MHA FP5020 CU Health & Medical Client Meeting and Project Approval Paper

Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) at Parkland Hospital in Texas.

Client Meeting and Project Approval Guide Purpose of the Meeting The purpose of this meeting is to: • Explain your role as a master’s degree learner offering a project as a part of your degree completion requirement at Capella University. Note: Remember that you are an ambassador for Capella University. Your professional appearance, behavior, and preparation should reflect positively on the organization. • Explain your proposed data review project and the course requirements to the client. • Redefine your performance indicators and outcome measures, as needed. • Negotiate potential changes to the project that will enhance its value to an organization, while meeting the requirements of the capstone course. • Obtain client approval for your data review project. Scheduling the Meeting After identifying your first choice for a point of contact in the organization, you must contact that person and schedule a meeting. The meeting can take place in person, via web conference, or over the phone. Be prepared to contact a second person if you are unable to meet your first choice. Note: Face-to-face interaction is essential for developing a strong professional network. An inperson meeting is strongly encouraged. However, if you are unable to meet with the client in person, consider hosting an online meeting to increase the level of engagement in the call. Initiating Client Contact You are encouraged to use the following sample talking points for initiating contact with the health care organization: My name is [insert your name]. I am a learner in the master’s program on health care administration at Capella University. I am currently enrolled in the capstone course, in which learners help a health care organization examine a real-world issue or problem. The topic must be one in which I can examine the existing information or data, either from a practicing health care professional or perhaps the data that has already been collected. Potential examples include patient satisfaction surveys, compliance with a new regulation, patient safety initiatives, or evaluating process deviations for a new service line offering or system, such as admitting home care patients onto the service. I am offering to volunteer my services to draft a project proposal, complete a data review, and provide recommendations on how to address the issue. These recommendations will include insights from current peer-reviewed health care journals. 2 Would you be willing to work with me on a project that examines data on [insert topic here; for example, compliance with the new hospice reimbursement system]? This would involve a meeting with me for 15–20 minutes to provide feedback on how I would examine and organize the data. Then I would review the data, review the relevant, authoritative literature, and provide a project report, with my findings, at the end of the course. Would this be helpful, and if so, may I contact you via e-mail to send a copy of the draft proposal after my instructor has approved it? Thanks so much for your time, [Your name] Client Background and Preferences Consider the following questions before you meet with the client: • Have you thoroughly researched the organization’s website and the professional background of the client? Have you obtained any other information necessary to provide perspective on the organization’s potential needs? • Is the client’s organization currently undergoing any major change that might have an impact on your proposed project? • Does your client prefer to meet with you over the phone, via web conference or chat room, in person, or via another modality? • What time or setting is ideal for the client? Presenting Your Project Proposal At the meeting, present the project proposal you developed in Assessment 2, and explain your role as a master’s degree learner offering a data review project as a part of your degree completion requirement at Capella University. • Explain your proposed project and the course requirements. Explain that you are seeking the client’s approval to review the existing data. Answer any questions. • Describe briefly what type of data you will be examining, what performance indicators you will be examining, and how you are proposing to measure each indicator. In addition, explain how you will visually display your summarized data (for example, as a pie chart, graph, spreadsheet, and process map). • Communicate to your client any statistical or other software that may be needed for the data analysis. • Explain how you will measure the outcomes for each of the four areas of the balanced scorecard. Refining Your Project Proposal After presenting your proposal, request feedback from the client on the scope and feasibility of your project. In addition, attempt to identify examples of evidence-based support for selected key performance indicators, determine whether you can gain access to additional related data sets, and verify the accessibility of data sets that could be made available for you to review. 3 The meeting is an opportunity to work with your client to redefine the performance indicators and outcome measures that you propose to examine. It is also an opportunity to make changes that will be of mutual benefit and enhance the outcome of the project. Before approving your data review project, the client may have a few suggestions to enhance your data analysis, such as adding a performance indicator, using a specific benchmark, or using an existing assessment tool. The client may also want to add something to your project for inclusion in the final report or may want you to spend more time on the project than is allotted. In such instances, you must negotiate a solution that meets both the course requirements and your client’s needs. It is your job to verify, discover, or redefine your performance indicators and outcome measures so you can proceed to your data review. Consequently, you may wish to initiate a preliminary discussion with your client on the following points: • Units of service. • Types of units applicable to your project. • Selection of units. • Output performance measures: o Scope definition. o Service completion. o Client outcomes. • Quality dimensions. • Four types of outcome measures and rationale for your selected measures. • Process for selecting outcome measures, such as stakeholder input and assessment. • Use of standardized measures. • Use of performance measurement information. During the meeting, you may discover the following: • You have chosen the wrong indicators for your problem statement. • The indicators are not included in the organization’s data sets. • The client thinks that different indicators might be more helpful. • There is limited data on a performance indicator. • There are incomplete entries or lack of consistent coding of data. • There are mismatched data sets from which you have to generate a meaningful summary. Obtaining Project Approval Agree to submit a revised project proposal, which integrates the client’s feedback and any negotiated changes before you end the meeting. Try to obtain a commitment from the client to sign and return the approved proposal so that you may proceed with the data review. 4 Submit the revised proposal to the client for final approval. Ensure that your client signs the revised copy of your proposal.

PREPARATION

• Client Meeting and Project Approval Guide.

The information provided in this document will help you in preparing for the meeting, presenting your data review project proposal, and obtaining approval for your project from the client. In addition, it provides guidance, recommendations, and examples that are crucial to successfully complete this assessment. You are encouraged to download this document and keep it on hand as a ready reference.

Key Preparatory Tasks for a Successful Meeting

Thorough preparation will ensure that your meeting is productive. Take the following steps to prepare for the meeting:

• Conduct background research on your prospective client organization. Identify a first and second choice for connecting with a practicing health care professional in that organization.
• Research best practices for professional communication and feedback to prepare for the interview.
• Reflect upon your experience in human services and health care administration relevant to your proposed project. Based on the NCHL competencies, is your proposed project realistic?
• Prepare a list of questions that you would like to ask the practicing health care professional. Refer to the Client Meeting and Project Approval Guide, linked in the Resources of this unit.

Note: You should arrive at the meeting with proposed performance indicators related to the health care issue you have identified. However, it is possible that you have chosen the wrong indicators, that the indicators are not included in the organization’s data sets, or that the client thinks different indicators might be more helpful. It is your job to verify, discover, or redefine your performance indicators so that you can proceed with your data review.