Enhancing the Quality of Services and Processes through Strategic Management - Essay Example

Topic: Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The contemporary hospital presents a complex inter-relationship of responsibilities in addition to objectives that need to be balanced to enhance service delivery. Hospital executives constantly focus on internal aspects such as recruitment, acquisition of facilities and equipments as well as provision of healthcare to patients. The Arnold Palmer Hospital is evocative of a scenario whereby top management mainly focuses on patient satisfaction as an end in itself. Patients can be awarded valuable gifts of up to $200 by the hospital employees in case they complain reasonably. As much as it is necessary to apply a patient focused approach to management of the hospital, it is also necessary to take in to consideration the external factors that influence the strategic position as well as the day to day operations of the facility. The hospital managers need to focus on satisfying the needs of employees, patients and other stakeholders who represent diverse interests. This paper develops and justifies a new approach towards enhancing the quality of services, processes and supply chain and in so doing, it evaluates the transformations required to enhance Arnold Palmer Hospital’s philosophy of 100% patient satisfaction. It focuses on strategic management as a significant technique to enhance performance. Enhancing the Quality of Services and Processes through Strategic Management Strategic management involves designing, implementing and evaluating managerial decisions so as to be able to accomplish an organization’s long term objectives. It also involves systematic analysis and evaluation of internal and external factors so as to be able to make decisions for the future of the organization (Courtney 2001). Liebeskind (1996) views strategic management as a process whereby managers decide on the mission, vision and objectives which they would like to be achieved over a specified time limit. They develop policies and plans to be followed by employees so as to achieve the mission and objectives. After developing plans, they provide resources that facilitate the implementation of policies and after a specified time, they evaluate whether the goals have been accomplished. Mission statements help managers to set the company direction (Collis & Montgomery 2001). Various theories have been put forward by scholars regarding what strategic management entails. Mintzberg’s theory helps managers to interpret the process of strategic planning and be able to plan even when internal or external factors influence the accomplishment of daily activities. Arnold Palmer Hospital’s management can accomplish its strategic objectives if Mintzberg’s approach is adopted (Mintzberg, 1990). The management of this hospital needs to design, plan and position the hospitals operations in consideration of the future. The designing process according to Mintzberg involves with strategy development whereby the management evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the institution against the opportunities and threats which are among the external factors affecting its efficiency. Based on the result, the management is able to formulate a strategy which addresses the shortcomings while trying to maintain equilibrium between the external factors and organizational performance. The organizational strategy needs to be understood and implemented by all staff members while on the other hand. Flexibility in strategy is important to ensure that the organization maintains competitiveness in the constantly changing operating environment (Mintzberg, 1990). Planning involves formulating a strategy with a time line, goals and objectives, which are stated and formulated to help achieve the organizational objectives. A plan will provide the hospital’s management with direction through clearly stated objectives. Planning is a continuous process as variables keep changing hence the need for management to be ready for changes throughout the organization’s life cycle (Collis & Montgomery, 2001). Positioning is concerned with actual services that the institution offers. The management needs to analyze the situation in healthcare provision and form a strategy based on findings. This has partly been possible for the hospital through the constant feedback from patients. Nevertheless, a lot needs to be done to diversify the management’s focus to other aspects of positioning that demand attention (Courtney 2001). For example, even though hospitals in the region are distinguished largely on the basis of customer satisfaction, there are many other imperceptible aspects that affect the organizations competence in offering health services. Employee satisfaction may affect their relationship with clients as well as teamwork in the workplace. It may also affect the capacity of the organization to retain skilled employees. Moreover, the institution’s relationship with the local communities and leaders holds a significant impact in determining its competitiveness. Generally, positioning strategy for the hospital should focus on developing uniqueness that may make it preferable to others. A unique position may include; the manner in which employees are treated, involvement in corporate social responsibility and inter-organizational among others (Liebeskind 1996). This may help it to cope with increasing competition especially if similar organizations are focused on customer satisfaction. The hospital’s management needs to set a vision aimed at exploring new opportunities which are good for organizational growth and development. It can give challenge to workers to achieve set goal amidst uncertainties. This helps in maintaining workplace relations between the employees and the management (Collis & Montgomery 2001). Employee satisfaction is a significant motivator towards increased commitment and productivity. Motivation involves generating a feeling of importance and belonging to the organization (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). Performance improvement is accomplished as the employees strive to reciprocate the positive approach by the management in regard to their wellbeing. In the current operations of Arnold Palmer hospital, employees are likely to be intimidated by the overreliance of the management on clients’ feedback. They should also be presented with an opportunity to judge the manner in which the organization operates. The management should demonstrate to the employees that they are vital for the accomplishment of organizational goals (Cole 2003). They need to be motivated through their views in regard to accomplishing tasks in the workplace being listened to and those pertinent to productivity being integrated in the day to day operations. The employees who are assigned tasks on a daily basis understand the challenges faced in undertaking them. Giving audience to them indicates concern within the management as well as the willingness of the executives to share challenges with the lower cadre workers. Sometimes the tasks involved are difficult or hazardous and the organization has to ensure that all tasks are accomplished. Desombre (2007) argues that healthcare work is usually different from other profitable organizations in various ways. It is usually difficult to define and measure yields. Moreover, the tasks involved are highly erratic and intricate than in most profitable organizations. They involve emergencies that may not be postponed. Even the least percentage of error cannot be accommodated since the consequences can be undesirable. Teamwork is considered necessary due to the interdependence of professionals in various fields necessitating extensive coordination. For example, the activities of a pharmacist and a nurse must correspond to those of a physician or else proper medication may not be accomplished. Nevertheless, the degree of specialization in the various disciplines of healthcare is prominent requiring professionals that demonstrate fundamental loyalty to their job more than they do to the organization (Savage et al. 2010). For this reason, there is usually some degree of inconsistence in the management of hospitals as professionals focus more on their work thereby forgetting the organizational goals. When the management focuses on customer satisfaction alone, many other aspects of the workplace are neglected considering the uniqueness of the healthcare professionals. It is therefore necessary for workers to be involved in the decision making process. This motivates them to be inventive and move away from retrogressive conventional practices that hinder productivity. A cohesive organizational culture that promotes the provision of optimal healthcare to patients, maintains a healthy and conducive work environment, attracts professionals in various medical disciplines and which arouses the society’s confidence in the hospital is the most desirable. Schulz and Johnson (2007) point out the negative impacts of an organizational culture whose major focus is only the satisfaction of clients. The employees of the institution need to be motivated to discover their talents, which enhances their capacity to accomplish organizational goals. This encourages the in-house inventiveness thereby generating the desired skills for the organization (Davenport, 1999). Such motivational techniques display understanding by managers as regards the need to interact and help the employees to cope with the day to day tasks. Treatment of employees like heroes as an appreciation for hard work generates social satisfaction. Humans appreciate honour and such an approach to management can help in the enhancement of employer-employee relationship. Heartfelt appreciation for good work is important in the recipe for maintaining employee commitment (Cole 2003). Team building is also a major motivation strategy that can be applied by the organization. The management needs to maintain high performance through group tasks while at the same time enhancing the relationship among employees to ensure that they work together to accomplish shared objectives. Each member values the others in a team and ensures that activities are accomplished in accordance with the agreed processes. An organizational culture that encourages teamwork demonstrates the willingness of organizations to promote inter-personal relationships in the workplace. Teamwork helps in generating confidence among employees, which enables them to share knowledge and improve their performance. Problems solving is made easy through teamwork (Goodstein et al. 2003). The management needs to avoid boss centered leadership whereby the power, authority, decision making and planning rest at the executive level. These may negatively affect the team’s performance since they do not have an opportunity to utilize their potential (Harold & Frank, 2009). This is the situation portrayed by the management of Arnold Palmer Hospital whereby Swatson is the key decision maker who determines the level of customer satisfaction through the questionnaires sent to patients. It is not evident whether the staff members are consulted or not. In other words, it means that employees can be downgrade on the basis clients’ perception regarding the quality of service offered. Such uninformed decisions in the management may lower the organizational productivity especially due to the fact that patients may not be aware of the medical processes needed for their health to be accomplished. Their answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as to whether they were satisfied with the services. The management of Arnold Palmer Hospital has a core objective that they emphasize on, which is to effectively enhance patient outcomes and maintain the institution’s position in the region among the top ten percent that are recognized for provision of high quality healthcare. This approach, according to Schulz and Johnson (2007) may lead to discard of the organizational goals among the employees as they pursue career development goals in a bid to make their work lives in future better than their current circumstances. They spend much of their time searching for useful networks to fulfill their career goals. On the other hand, such an approach leads to the development of a narrow-minded focus on the management function while failing to address productivity issues and organizational growth (Mulcaster, 2009). Such an approach is out of place as regards patient care and stakeholder interests. Instead of addressing emerging issues, the management focuses on data collection, reviewing charts and evaluating clients’ feedback. This is done at the expense of strategic leadership that can steer the institution forward. The gifts offered to customers for complaints may not influence future outcomes. Some insincere clients may complain to get the reward, which lessens the meaning of such a strategy in the institution. The hospital management can save the precious time lost through promoting career development in the workplace thereby allowing employees to genuinely pursue educational and career goals while remaining committed to the accomplishment of the organizational objectives. This can be accomplished through promoting organizational learning and career mobility. Organizational learning is an unending process in the entire organization that entails organized integration and shared understanding of new information (Kim et al. 2004). The process involves continuous acquisition of knowledge and taking risks through testing the applicability of new knowledge. A learning organization is that which makes it possible for the members to learn continuously thereby maintaining constant transformation that is necessary for the accomplishment of organizational goals (Pedler, 1995). Senge (1990) has the similar viewpoints on the continuous process of organizational transformation, which he defines organizational learning as a strategy that helps members of an organization to constantly develop their capability to generate the results that match their aspirations, where new and extensive ways of thinking are cultivated, where shared goals are liberated, as well as where people are constantly acquiring knowledge on how to learn collectively. The management of Arnold Palmer Hospital needs to encourage organizational learning to enhance the skills of employees rather than focusing on their performance as portrayed by the client feedbacks. One of the key importances for the institution to become a learning organization is to cope with the rapidly changing environment and to deal with uncertainty. As illustrated by Pedler and Aspinwall (1998), the learning organization tries to find continued performance and growth, flexibility, accommodativeness and receptiveness to change. Managers and employees have a responsibility of learning fast and consistently to muddle through tumultuous and constantly changing operating environments. Learning should be undertaken in-tandem with the provision of healthcare. Career mobility is an innovative practice in organizations that is significant in the enhancement of employee motivation and satisfaction (Kondratuk et al. 2004). The management needs to establish a tactical and future focused view of the capabilities that the organization many require. These should be communicated to the employees early enough so that they can prepare to enhance their capacity so that they can utilize the opportunity once it arises. Such strategies allow employees to choose their destiny in the organization. Future opportunities should offer better conditions to the employees than the status quo and therefore they are motivated to work harder and enhance their skills in anticipation. Arnold Palmer Hospital can retain employees and enhance their productivity through guaranteeing career mobility. In other words, when employees see numerous options for personal and career development, their commitment to the accomplishment of organizational goals is increased (Applebaum & Santiago 1997). Enhancing the Supply Chain Because as much as 45% of a hospital’s total operating expenses can go to supplies, drugs and consumables, it is critical to implement effective hospital supply chain management solutions that help you better manage processes and supply selection and use throughout the supply chain (Heizer & Render 2008). The Medical Economic Outcomes Committee manifest is significant in ensuring that there is continuous improvement in terms of the medicine offered to patients as well as its cost implications to the institution. This is because the users who include the medical and nursing staff are in a better position to evaluate the purchase options in line with the economic targets. Nevertheless, problems in the supply chain arise as a result of inconsistency in the availability of medications due to the changes introduction of products that the employees of Arnold Palmer Hospital are not conversant with. Schulz and Alton (2007) observes that change in the supply chain of the healthcare industry is inevitable and it does not occur by itself. Besides, people who oppose that change is needed or who do not know what needs to be changed are likely to remain unchanged. Alternatively, an individual, company or institution can not bring about the desired change alone. Collaborative effort is needed for the change to be accomplished. Players in the healthcare supply chain are expected to ensure that it remains on track. They include executives and employees in healthcare, distributors and manufacturers. Financial crisis may strike such players any time if ignorance prevails amongst them (Kumar 2011). The patient’s power must be recognized by all players for an effective supply chain to be maintained (Kerry & Allen 2005). Arnold Palmer Hospital has been successful in recognizing the pre-eminence of patients. However, being closest to the patients, the healthcare provider needs to wield greater control over the supply chain links. The management must make efforts to identify the key players in the supply chain to ensure that patients’ interests are taken care of at all levels. This enormous responsibility requires considerable supply chain education to prepare healthcare professionals to cope with the challenges it presents. For an effective healthcare supply chain to be created, the hospital management needs to ensure that the employees are well versed with supply chain management. This can enable them to understand the movement of products along the supply chain so as to maintain efficiency at the end of the chain. Schulz and Alton (2007) argue that any inconsistencies in the internal processes of the healthcare providers such as procurement, stores management and distribution can generate circumstances that necessitate the supplier to satisfy pressing demand instead of planning ahead to maintain continuous supply to the clients. In situations where the healthcare provider is compelled to rush for supplies, the law of demand and supply comes in to play and it might adversely influence the prices of medication. In other words, the hospital may end up paying more than it would have paid had there been prior planning for acquisition of medication. According to Heizer and Render (2008) the healthcare provider can acquire greater control of the cost up the supply chain if internal efficiency is accomplished. This would have a double positive impact since internal efficiency lowers the cost of doing business while on the other hand, control of the cost of medication can lead to consumer satisfaction and competitiveness in the market. Quantifying the cost of inefficiency is important so that people can begin to think about the opportunity cost (Kumar 2011). For example, when the medical personnel encounter difficulties in applying some of the new medications in the market, an opportunity cost is incurred either by losing the confidence of customers or delaying treatment thereby compromising the objective of offering quality healthcare to patients. On the other hand, more emphasis needs to be concerted on the expenditure of the entire supply chain rather than on the product price. In some cases, Kerry and Allen (2005) observe that healthcare providers endeavor to reduce the cost of treatment by going for the cheapest medication without taking in to consideration the cost of the supply chain. Inefficiencies in acquiring the cheap medicine may sometimes increase the cost to surpass that of costly medication that is acquired through an effective supply chain. Long term strategic thinking about the relationships with the supplier is significant in planning and maintaining a constant supply of medication (Kumar 2011). The management of Arnold Palmer Hospital should be carrying out market surveys before engaging in a supply agreement. Such a strategy may help to avoid unnecessary discomfiture like the one caused by the buying group by changing suppliers for products based on the lowest cost bidder. It is important to pay attention to quality so as to maintain customer confidence. Regular customers usually establish brand loyalty through purchasing a particular brand for a considerable period of time while getting positive results all the time. Brand loyalty is a significant indicator of customer satisfaction and hence frequent changes may discourage them from seeking services from the hospital (Heizer & Render 2008). This insinuates the extent to which an ineffective supply chain may affect the productivity of a healthcare institution As stated earlier in this paper, it is usually difficult to define and quantify value in the healthcare profession. Schulz and Alton (2007) observe that clinical outcomes are significant in identification of value of the entire supply chain. Lack of quantification of the cost effectiveness and quality of healthcare to the patients hinders the measurement of the value created by the hospital’s supply chain. It is therefore necessary for Arnold Palmer Hospital’s management to establish strategies that enhance standardization of the supply chain practices even to a greater extent than the efforts put in place to measure patient satisfaction. Conclusion Strategic management is important in maintaining competence in terms of healthcare provision. Arnold Palmer Hospital’s management needs to design, plan and position the hospitals operations with a particular focus on the future. A strong vision is necessary to ensure that emerging opportunities are effectively utilized. Maintenance of a cohesive organizational culture is necessary to maintain a favourable working environment. Employee motivation is fundamental to the organization’s success. Team building and promotion of career development enhance employee commitment. Organizational learning and career mobility are also significant in employee motivation. Inconsistency in the supply chain may cause undesirable consequences in the provision of healthcare. Collaboration amongst players in the supply chain is important for efficiency to be maintained. It is important to recognize the patient’s pre-eminence in the supply chain. Supply chain education is necessary for all players in the process. Rushing for supplies leads to an abnormal demand that eventually leads to an increase in prices. The healthcare providers need to ensure that the costs of inefficiencies in the supply chain are quantified. They need to exercise long term strategic thinking about the supplier relationships. Reference Applebaum, S., and Santiago, V. 1997. “Career Development in the Plateaued Organization.” Career Development International 2 (1) pp 11-20.  Cole, G. A. 2003. Management Theory and Practice, Thomson Learning. Collis, D., & Montgomery, C. 2001. 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