Hospital Management and Its Organization - Research Paper Example

Introduction: Any organisation that prides itself in the medical and health care provision can only be successful if the leadership structure is very detailed and if the leaders in the organisation are the serious type that takes into consideration the fact that a good organisation comes from within not without. It goes without saying that all medical centers need excellent and efficient leadership that takes into account the scarce resources available and also offer the customers with effective and competitive provision of services to guarantee the clients of good health and safe medical practices in the hospital. The key to effective performance is determined by the competence of the leaders and the measurement of the effectiveness is complimented by the standards that the hospital achieves (Huber, p.778). Leadership is seen as that formal role bestowed on an individual to lead the people from one designated level to the next. It is important to note that the leaders see to it that the policies that the management has put in place are followed and implemented (Huber, p.778). They have followers and it is only enough to say that the act of following is voluntary and a leader is therefore not expected to be authoritative in any manner. A manager the other hand takes the role of the authoritarian person who tells his subordinates what to do with a promise of some incentives or rewards like a salary increment or some allowance if they do the job. Managers do things right, while the leaders do the right things. This is meant to imply that the managers do things by the book whereas the leaders do things by following their own intuition and instinctive notions for the benefit of the organisation (Huber, 778). Hospital management and its organization: Exceptional health care provided by the St. Luke’s Medical Center is mainly accredited to the Centers of Excellence and also to the internal units. The internal units are mainly used to facilitate and dedicate most of their services, facilities and specialized medical staff to specific health and medical structures and concerns. The hospital designs the centers of excellence to provide the best and most advanced treatment to the patients through the rigorously trained specialists that the medical centre prides itself in and also being the only institution that has the most respected medical and institution in the region. It has very advanced technology in modern medical equipment for diagnosis, treatment and care of patient at its disposal. The leadership structure in St. Luke’s Medical Center is consistent of various distinct groups that are inclusive of leaders who participate in more than one group. This ensures that they are granted as many roles and responsibilities and held accountable for anything that comes from their departments. Many of these leadership responsibilities are known to directly affect the medical and health care provision as well as the operations in the general organisation. St Luke’s Medical Centre is further administered by a supreme body that overlooks and oversees all the workings and operations that take place in the hospital and recommends what is to be done in cases that are beyond the normal employee’s capability and capacity. The leadership mainly focuses on better models of leadership to enhance communication with the employees and also create a good rapport among the working force. It is enough to say that the people in the hospital do require good rapport with their clientele to instill confidence on the system of treatment and health care management offered in the institution. It is important that people maintain the same outlook to help the hospital in attaining its goals and accomplishing its mission of being the best medical centre and institution in the world through the provision of the best quality of health care from its doctors, nurses, and technology experts and also from the management teams that are in the hospital. The hospital management is tasked with the provision of policies to counter the rising number of patients and also counter the competitive nature of the health institutions that are coming up in the region and are providing the same type of health care that the hospital offers. It is healthy to have competition as it gives an institution the morale to improve the quality of healthcare it provides and also to provide the best care and support staff it has. The St. Luke’s managerial team has been the best thing that has happened to the institution since its conception. They have made the hospital be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations as the best and most prestigious healthcare organisation in the world. Policies are mainly derived with the sole aim of being the best in the field of patient performance in the areas of health and safety. The organisation of the hospital is mostly one of the hierarchical type that includes all the people in the organisation with the common aim of attain a similar goal. The hospital has set up an organisational structure that does not hamper the cooperation nor hinder the completion of orders in due time and within the limits of the resources and preset budget. It has been set in such a way that the employees and the employers become adaptive to the process requirements and also come up with a way in which the optimisation of the ratio between the effort and the input to come up with the desired and expected output (Huber, p.779). From the top is the Director General in charge of the entire institution and also the one to whom all the managers and directors are answerable to. His main task is to come up with ideas for debate and also be answerable to the ministry of health officials in the government should anything go amiss or anything needs clarification. As much as he is at the top, the managers are free to make institutional decisions provided that he is made aware of whatever goes on in the institution. He has decentralised reporting in that when he is not there; all the other employees will be answerable to their managers and also to those in charge of their projects. He has made the managers accountable of their respective portfolios by setting a date for debriefing done by all the managers in their respective sections and this is done fortnightly to ensure that the progress is being monitored and the divergence from the right track is catered for before it becomes a disaster or destroys the institution’s image (Huber, p.779). All the records of transactions done by the institution are banked with him to enhance accountability and transparency in the company. He is not the only signatory to the bank but has included two managers and also a representative of the workers to oversee the use of the funds from the government and the revenues collected by the institution. The institution has demonstrated its capability in management by providing quality facilities and a decentralised mode of leadership that ensures that all the people in the institution are in the same place in terms of decision making and implementation. The ministry has even declared the institution as being the best organised institution and also one of the most competent health organisations in the country (Huber, p.779). The managers on the other hand are tasked with the role of providing quality policies that are needed to push the institution to the highest ranks in the health sector. They are also mandated with the task of providing these policies to the employees for them to implement through their leaders who are chosen to lead teams to ensure productivity and efficiency in the institution (Huber, p.780). They are responsible for whatever goes on in the institution when the director is not within the institution. It is their role to ensure that the institution goes on without any hitches, should the director be or not be present. The leaders conversely are elected by the nurses and other support staff in accordance to the institution’s policies and also in accordance to the qualities that the staff deems to be fit for qualitative achievement of the intended goals and projections. They are charged with the responsibility of harnessing the employees’ capabilities and putting them into use through the implementation of the policies passed from the higher ranks (Huber, 780). This makes the people to work comfortably and at their own speed to ensure that the passion they do their work with is very optimal. It is important to instill good moral and instinctive leadership in order to achieve the best results possible. They are meant to amplify the strengths of the employees to come up with better work force that prides itself in the provision of quality services and also help them do away with their old habits with the aim of adding new content into their basket of experience (Huber, p.781). The main reason that they are doing this is for them to come up with the required types of qualities that inspire and enforce change in the employees. They have achieved the transformation of the employees through the innovative way of reasoning and the need to achieve results that are tangible by letting their vision, strategies, values and goals act as the guide-post with which they come up with solutions to arising problems rather than using authority to control the other workers (Huber, p.781). A variety of the individuals that work in the hospital include the licensed independent practitioners who are in the institution to ensure cohesion and productivity in the institution, staff volunteers who act as social workers to create a bridge between the two groups, nurses and support staff. They all fall under their field of specialty and also are mandated with the implementation of the policies that are quoted by the management. It is clear that the people in this area are the most important people as they are meant to come up with ways to handle and options to take in case a different scenario comes up if the desired outcome deviates. It is common that these is the section that requires the most emphasis as they determine the way that the hospital is headed by how efficient and effective they are in terms of the provision of the services and also in terms of the loopholes made and how they go about the course. It is also in this area that most of the quality standards are experienced as they are the ones who come into contact with the people and the patients too. In accordance to the Medical Chapter, the structure of the medical staff is taken very seriously as the different fields from which they come from provide skills, experiences, perspectives and organization to the institution (Huber, p.782). The hospital looks carefully into the provision of these requirements and this has been all crowned up by the accreditation of the institution. For an institution to be accredited there must be focus on quality, safety and continuous improvement in the health provision. This implies that the fact that the hospital received accreditation, it is as a way of stimulating the continuous and systematic performance in the patient health care. This is just what the staff requires to boost their morale and ensure the continued provision of the best quality of health care and also form a safe place for everyone to be treated in (Huber, p.784). Problems faced by the company: There is no perfect institution that can pride itself in never having problems. Problems are the only way that an institution can improve itself in their field of specialty by utilizing these setbacks to comeback with stronger means of handling such cases in the future and dealing with such problems in the most qualified way that the institution deems to be comprehensive and also safe for the patients (Brown, p.38). The major problem that is facing our hospital right now is the increasing health care that has encompassed the health industry lately. This means that the health care costs are increasing rapidly taking into perspective the government and private insurance options. This has made it almost impossible for people from the low income status to access medication and health services with ease. It is the responsibility of the institution to come up with policies in which they can handle the rising health costs and in turn come up with ways to deal with the emerging insurance costs (Brown, p.39). The result of this increase has lead to deterioration of health among the locals and further medical responsibility among the local people. The only solution for this is the government to offer funding for those who can not afford the health care insurance. The institution has however gone out of its way to solicit for funds from individuals to help counter the rising costs by offering the best health care at the most affordable rates without compromising the quality of the services provided to the people (Brown, p.40). The hospital has further established a donation trust fund that will benefit all those that are in the low income status and help them achieve medication with or without the money and also bring about the required status of the health center as is stipulated by its mission statement and code of ethics. The trust fund has been viewed as a major step in coming up with the bets health policy in the region thus offering the very best healthcare that the region has been experiencing since the inception of the health center. Another issue is the issue of pay packages in the institution. There is this notion that people tend to harbor in terms of the way the nurses are supposed to be paid. At a certain time in the recent past, there was this issue of male nurses being paid more than the female nurses though they are in the same department. It means that the male nurses were accorded the top priority when it comes to the pay package whereas it was the females who were tasked with all the heavy work (Brown, p.42). This issue took a twist when the female nurses opted to go for a strike to have their grievances looked into and this almost paralysed the institution as the male nurses were overwhelmed by the amount of work that they had in their hands. The management had to intervene at the scene to save the situation as the hospital had almost been brought to a standstill by the work boycott done by the nurses. The management came up with the policy of people being paid for what they do with a stagnant pay package and then the increment will be in accordance to the way the people work and how much revenue they help the company make. This brought some relief as the nurses went back to their work place and started to work for those incentives that were meant to raise the working conditions and improve the credibility of the company in the midst of a lot of competition and financial recession. This just implies the commitment of the management to come up with better working conditions for the people and the benefit of the patients who have since become loyal and appreciative of the skills the management has. Provision of medical facilities was the most challenging situation that the institution ever experienced as not many people really believed that we were worth their services. It came to pass that the people in the health industry could only distribute and supply to well known institutions with the necessary materials (Brown, p.46). This was a major hurdle as the institution could not go on without the right supplies and this really delayed the opening of the institution to the locals who were in dire need of the medical services. It is to be noted that the only supplier we had was the government medical supplier who were also doing it with divided minds. It is evident that these people were the ones who gave us the will to prove our worth and now all the suppliers in the region are yearning to our top suppliers. This just tells of how we have come of age and have been accorded much respect by both our competitors and our counterparts in the health industry. Employees: The worst case scenario in any organisation or company is the existence of negative employee attitudes. If the management is not very careful on the way they handle such people, they could turn out to be energy suckers that invade your work force and your personal life. It is evident that the people in charge of employee affairs need be well aware of these intentions and come up with the pre-requisite measures to deal with them once and for all (Smith). This people invade the work force with poisonous ideas and attitudes that negatively influence the rest of the workers and the whole work force turns against the management. It is wrong to hasten to terminate them should we notice that they are ineffective but should first analyze the situation and plan a logical way in which to act (Smith). The issue of terminating the employee should only result should the employee not heed to the many warnings that you have given him. This means that the people in the institution will only respect you according to the way you react in times of such crisis (Smith). Our employees have been constantly attending seminars and educational tours to help improve on the interpersonal skills and also help in building confidence and morale in them. It has been a recurrent issue in the hospital and his has helped reduce the number of negative complains that the institution had witnessed at the start of its operations in the region. We have drills aimed at improving the competence of the employees through the provision of the best and most efficient health care that the people deserve from a prestigious institution like ours. We have battle with the negative aspects of those employees who are not at all willing to accept positive change to improve the quality of the health care provided in the institution. This however, from the newly established psychology and mental disturbances department has helped us understand the different causes of the employee social and psychological problems that may hinder them from efficient and effective provision of services. The worst case was when one of the patients was injured by a nurse in the line of duty. The case almost blew out of proportion given the fact that the law stipulates clearly the results of such offences. The case was however settled when the manager and the director intervened and assisted the patient in terms of monetary and emotional support. The employee, it became evident later, was under some emotional stress from his home and had transferred it to the work lace unconsciously. The employee was placed under medical supervision by the psychologist and then accorded the relevant therapy to help him come back to reality and solve his issues in an amicable way. The hospital can therefore pride itself in the provision of the best healthcare and services to both its patients and members of staff. It is the aim of the institution to continue offering unmatched services and strive to excellence in the health and medical field. Management and leadership skills are equally important in the provision of quality services to the public. Works cited Brown M., Nursing management, New York City Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 1992, p.38-47 Huber D., Leadership and nursing care, New York: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006 p.780 Smith G.P, Managing Negative Employees and other Energy Suckers, retrieved on 12th May, 2009 from < http://www.chartcourse.com/fpdb/pdfs/newNegative.pdf > Read More