Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business

Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business

Develop a 6-7-page implementation plan for the initiative you proposed in Assessment 1. Include a budget for material, staffing, and capital costs over the first five years of the initiative, as well as projected earnings. In addition, include a timeline, an organizational impact analysis, and an explanation of the effects of environmental changes on the initiative.

Instructions

Develop a thorough implementation plan for the economic initiative you proposed in Assessment 1. Your plan must include a budget for material, staffing, and capital costs over the first five years of the initiative, as well as projected earnings. In addition, include:

• A plan and timeline for rolling out the initiative.
• An analysis of how the initiative may impact other aspects of the organization or care setting.
• An explanation how the initiative can remain viable in the face of environmental changes.
• Sufficient relevant and credible supporting evidence Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business.

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The requirements for your implementation plan, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, be sure to note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.

• Create a budget for expected costs and earnings over the first five years of your proposed initiative.

• • What are the expected material, staffing, and capital costs of your proposed initiative over its first five years?
  • What are the projected earnings for your organization or care setting over the first five years of your economic initiative?
  • How does this budget take into account the findings and feedback you received on your business case?
  • What assumptions are you basing your budget on?
• Create an implementation plan for your proposed initiative that enables achievement of quality or service improvements in an ethical and culturally equitable way.

• • Did you create a timeline for the rollout?
  • How will you work with relevant stakeholders to ensure that your economic initiative is implemented successfully and sustained?
  • How will you ensure that the rollout is conducted in an ethical and culturally equitable manner?
  • How will you ensure that the desired quality or service improvements your economic initiative will achieve are on track during and after implementation?
• Analyze the impact of your proposed initiative, once implemented, on other aspects of your organization or care setting and ways in which negative impacts could be mitigated.

• • What other aspects of your organization or care setting may be positively or negatively impacted by the implementation of your proposed initiative?
  • How will these other aspects of your organization or care setting be affected? (For example, increased workload on a testing department, borrowing of staff hours from another part of the care setting, or better communication with the community.)
  • How could you mitigate at least some of the negative effects on other aspects of your organization or care setting?
• Explain your strategies for ensuring that your proposed initiative can remain a viable asset to the organization or care setting in the face of dynamic environmental forces.

• • What are the environmental risks to your economic initiative?
  • How could your initiative, or aspects of it, still be a viable benefit to your organization or care setting if the environment shifts in unpredictable ways?
  • What strategies would you propose implementing to keep all, or a portion of, your initiative a viable net benefit to your organization or care setting?
• Justify the relevance and significance of the quantitative and qualitative economic, financial, and scholarly evidence you used throughout your plan to support your recommendations Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business.

• • How is the evidence relevant to your organization or care setting?
  • How is the evidence relevant to your proposed economic initiative?
  • How does the evidence illustrate a solution that has been successful in the past?
  • How does the evidence illustrate that a recommendation is the best course of action for your situation and organization or care setting?
• Write concisely and directly, using active voice.

• • Proofread your document before you submit it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on the substance of your implementation plan.
• Adhere to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Assessment should also meet the following requirements:

Format: Format your implementation plan using current APA style.

• • A title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.
  • Appropriate section headings.
• Length: Your implementation plan should be 6–7 pages in length, not including the title page and references page.
• Supporting evidence: Cite 3–5 authoritative and scholarly resources to support your implementation plan. Be sure that your sources include specific economic data.

Initiative for Professional Dietitian Services at the Hospital

Wegener (2018) defines a dietitian as a person who is a professional in dietetics and the regulation of diet. This professional regulates patients’ nutrition in accordance with their medical conditions and individual needs. Dietitians are regulated and must be licensed to assess, diagnose, and treat nutritional problems Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business. This paper discusses an initiative for set up of professional dietitian and nutritional services at the hospital

Why the Initiative is a Viable and Beneficial Economic Opportunity

Many Americans have been facing obesity problem over the past decade and this has increased cases of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases (Rosenthal et al., 2017). As a result, majority of the citizens are now becoming increasingly concerned about their wellness and disease prevention, and they recognize the increasing need to watch what they eat and how it affects their health. This has resulted in an upsurge in the demand for Dietitians and Nutritionists. According  to Wegener (2018), the market for Dietitians and Nutritionists is not yet fully tapped and it is still open for new entrants.

How the Initiative Will Improve Quality  of Care

One of the ways through which professional dietitian and nutritional services at the hospital can improve quality of care is by availing to patients advise on the correct diet and nutrition, which can help in slowing symptoms and the progression of chronic diseases (Scoditt et al., 2019). Proper diet and nutrition can contribute to the reversal of various symptoms of various diseases or even prevent diseases like diabetes and obesity. Optimizing on nutrition may also increase patients’ overall energy levels, allowing them to focus on other healthcare plans. Additionally, preventing chronic diseases and managing symptoms more efficiently through proper diet and nutrition can save a lot of time and money that would otherwise be injected towards treating diseases.

Economic Factors of Supply and Demand Associated With the Initiative

The growing population of obese people in the United States has increased the demand for nutritionists and dietitians. With increasing employment rates, majority of Americans are now on  steady income, making health insurance more affordable. This has prompted many to seek nutritionists and dietitian services when needed. The increasing focus on preventive care services have also strengthened the demand. Another factor contributing factor is the aging population, which creates opportunities for institutionalized diet and nutritional care settings. The opportunity in the industry is therefore huge, considering the number of individuals who wish to achieve healthy goals by way of proper eating habits. A standard dietitian and nutritionist private practice firm therefore needs to be set up near the hospital to take advantage of this huge opportunity.

Economic and Environmental Data that Support the Initiative

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021), the Dietitians & Nutritionists industry in America is a thriving sector of the economy that generates over $10 billion annually from more than 147,500 licensed dietitians. The industry is responsible for the employment of over 195,500 people. It is estimated that the industry grows at a 2.3% annually. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that job prospects for nutritionists and dietitians will grow at a faster than average rate for the next several years. As more Americans appreciate the connection between food and health, the shift towards preventive healthcare in clinical settings is in high demand of nutritionists and dietitians to oversee proper diet to meet the health needs of patients Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business.

References

Rosenthal, R. J., Morton, J., Brethauer, S., Mattar, S., De Maria, E., Benz, J. K., … & Sterrett, D. (2017). Obesity in America. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 13(10), 1643-1650.

Scoditti, E., Massaro, M., Garbarino, S., & Toraldo, D. M. (2019). Role of diet in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prevention and treatment. Nutrients, 11(6), 1357.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). Dietitians and Nutritionists: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dietitians-and-nutritionists.htm

Wegener, J. (2018). Equipping future generations of registered dietitian nutritionists and public health nutritionists: a commentary on education and training needs to promote sustainable food systems and practices in the 21st century. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 118(3), 393-398.

Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business

When the business case for the venture of a dietician consultant within a hospital setup was presented, it was seen that the venture is feasible and would indeed be profitable. The reasons for this included the fact that there are many lifestyle diseases in the United States today that require dietary and generally lifestyle changes to be managed. These conditions include obesity, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus type II, hypertension, and coronary heart disease amongst others (Hammer & McPhee, 2018; Rosenthal et al., 2017; Scoditti et al., 2019). Another reason was that the number of qualified and licensed dieticians in the country is still quite low. This means that the demand does not match the supply (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). The purpose of this paper is to now present an implementation plan for the venture that includes the projected budget.

Operating Budget for the Expected Costs and earnings for the First Five Years of the Venture

Budgeting is essential in all businesses since it aids in financial planning (Brown et al., n.d.). It normally considers the prior year’s business performance before forecasting the financial prospects for the following year. The operating budget is significant as it represents all of the income and expenses for a given period of time or operations. In most cases, capital asset costs are allocated to a distinct budget called the Capital Budget (Brown et al., n.d.).

For this venture, there will be only the dietician and her assistant or secretary. With either of them working for the statutory 40 hours in a week; that will give a total of 2080 hours of productive time at work. Calculated by the hourly rate of $35.2 for the dietician and $14.4 for the assistant, that gives the cost of staff as $73,216 for the dietician and $29,952 for the assistant per year. The fixed costs comprise of insurance, telecommunications, and others totaling to $16,240. Other costs will include non-cash expenses and non-operating costs. Non-cash expenses are depreciation and amortization while non-operating costs are interest and taxes. The total for these other costs will be $283,240. Capital cost will be $5,000 and will be for tools and equipment such as food pyramids, nutrient databases, and food trackers amongst others Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business. Finally, other miscellaneous expenses will amount to $15,480 in a year. The complete operating budget is shown in the table below.

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Table: Operating budget for dietician business

This budget takes into account the findings and feedback received from the business case by not being overzealous in the revenue projections. This can be seen in the assumptions that include that:

1. There will only be an increase of 5 patients in a day every year from the initial 20 patients in a day in year one.
2. The consultation fee will remain at $65 per patient per visit throughout the five years.

• The salaries and the costs of operation including taxes will remain constant throughout the five years.

Timeline for the Rollout

There is a timeline that I created for the implementation of the proposed initiative. It involves five main steps that lead to the commencement of the venture and will take a combined total of eight weeks or two months Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business. The steps have been outlined in a Gantt chart in the appendix at the end of the paper and are as follows:

1. Conducting a feasibility study for one week.
2. Entering into an agreement with the hospital to work as an independent contractor dietician (Khartit, 2021). This will take a week.
3. Recruitment of an assistant and procurement of necessary equipment (two weeks).
4. Meeting any pending legal and professional requirements while ensuring that all regulations have been met. These include licensure, accreditation, and getting a malpractice cover (Buppert, 2021). This will take another two weeks.
5. Commencement of the contract in the last week of the timeline.

In order to ensure that the venture is implemented successfully and sustained over a long period of time, collaboration with the relevant stakeholders will be paramount. This will take the form of giving reports as required to both the hospital management and the regulatory authorities, doing mandatory reporting in case I find myself seeing a child or any other person whom I suspect to have been abused (such as denied food), and practicing interprofessional collaboration with the other care team members in the hospital such as the nurses, the physicians, other clinicians like nurse practitioners, and support staff.

I will ensure the rollout is done in an ethical and culturally equitable manner by doing several things. First, the business and professional policy will be guided by Jan Watson’s theory of human caring that advocates for compassionate love and therapeutic environment of care (Ozan & Okumus, 2017). This presupposes that there is equity in treatment of patients regardless of age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, color, religion, creed, or cultural beliefs. Second, right from the start the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice will be practiced to the letter (Haswell, 2019). Within the two weeks allocated for recruitment of the assistant, some of the time will be taken to educate and train her on adherence to these principles.

To ensure that the desired quality of care is achieved and adhered to during and after implementation, quality benchmarks such as hospital length of stay, readmission rates, and body mass index will be used to take measurements and compare. The other strategy will be to give the discharged patients the patient satisfaction survey instrument referred to as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or HCAHPS (CMS, 2021).

Impact of the Proposed Initiative and Mitigation of the Negative Ones

It goes without saying that the organization (hospital) in which the dietician venture is going to be set up will be impacted in a number of ways. Most of these will definitely be positive impacts. However, in the real world it is also expected that there might be some negative impacts to be dealt with and mitigated. The aspects of the organization that will be positively impacted are the overall quality of care (since nutritional consult had been missing internally), better patient outcomes due to consolidation of care, reduced mortality, and overall better patent ratings. On the negative side, the organization will incur some expenses in integrating the nutrient databases and other dietician’s tools into the organization’s electronic health record (EHR) system and Decision Support System. Mitigating this negative impact calls for prior preparation and budgeting for the harmonization at the time of signing the independent contractor agreement Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business.

The other aspects of the organization that will be affected include workloads and interprofessional collaboration. The workloads for the clinicians will henceforth be reduced as they will no longer need to take the place of the dietician and offer dietary counseling and advice. They will simply refer the patient to the dietician. As for interprofessional communication, the other team members will have to start getting used to making a nutritional consult internally before referring the patient for dietary counsel. This will require very efficient communication skills and team work. Mitigation on the expense part has been addressed above already. Poor interprofessional communication in the context of interprofessional collaboration will be solved by staff education on the role of the dietician in care. If possible, a podium presentation in the form of a CME should be organized to this end before the implementation proper.

Strategies to Ensure Viability and Sustainability in the Face of Dynamic Environmental Changes

In any business venture whether professional in nature or not there must be challenges. These are usually both internal and external and are usually captured in the business’ SWOT analysis. In this case, the environmental risks to the viability of this venture include unfavorable hospital policies such as those on filing claims for additional reimbursement for procedures done; disrespect of the contractual agreement terms on the part of the hospital; and changes in the regulatory requirements of the state amongst others. These are some of the environmental risks that can threaten the viability of this project.

The initiative could still be of viable benefit even if the environmental stressors were to shift in unpredictable ways. This would be by way of harnessing technological innovations such as telehealth services. For instance, assuming there were disagreements within the hospital’s policy for charging the dietician rent on their premises, she can opt for telehealth services in which she can deliver the dietary treatments and strategies virtually even from home. The venture would still be viable this way and the contract would still stand.

The strategies I hope therefore to implement to keep the proposal a viable net benefit to the care setting include organizing for community outreaches, and screening under-five year-olds for malnutrition at the maternal and child health clinic. These will open new fronts for earning revenue but also for further solidifying the organization’s place as a leader in holistic care that includes nutritional care and counseling.

Justification of the Relevance and Significance of the evidence Used in the Plan to Support Recommendations

The evidence used is very relevant to the organization or care setting in that it is specific to the subject at hand within the context of a hospital. The evidence is also relevant to the proposed economic activity because it addresses everything from the budget to the feasibility of the venture given various socio-economic factors. The evidence also illustrates instances of solutions that have been successful in the past but in an indirect way. For instance, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021) gives factual statistics that can be extrapolated and evidence deduced whether past ventures have succeeded or not. Lastly, the evidence illustrates that the recommendation of an independent contractor is the best course of action for this situation and care setting. This is because being employed by the hospital would require her to stick to routines and work hours as well as many other organizational policies for employees Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business.

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Conclusion

The proposal of the venture of a dietician in a hospital setup has been seen to be viable and potentially sustainable throughout this paper on implementation plan. The paper has presented a hypothetical and presumptive operating budget for the first five years of the venture. Through this projection, it has been seen that it is possible for the business to break even within the first year and be not only viable but also sustainable.

Appendix

Gantt Chart on Timeline for Implementation of the Venture on Dietician Consultant

References

Brown, P., Eubank, G. & Leger, J.M. (n.d.). Budgeting. http://samples.jbpub.com/9781284127256/Chapter_5.PDF

Buppert, C. (2021). Nurse practitioner’s business practice and legal guide, 7^th ed. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] (2021). HCAHPS overview. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HospitalQualityInits/HospitalHCAHPS

Hammer, D.G., & McPhee, S.J. (Eds). (2018). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine, 8^th ed. McGraw-Hill Education.

Haswell, N. (2019). The four ethical principles and their application in aesthetic practice. Journal of Aesthetic Nursing, 8(4), 177-179. https://doi.org/10.12968/joan.2019.8.4.177

Khartit, K. (October 15, 2021). Independent contractor. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/independent-contractor.asp

Ozan, Y.D., & Okumus, H. (2017). Effects of nursing care based on Watson’s theory of human caring on anxiety, distress, and coping when infertility treatment fails: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Caring Sciences, 6(2), 95-109. https://doi.org/10.15171/jcs.2017.010

Rosenthal, R.J., Morton, J., Brethauer, S., Mattar, S., De Maria, E., Benz, J.K., … & Sterrett, D. (2017). Obesity in America. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 13(10), 1643-1650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soard.2017.08.002

Scoditti, E., Massaro, M., Garbarino, S., & Toraldo, D.M. (2019). Role of diet in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prevention and treatment. Nutrients, 11(6), 1357-1388. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11061357

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). Dieticians and nutritionists. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dietitians-and-nutritionists.htm

Implementation Plan for a Dietician Business