Test Bank For The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations, 7th Edition

Questions Chapter 2 Understanding and Analyzing the General Environment and the Health Care Environment True/False Questions Question stem Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard TF02.01 In the current health care industry environment, a multitude of interests are directly or indirectly involved in the delivery of health care. T 1 TF02.02 Strategic thinking is directed toward positioning the organization most effectively within its changing external environment. T 1 TF02.03 In order to be successful, health care organization leaders do not have to develop an understanding of the external environment in which they operate. F 1 TF02.04 Institutions that anticipate and recognize significant external forces and modify their strategies and operations accordingly will prosper. T 1 TF02.05 Regulations about the privacy of medical records are examples of legislative/political external issues. T 1 TF02.06 Increasing automation of basic business processes, clinical information interfaces, data analysis, and telehealth are NOT examples of technological changes. Cost pressures and intensified competition will NOT lead to further consolidation within the health care industry. F 1 Evolving External Issues F 2 Evolving External Issues A PPO (preferred provider organization) is an entity through which various health plans or carriers contract to purchase health care services for patients from a selected group of providers, typically at a better per-patient cost. T 2 The Changing Language of Health Care Question title TF02.07 TF02.08 Reference The Importance of Environmental Influences The Importance of Environmental Influences The Importance of Environmental Influences The Importance of Environmental Influences Evolving External Issues Topic External environment External environment, strategic thinking External environment External environment External environment, regulation External environment, technology External environment, competition Organizations Question title Question stem Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Reference Topic Environmental analysis, strategic thinking, strategic planning Strategic thinking TF02.09 Environmental analysis is largely strategic thinking and strategic planning and consists of understanding the issues in the external environment to determine the implications of those issues for the organization. T 2 The External Nature of Strategic Management TF02.10 Effective environmental analysis occurs through strategic thinking. T 1 TF02.11 External environmental analysis does not inform the analysis of the internal environment. F 2 The External Nature of Strategic Management Determining the Need for Environmental Analysis TF02.12 A “visionary” is a strategic manager who detects the signs of change and explores the significance of change before it becomes apparent to others. T 1 TF02.13 One of the specific goals of environmental analysis is to detect and analyze early or weak signals of emerging issues and changes that will affect the organization. Environmental analysis can accurately foretell the future. T 3 F 1 TF02.15 Comprehensive and well-organized environmental analysis processes will detect all of the changes taking place in the external environment. F 2 TF02.16 The organization itself may be affected directly by the legislative/political, economic, social/demographic, technological, and competitive change initiated and fostered by organizations in the general environment. T 2 TF02.14 Determining the Need for Environmental Analysis The Goals of Environmental Analysis The Limitations of Environmental Analysis The Limitations of Environmental Analysis Components of the General Environment External environmental analysis, internal environmental analysis External environmental analysis External environmental analysis External environmental analysis External environmental analysis General environment, change Question stem Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Organizations and individuals within the health care environment develop and employ new technologies, deal with changing social and demographic issues, address legislative and political change, compete with other health care organizations, and participate in the health care economy. Strategic issues are trends, developments, dilemmas, and possible events that affect an organization and its position within its environment. T TF02.19 Question title Reference Topic 2 Components of the Health Care Environment Environmental analysis T 1 Environmental scanning is perhaps the least important part of environmental analysis. F 1 TF02.20 The monitoring function is the tracking of issues identified in the scanning process. T 1 TF02.21 Forecasting environmental change is a process of extending the trends, developments, dilemmas, and events that the organization is monitoring. T 1 TF02.22 The Delphi method is the development, evaluation, and synthesis of individual points of view through the systematic solicitation and collation of individual judgments on a particular topic. T 2 TF02.23 A brainstorming group is convened for the purpose of understanding an issue, assessing the impact of an issue on the organization, or generating strategic alternatives. In this process, members present ideas and are allowed to clarify them with brief explanations. Dialectic inquiry is a “conflict resolution” process of argumentation. T 2 F 3 Scanning the External Environment Scanning the External Environment Monitoring the External Environment Forecasting Environmental Change Environmental Analysis Tools and Techniques Environmental Analysis Tools and Techniques Environmental Analysis Tools and Techniques Environmental analysis, scanning Environmental analysis, scanning Environmental analysis, monitoring Environmental analysis, forecasting External environmental analysis, Delphi method External environmental analysis, brainstorming External environmental analysis, dialectic inquiry TF02.17 TF02.18 TF02.24 Question title TF02.25 Question stem Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Once strategic management is adopted as the operating philosophy of managing, strategic thinking, strategic planning, and managing the strategic momentum require frequent validation of the strategic assumptions to determine whether issues in the external environment have changed and to what extent. T 2 Reference Topic Managing Strategic Momentum – Validating the Strategic Assumptions External environmental analysis, strategic thinking, strategic planning, validating strategic assumptions Multiple Choice Questions Question title Question stem MC02.01 Health care organizations DO NOT have to cope with change in which of the following areas: The fundamental nature of strategic management requires the awareness and understanding of outside forces and encourages strategic managers to: A successful health care organization must: MC02.02 MC02.03 MC02.04 MC02.05 Organizations will find themselves out of touch with the needs of the market when they: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is: Selections Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Reference Topic abcd- Competitive. Economic. Weather. Legislative/political. c 1 Evolving External Issues Change abcd- Adopt new ideas. Maintain receptivity to new ways of doing things. Expose themselves to a broad view. All of the above. d 2 The External Nature of Strategic Management Environmental analysis c 1 The Importance of Environmental Influences External environment d 1 The Importance of Environmental Influences External environment b 3 The Changing Language of Health Care Government agencies a- Wait until a crisis arises to react. b- Ignore the external environment. c- Anticipate and respond to the significant shifts taking place within the environment. d- Focus on crisis management. a- Fail to anticipate change. b- Ignore external forces. c- Resist change. d- All of the above. a- A health maintenance organization (HMO). b- Part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. c- A regulator of certificate of need (CON) laws. d- A provider of electronic medical record (EMR) services. Question title Question stem Selections Choice Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Reference Topic MC02.06 An example of a question that IS NOT relevant to determining if a health care organization needs environmental analysis is: b 2 Determining the Need for Environmental Analysis Environmental analysis MC02.07 One of the specific goals of environmental analysis is: d 3 The Goals of Environmental Analysis External environmental analysis MC02.08 Which of the following is an example of a societal change that may affect the success or failure of health care organizations? The four fundamental processes of environmental analysis are: a- Have previous strategic plans been scrapped because of unexpected changes in the environment? b- How large is the strategic planning staff and what is its budget? c- Is competition growing in the industry? d- Do more and different kinds of external forces seem to be influencing decisions, and does there seem to be more interplay between them? a- To measure organizational efficiency. b- To develop a list of “one-word” descriptions of the external environment. c- To ignore minor competitors. d- To provide organized information for the development of the organization’s internal analysis, mission, vision, values, goals, and strategy. a- Changes in consumer attitudes and expectations about health care. b- Health care reform. c- Increasing use of electronic medical records (EMR). d- Patent expirations of brand-name drugs. a 2 Components of the General Environment External environmental analysis, change a- Asserting, seeing, seeking, and meeting. b- Thinking, planning, checking, and doing. c- Scanning, monitoring, forecasting, and assessing. d- Detecting, guessing, measuring, and implementing. a- Dialectic inquiry. b- Scenario writing and future studies. c- Simple issue identification and extrapolation. d- Solicitation of expert opinion. c 2 The Process of Environmental Analysis External environmental analysis, change d 3 Environmental Analysis Tools and Techniques External environmental analysis, Delphi method MC02.09 MC02.10 The Delphi method is an example of which environmental analysis framework: Short Essay Questions Question title Question stem Rationale Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Reference Topic SE02.01 What are some of the practical limitations of environmental analysis? 2 The Limitations of Environmental Analysis External environmental analysis SE02.02 Provide at least two examples of changes in the general environment affecting multiple industry environments (sectors of the economy). Identify and provide an example of the five segments of the health care system. The limitations of environmental analysis include: environmental analysis cannot foretell the future, managers cannot see everything, sometimes pertinent and timely information is difficult or impossible to obtain, there may be delays between the occurrence of external events and management’s ability to interpret them, there is a general inability on the part of the organization to respond quickly enough to take advantage of the issue detected, and managers’ strongly held beliefs sometimes inhibit them from detecting issues or interpreting them rationally. Passage of the prescription drug bill during the George W. Bush presidency affected a variety of organizations as well as individuals including insurance companies, organizations representing the elderly, and retirees. Similarly, the early health care reform initiatives of the Clinton administration to create a national health care system would have affected virtually all institutions in the general environment, not just health care organizations. 3 Components of the General Environment External environmental analysis, change The health care system may generally be grouped into five segments: (1) organizations that regulate primary and secondary providers; example – US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); (2) organizations that provide health services (primary providers); example – state departments of health; (3) organizations that provide resources for the health care system (secondary providers); example – educational institutions; (4) organizations that represent the primary and secondary providers; example – the American Medical Association (AMA); and (5) individuals involved in health care and patients (consumers of health care services); example – nurses. 3 Components of the Health Care Environment External environmental analysis, change, industry segments SE02.03 Question title Question stem Rationale Difficulty 1 Easy 2 Medium 3 Hard Reference Topic SE02.04 Discuss the process of assessing environmental change. Assessing environmental change is a process that is largely non-quantifiable and therefore judgmental. The assessment process includes evaluation of the significance of the extended (forecasted) issue on the organization; identification of the issues that must be considered in the internal analysis; development of the vision and mission; and formulation of the strategic plan. However, even when exposed to identical issues, different managers may interpret their meaning quite differently. Interpretations are a result of a variety of factors including perceptions, values, past experiences, and context. 2 Assessing Environmental Change External environmental analysis, change, assessing environmental change