Organizational Theory and to Improve Health Care Quality - Research Paper Example

Over the years, healthcare sector has been faced with dynamic situations with various risks and opportunities that require them to change their management to ensure quality delivery. This is because; the customer preferences and the market have become dynamic over the years (Zuckerman, 2000). These changes have necessitated the healthcare facilities to understand available opportunities based on predictions on the future of the industry requirements. Therefore, just like in other businesses, it is extremely important for the business to adhere to the quality of products and services to ensure customer satisfaction (Shortell & Kaluzny, 2011).

In order to emphasize on quality in the healthcare facilities, management and employees should focus on value. This is because the value is created when additional features of the quality or customer service desired by a customer are provided at the same cost (Zuckerman, 2000). Moreover, it is also concerned with the features of services offered to the customer and delivered at a lower cost as compared to that of competitors. The organization theory informs efforts to improve the quality of healthcare, which has been a very complex task. . Therefore, these problems have developed to affect patient admission rates in facilities, increase in patient deaths and medical errors, uneven delivery of services and expensive medical technologies, which do not improve life expectancy (Bachman, 2006).

The theory and research in management offer guidance for health practitioners who seek to improve the quality of care. Moreover, this is facilitated by creating a vision for the organization (Zuckerman, 2000). The healthcare manager should design visions of where the organization intends to be in the future, and develop strategies and plans to realize the visions. In addition, the main concern as suggested by Zuckerman (2000) is, creating a vision statement. In this case, the vision statement provides a point of reference on how to achieve the vision through goals and objectives.

Additionally, it projects where the organization wants to be in the future; therefore, it should be specific and short so that it is easily understood and be in a position to describe the organization uniquely (Zuckerman, 2000). Using organization theory and management Zuckerman (2000) highlights that, there are three kinds of visions for healthcare organizations, which include public vision of health for all, strategic vision and business vision. In the application of organization theory, various schools of thought seek to offer guidance and propositions on how to improve healthcare quality.

The first school of thought is the bureaucracy and organization by Max Webber. In this school, hierarchy of authority is clearly defined whereby legal authority guides operations (Sullivan, 2010). Moreover, the hierarchy in the facility is centralized for non-medical activities and decentralized for collegial medical staff. The second school is