from senior executives
Opportunities Moment to stand out Chance for the company to better services & add to their revenues	Threats Possible complete denial of the proposed program Additional expense to the company

The health care industry is consists of professional with the capability of providing services and products allied to the improvement and treatment of an individual’s wellbeing. In the scenario given, there is company x, comparable to Medicare, Medicaid and other rival institutions. People could opt to avail of services to be used in treatment of specific ailment/s. In summary of the strengths on the table above, the circumstance shows the conviction of the CEO that senior HR professional is with credibility to implement important assignment which is to develop a diversity program for the company. Evident weaknesses of the incident are the number of heads to satisfy and power of the developed diversity program. Opportunities for senior HR executive are the likelihood of shining and aid the company X’s situation. If he could pull it out, bigger projects could be delegate to him. Moreover, the senior HR professional could be given incentives if this program impacts on revenues. When this happens, the company would regain market stance. Threats faced by the senior HR professional are the inability to convince the other officials. Another possibility is the approval of the diversity program, but it would not impact the company positively. The major challenge for today’s health care providers are culturally diverse groups comprises the largest growing segment of the patient population. Individual health care choices and results must be understandable to patients in terms of their own culture and experience.

Recommendations

There is a need for the senior HR personnel to present a top quality diversity program. This new product orientation should contain up-to-date data on rival companies’ diversity program related strategies with profits generated from employing the latter. Then, customer necessities and untapped market which are possible to be penetrated with the launch of the diversity plan by company X. This should contain demographic details together with customers’ profiles and believable size of the untouched market inclusive of races. Of course, the monetary benefits to be achieved upon reaching out to this market must be explained thoroughly. Non discriminatory services and potential foreigners to avail of this new product should be visible in the orientation. Expenses is relatively low compared to the expected company gains should be high lighted. In addition, nation building benefits must be defined such as this corporate strategy’s impact to the present local government and other cultures. The senior HR professional reiterate that culturally competent health care organizations acknowledge and understand cultural diversity in the clinical setting, respect members’ health beliefs as well as practices and value cross-cultural communication. Clearly, people of color are becoming the majority of communities and patients. The African Americans and Hispanics continue to suffer from several of the most devastating diseases of modern times at higher rates than the white population. Several expectations come up of health care systems such as language barriers, modesty, religion, unwillingness to admit weakness and lack of knowledge on disease cure. The health care diversity program should include the following participant advantages: augment self-awareness about personal beliefs and attitudes that influence interactions with colleagues and clients, build up sensitivity and receptivity to diverse patient populace, educate on a broad range of perspectives regarding health and advance satisfaction through patient-centered care. Follow through actions aftermath the buy in should be nonstop concern on diversity concepts manifested by these: regular researches and product development aimed on culturally competent health care, disseminate and share knowledge and expertise on health, support diverse communities and initiate fund raising

activities for the latter.

Execution

The following outlines the plan of action for the senior HR professional.

First, elaborate the importance culturally and racially diverse health care program.

Second, show the statistics on patrons correlated with probably company earnings. Third, explain the rival companies’ advantages in advance launching of such programs while raising the high potentials of recapturing the company’s market stance. Stress the impacts on government and worldwide.

Fourth, present the endearing proposal.

Lastly, provide diversity program follow through tactics to sustain market intensity.

Sources

Chong, Nilda. A Model for the Nation’s Health Care Industry. Retrieved August 25, 2007, from http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum02/model.html

Henderson, David R. (2002). Introduction to Health Care Industry. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved August 25, 2007, from http://www.plunkettresearch.com/Industries/HealthCare/tabid/205/Default.aspx Vaughn, Nancy (2006). Diversity in Health Care. Retrieved August 25, 2007 from http://www.hodes.com/publications/talentmatters/hcmatters.asp (2007) Health Care. Wikipedia. Retrieved August 25, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care