Leadership and the Role of Managers - Research Paper Example

Leadership and Role of Managers: Interview Report This interview was conducted with the Medicaid service coordinator, Mr. Bills at XYZ Hospital on 5 September 2012 at 9:00 am. Mr. Bills is 46 years old and has been rendering the services of the Medicaid service coordinator at the hospital for 14 years. I selected Mr. Bills for this interview not just because he is the coordinator of a healthcare program that was supposedly a criterion of selection for this assignment, but also because he is known to me since my childhood as he is my father’s best friend. Mr. Bills has always been very affectionate with me, so he kindly accepted my interview proposal.

Appointment with Mr. Bills was formerly taken via email and confirmed over the phone. The interview took about an hour and a half to reach the end. Medicaid is the healthcare program selected for this assignment. It is one of the prime programs of public health coverage in the USA and is particularly implemented to ensure the healthcare of the low-income Americans. Currently, Medicaid offers the healthcare services to more than 55 million Americans that include the elderly and the disabled (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007). Mr. Bills’s responsibilities as a Medicaid service coordinator include but are not limited to the coordination and administration of service plans and benefits for the recipients of Medicaid in a medical setting (Friend, 2011). Mr. Bills works with the recipients of Medicaid, and makes sure that they are provided with all the federal, charitable, and local services which they are entitled to.

It was a structured but open-ended interview consisting of a total of 15 questions. Some of the questions are as follows: Have you ever been in a situation where you faced problems in developing consensus among your peers for a strategic initiative? How do you deal with the patients who are totally unaware of the benefits they are entitled to? America is a culturally diverse country; have you ever experienced linguistic barriers communicating with the patients? How do you overcome them? What are the present challenges in effective implementation of the Medicaid program?

The key leadership characteristics that I noticed in Mr. Bills include informed decision-making skills, change management skills, knowledge, and eloquence in speech. Mr. Bills’s informed decision-making and change management skills reflect in his response to the question about challenges in the strategic initiatives. He said that during the global financial crisis, the hospital faced problems of high labor costs, which did not leave much money to invest in the development of new programs. On one hand, the chief executive officer directed him to reduce the staff by 30 per cent but make sure that the quality of care is not affected.

On the other hand, the physicians showed resistance saying that this would result into a compromise upon the patient care. To resolve the matter, Mr. Bills conducted meetings with different departments and individually conversed with the department chairs. After a lengthy session of meetings and discussions, he finally managed to demonstrate the medical staff that he would make the reductions in the non-patient care areas and any voids thus created would be filled in by the introduction of improved technology and latest procedures. Mr. Bills’s knowledge reflects in his response to the question about the contemporary challenges in the effective implementation of the Medicaid program.

Answering the question about the current challenges, Mr. Bills said that enrollee turnover is a major problem that complicates the development of enrollees and participation of the providers. This can be partly attributed to the rules of eligibility and dissatisfaction of the healthcare providers resulting from low compensation rates. These problems hinder the success of initiatives taken for the disease management. “Without consistent eligibility and stable relationships with physicians, chronically ill enrollees cannot hope to benefit from states’ chronic disease efforts” (Williams, 2004, p. 3). Mr.

Bills’s eloquence of speech is evident both in his ability to convince his peers in such sensitive matters as staff reduction and his ability to communicate effectively with the ESL recipients of Medicaid. Mr. Bills’s said that although he frequently deals with the non-English patients, yet he manages to get his point conveyed and understand theirs with expressions and careful judgment. Occasionally, he takes the services of an interpreter/translator when he is doubtful about his understanding of the patient’s words.

In addition to that, I judged Mr. Bills’s eloquence from his expressive responses to my questions. On thing that Mr. Bills needs to work upon to deliver better healthcare management services is improve his computer skills. References: Friend, L. (2011, Oct. 2). The Medicaid Service Coordinator Job Description. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_6869098_medicaid-service-coordinator-job-description.html. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2007, Mar.). The Medicaid Program at a Glance. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7235-02.pdf. Williams, C.

(2004, Sep.). Medicaid Disease Management: Issues and Promises. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/Medicaid-Disease-Management-Issues-and-Promises-Issue-Paper.pdf.