Providence Communication Skills

Background on Providence Corporation Services

Providence Corporation Services is one of the organizations that were formed to help the country manage the delivery of subsidized health programmes to its large number of clients. The corporation was formed in January 1997 as a result of the government encouraging and allowing the privatization of human services. The services offered by Providence Corporation are direct services to the young people in the United States who have behavioural health needs. The organization gives community based health care, treatment and counselling to the clients. Its clients are the children and young adults which also includes adolescents. The organization does not own any operational base or institute such as a hospital. It executes its services by coming to their clients venues. These venues include the work places and homes. Providence works closely with the government in providing subsidized health programs to the public. It is a considerably large organization as it operates all over the United States (Providence Corporation Services, 2009a).

Unlike other private service providers who have specialised in dealing with just children health services, Providence has tried to diversify its services by being multi-jurisdictional such that it is able to serve more clients under the programs which are funded by the government. The organization’s current priority is to ensure that the care they give to clients which is community based is professional, of high quality, accessible and more effective as compared to the normal institutional care (Providence Corporation Services, 2009b).

Problem or Opportunity for Change

What is not working or could work better

The organization functions in such a way that it's staff has to go on site to diagnose a problem is time wasting and might not be working well. This is because the staff has to carry all the equipment they need and take it to the place where the client is. In the event that there are different clients with the same need, the organization has to take different groups to the different venues. This could be expensive as it has to employ more staff so as to effectively meet the needs of its clients. Having an institution from where they operate from could make it better. This is because clients with major problems can easily be brought over instead of them waiting for the organization's staff to arrive. Some technical operations sometimes can be difficult to administer out in the field due to remoteness of a site. For example in the event that the team is attending to a client who resides in a place that has no electricity or has a power surge and has no access to a generator, it becomes hard for the team to execute services that require the electricity to operate. This could work better if they had an institution that had the facilities and back up generators so that the service delivery is not interrupted and emergencies can be taken care of without delays.

The fact the organization has no central point of operation could not be working. This is because in the event that a problem occurs and they need to consult, it takes longer than it would have taken if the services were being provided from a central place. This system of operation gives more room and opportunity for mistakes to be made than if there was an institute from where they operated from. Communication also becomes a problem as it is hard to know who to consult with as everyone is busy in different places attending to clients.

Problem Symptoms, Cost and Potential benefits of the Opportunity

Providence Corporation Services entirely depends on the contracts it has made with the government. The organization only provides programs that are funded by the government. This in itself is a symptom of problems that could arise in future. Government contracting is not all that safe, usually it involves both partners (the government and the contractor) sharing any risk that may be incurred. The organization does not seem to have an alternative mode of operation that it can fall back to in the event the risks associated with governmental contracting occur and can not be controlled. Such risks include the government ceasing to continue funding some of the programs. This would automatically reduce the number of clients who can afford the services. This will consequently hurt the organization. The impact might be so drastic that the company fails to recover (Garson, 2005).

The opportunity of being contracted by the government nevertheless has its advantages. The main one is that risks are shared. The organization does not have to bear the responsibility of dealing with any risk that arises alone. Moreover, governmental contracts usually come with other benefits such as reduction on revenue and taxation. Most people also prefer the governmental subsidized programs as they can not afford the private medical services. This implies that there is an increase in the number of clients. These advantages enable the organization to greatly increase its profits margin (Osborne, 2000).

Organization Efforts to find Solutions to the Problem

In order to reduce the problems associated with on-site operations and increase the efficiency in how it operates, Providence Corporation Services has decided buy and acquire the coordinating of non – emergency transportation services from Logisticare Inc. Acquiring these services will enable the organization to arrive at the client's sight promptly and avoid delays. The organization will also be able to design the transporting media for examples if they are vehicles or planes to their own specifications so that they can house all the equipment needed on the site of operation (Providence Corporation Services, 2009b).

Providence has taken the responsibility of taking the services to clients at a higher level. They want to be totally in charge so as to avoid and eliminate any inconveniences that used to occur before as a result of depending hired transportation services. This will greatly improve the quality and effectiveness of their services to their clients hence attracting more clients. The organization is also able to reach clients who could be having emergency situations and are not able to reach hospitals which are far (Providence Corporation Services, 2009b).

Gap in the Organization's Knowledge

Providence Corporation Services has been doing well and is growing at a fast rate. However there are problems that inhibit the way they operate making it hard for them to provide their services in an effective manner. Initially, lack of adequate resources was a main setback, this is because the organization was not able to employ as many staff members as it required for its clients in different of the country. The on site operations also require transport systems that are able to house all the required equipment. This was not easy with the limited resources hence were not able to give satisfactory services to their clients. This also contributed to the past low numbers of clients. Cultural constraints have also been a setback to the growth of the organization. This mainly is because most Americans are not familiar with the community based services and prefer going to the health institutions such as hospitals and clinics for health care services. The fact that most people do not want to change from this traditional way of getting health care services has greatly decreased the chances of the company attracting more clients. Most of the staff of Providence Corporation Services is not as skilled and as experienced as those that are found in other medical and health service institutions. The fact that this organizations still relies on other universities for knowledge and skills makes them lose the confidence of potential clients. These factors and others greatly limit the organization from solving the existing health service problems and from fulfilling the present opportunity in the market of delivering the governmental funded health services and programs to the large number of clients.

Project scope

Who/what you will study and measure

I would study the number of young working adults between the age of 21 and 35 in five of the states that providence has established itself to see how many have subscribed as members and ask of their opinion on the effectiveness of the organization. I also would study parents that have subscribed for their children. I will try to find an answer as to why they preferred this way of operation to the traditional method of going to institutions such as hospitals. I will find out from those who were not Providence Corporation's clients why they did not want to subscribe. I finally will study the organization's employees and find out how different it is to work this way as compared to working from a centralised institution such as a hospital.

Summary of assessment methodology (process for studying and measuring)

After identifying and stating the problem to be studied, justification will be offered and the objectives of the study defined. The method of collecting the data will then be determined. The best methods to be used in this case will be interviews and questionnaires. The data will then be analysed and the results discussed. The discussion will be done in comparison and relation to the stated problem and objectives. A conclusion will be drawn depending on the achieved results. Following the study, recommendations will be made.

Significance of the Study to the Organization being studied

This study will enable the organization to know what hinders it from getting more clients. The organization can then find ways of eliminating these barriers and focus on enlightening the public on the advantages of their mode of operation. The organization is able to identify the weaknesses of its services in the market and improve on them hence attract more customers which eventually increase its profit margin.

Significance of the Study to the Society

The fact that this study focuses on how the organization operates, advantages and disadvantages of this mode of delivering services and concludes on its effectiveness enables the society to view it as an alternative delivery service provide. The study highlights its effectiveness hence could offer the society a better option which could greatly improve the quality of their lives as they have access to services that are of greater quality than the traditional ones. The study also enables the society to change from the traditional way of going to hospitals which could be far and embrace this new effective mode of service delivery.

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References

Garson, D. (2005). Handbook of Public Information Systems. Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press.

Osborne, S. (2000). Public-private Partnerships: Theory and Practice in International Perspective. New York: N. Routledge.

Providence Corporation Services. (2009a). Corporate and Investor Information. Retrieved 14th April 2009. From

Providence Corporation Services. (2009b). Services and Outcomes. Retrieved 14th April 2009.