Four Seasons Health Care

Abstract

In the recent pandemic era, the health and social care sector are facing several issues and market threats to run their operations efficiently. The organisational activities at Four Seasons Health Care will be analysed through this literature review by representing the findings and data. PESTEL and SWOT analysis would be beneficial to understand the market activities in the UK health and social care sector. The major risk factor at Four Seasons Health Care is poor human resource management, where the health and social care professionals are the major stakeholders of the institution to meet its purpose (Gordon et al., 2018, p.595). The issue is linked with poor internal culture, resistance to change, internal conflicts and lack of management, which further deteriorates the quality of care of the individuals. The major market threats as per analysis are increasing competition, rise in the cost of operations in healthcare as well as poor management and labour turnover rate (Bell and Blanchflower, 2020, p.55). The workers are not satisfied with the internal culture and working activities of the institution, for which the organisational capabilities is being hampered. Due to increase in the numbers of patients in the recent COVID 19 situation, it is mandatory for Four Seasons Health Care to manage the health care professionals by developing partnership working practice and provides them flexible working culture so that they can work creatively and contribute positively to maximise the patient care (van Schalkwyk et al., 2020, p.371).

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, the health and social care organisations are facing several issues, to run the operations and develop suitable strategic planning for securing the standard of living of the individuals. The literature review is beneficial for conducting the market analysis and resenting the qualitative data on market opportunities and threats to understand the market condition. The health and social care organisation Four Seasons Health Care will be analysed through this literature review, where it would be possible to conduct PESTEL and SWOT analysis on health and social care sector of the UK, as well as exploring the market opportunities and threats that Four Seasons Health Care face during this pandemic era. Four Seasons health care is British provider of health and social care services and total numbers of locations that the institution operates is more than 440. It is the UK’s largest independent health care providers caring for more than 10,000 people across the UK (Four Seasons health care, 2021a).

They mainly provide effective long-term and respite residential as well as nursing care for the older people and are an award winning, sector leader in specialist dementia care. The purpose of the Four Seasons health care is to maximise patient care by providing the best quality health and social care services to the individuals (Four Seasons health care, 2021b). It encourages residents to care for themselves where possible, so they maintain their independence for as long as possible as well as make sure that it fulfils people's wishes in terms of their care, review them regularly, then act on them if needed. The organisation is also successful to maintain people's privacy, dignity and independence, involve people in decisions about their care, treatment and support in order to maximise the quality of care and protect patient living standard successfully by providing latest treatment and quality care. To be respectful and considerate to everyone at all times as well as managing transparency and accountability is also helpful for the institution to run their operations and maximise patient care across the UK (Four Seasons health care, 2021c).

Presentation of data

In the recent pandemic era, the organisation Four Seasons health care faces the challenges to runt heir operations and the major issue is problem in human resource management. Due to this COVID 19 pandemic situation, the workers are facing issues in managing their responsibilities and working with others at the organisation. This main issue leads to further problems for Four Seasons health care to manage their staff members and lead them successfully towards achieving the institutional purpose. The main aim of Four Seasons health care is to maximise patient care by delivering the best quality care and treatment as per the patients’ needs and personal preferences. However, due to this pandemic era, the staff members and employees at Four Seasons health care face difficulties to work under poor working condition and lack of management (Four Seasons health care, 2021d). As per the finical data of the organisation, £13.7m net cash outflow from operating activities in Q1 2019 was largely driven by a £15.2m working capital outflow during the period. In Q1 2019 group average weekly fee was £860, 3.9% higher than Q1 2018, which leads to increasing expenditure of the institution (Four Seasons health care, 2021e). Over the same period, the group’s net debt increased by £17.6m to £582.1m and thus, it is mandatory for the firm to explore the strategic issues and manage their operations for making the institution financially stable (Office for National Statistics, 2020). The issues associated with this critical strategic problem of poor management of the human resource will be explained further by exploring existing managerial problems at the institution.

Lack of staff at the institution

Due to this COVID 19 situation, the numbers of patient is increasing at a rapid rate, where it becomes difficult for the workers at Four Seasons health care to manage the patients and handle the treatment and quality of care successfully. Due to increasing numbers of patients, it is also problematic for the staff to attend each patient personally and manage them during the treatment process and medication (Gordon et al., 2018, p.595). There is lack of experienced staff members to handle the huge numbers of patients in Four Seasons Health Care. The internal capabilities of Four Seasons Health Care is also not adequate to treatment the huge numbers of patients during this critical phase, where the employees, doctors and physicians cannot manage the treatment facilities and quality of care for treating the patients.

Poor management and administrative practice

Internal management is poor during this pandemic era, where the organisation Four Seasons health care cannot manage the whole operational process. Increasing the numbers of patients as well as lack of internal culture management lead to poor working practice for which the patients are suffering (Park et al., 2018, p.72). It becomes difficult for Four Seasons health care to handle the staff members in the recent critical situation, due to remote working process, lock down and social distancing, where the workers must wear PPE kit, gloves and masks to treat each patient carefully. This further hampers the administrative work in Four Seasons health care, where the managers fail to follow the code of conduct in health and social care sector along with the legislative structure of health care. The employee safety cannot be managed well, as well as poor data management and information protection may lead to failure to administrative work management at the healthcare institution.

Resistance to change

It is important for the organisation to adopt new innovative strategies in order to handle the workers and maximise the quality of care creatively by adopting latest technology, so that the patients can get the best quality treatment and care. However, resistance to change is one of the major issue, for which the organisation face difficulties to lead the workers towards managing new changes and adopting new working practices (Devi et al., 2021, p.2). The main strategic issue of the care home is poor human resource management which leads to staff turnover, misunderstanding and lack of trust and respect for each other (von Wachter, 2020, p. 549). The staff members, employees, doctors and general physicians must be cooperative at Four Seasons health care in order to manage the patients; however, there is resistance to change which leads to misunderstanding among the health care professionals. The managers are also not efficient to handle the professionals for managing change and ensure high quality patient care.

Internal conflicts

Internal conflict is another issue related to poor human resource management, where the managers fail to enhance internal communication and operation in the workplace of Four Seasons health care. Due to misunderstanding, lack of trust, poor communication and non-cooperation, the health care professional do not want to understand the workplace activities (Bell and Blanchflower, 2020, p.55). The team working activities are also being hampered for such internal conflicts which are associated with cultural diversity, differences in language and knowledge and skill set of the staff members at Four Seasons health care.

Remote working

There are remote working facilities after such pandemic era, where the government policies of lock down and social distancing are followed by all the corporations. It is the responsibility of the health care managers at Four Seasons health care to manage the numbers of health care professionals attended the patients each day, as per the government guidelines, so that it is possible to maintain safety and security of the staff as well as for the patients. Remote working facilities are further associated with misunderstanding among the staff, non-cooperation and poor communication which deteriorates the quality of care for the patients (South et al., 2018, p. 22).

Presentation of models and theories

PESTEL analysis sis effective for understanding the impacts of political, social and economic as well as technological, legal and environmental factors on the health care services. There is political stability in the UK to run the care home, however, the negative impacts of Brexit and COVID 19 era further raise difficulties for the institution to runt heir operations smoothly (van Schalkwyk et al., 2020, p.371). The economic growth and social development further influence the health care sector to manage their operational excellence ad arrange adequate fund to handle the huge numbers of patients across the UK. As per the legal compliance, the employment rules are followed and there is equality and diversity management in the health care. The female members are also empowered well and get equal payment in the institutions (Rosen et al., 2018, p.432). The technological advancement as well as environmental factors is also fruitful for the institution to run their operations innovatively and secure future sustainable development. In the recent COVID 19 situation, all the health and social care professionals are concerned and they utilise the organisational resources and capabilities to treat the patients sufficiently in order to maximise their wellbeing.

SWOT analysis is effective for discussing the strengths and weakness of the organisation as well as exploring the market opportunities and threats in near future. The major strengths of the institution Four Seasons health care are such as highly-skilled clinical staff, history of successful open day events and strong ethos of openness, sharing and commitment to increasing patient confidence as well as local charities willing to participate and there are over 500 clinics spread across the UK shows its presence (Brewer et al., 2020, p.15). Through institutional expansion and good quality patient care, the health and social care organisation aim at managing the patients and maximising their wellbeing in long run. However, there are some weaknesses which are limited focus on expanding beyond UK, narrow focus on open events not partnership activities and services too stretched for additional activity. The institution face difficulties in labour shortage due to this pandemic era, where the numbers of patients admitted in the care home each day is increasing over the period (Nouhjah and Jahanfar, 2020, p.731).

The opportunities for the institution are such as active volunteer committee willing to plan and organise events, patients active in the care homes can be asked for their opinions and suggestions for care plan improvement as well as increase in focus on healthcare, care homes that have opportunity to expand geographically, e-commerce service for online consultation and medication etc., where the institution can engage the social communities for maximising the standard of living of the individuals. There are some market threats in the health and social care sector which are high patient risk, lack of innovation and technological advancement in the care home, increasing competition, rise in cost of treatment and lack of availability of experienced staff and health care professionals and these threats are increasing in the recent pandemic situation (Nyashanu, Pfende and Ekpenyong, 2020, p. 655). Poor resources and capabilities of the institution is also a major risk factor for the health care home to serve the patients with best quality treatment and care. Due to lack of resources and technical innovation, it becomes difficult for the care professionals to handle the operations and it further deteriorates the quality of care.

Discussion

As per the findings, internal conflicts, resistance to change remote working facilities during this pandemic era, lack of staffing and poor management are the major complications at the institution Four Seasons health care for which the management team face difficulties to handle the human resource, where the health care professionals are the major stakeholders to run the operations and provide the best quality care to all the individuals (Begun and Jiang, 2020, p.12). The major health care professionals include doctors, pharmacists, general physicians, surgeon, health and social care workers, employees and suppliers who are working collaboratively to maximise patient care at Four Seasons health care. It is hereby important for the organisation to develop alternation solutions to handle the health care team and lead them towards achieving the organisational purpose (McFadden et al., 2021, p.812). It would be beneficial for the institution to explore the risk factors and market threat in order to develop further creative solution to run their operations across the UK. It would be beneficial for Four Seasons health care to strategize the operations efficiently by technological innovation which helps to develop integrated computerised system for patient management (Office for National Statistics, 2020).

The Enterprise Resource planning software must be incorporated to manage the patients successfully by providing them medication, continuous care and treatment. Additionally, it is mandatory to hire the experienced health care professionals, staff and internal employees in the recent pandemic era, so that they can work innovatively and attend each patient successfully. Four Seasons health care needs to develop good human resource management practice by developing flexible workplace, following the employment rules, managing transparency and accountability as well as partnership working practice, so that the issues of internal conflicts and resistance to change can be mitigated (Aughterson et al., 2021, p.47353). It further helps to strengthen the employee base of Four Seasons health care and maximise patient care in the market.

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