Collaborative Leadership: Barnabas Medical Center and Willow Springs Memorial Hospital - Assignment Example

Chapter 9 (Collaborative Leadership) Case Study Barnabas Medical Center Questions What were the driving forces behind the success of this collaborative effort? This collaborative effort was successful because Dr. Tony was able to analyze the hospital environment and determine the real problem. This helped him set clear goals and push reforms through collaboration with the different department leaders. The collaborative effort was successful because sharing of power was encouraged and the different departments were able to come together and work towards a single purpose. Therefore, the driving force behind the success was the presence of clear goals, same goals and effective power sharing between the different departments involved. 2. What were the “boundaries” that posed challenges to this collaborative effort? The main boundary that posed a challenges to the collaborative effort include: The boundary between the emergency departments and other departments that refer patients to the emergency department. The boundary between the human resources department and the radiology department. The boundary between the clinicians and the general management staff was a challenge. 3. Who were/are the leaders? What characteristics do you thing were displayed by the leader(s) of this collaborative effort that led to its success? The leaders comprised of Dr. Tony and all the managers of the relevant departments e.g. clinicians and the radiology department. Some of the characteristics shown by the leaders include: The ability to assess their environment and determine how to increase efficiency in the provision of services of their respective departments. The ability to talk openly and build trust among each other was a key characteristic in all the leaders. The leaders were able to share power and influence. This enabled them to work together in achieving a common goal. The leaders showed a character that leans towards developing people. The changes made in the various departments involved developing personnel. As a result, the personnel became more efficient, which translated to high quality service delivery. 4. Discuss the factors that contributed to the success of this collaborative effort? The main factors that contributed to the success of the collaborative effort were willingness and vision of Dr. Tony, ability of the leaders to work together, clear communication and establishment of a common purpose. Dr. Tony saw the vision and took the initiative to bring the various leaders together to find a way out. In the same way, all the department leaders communicated and agreed to increase efficiency in their own departments. The efficiency in these various departments increase the general quality of service delivery, which is the success of this collaborative effort. Case #2: Willow Springs Memorial Hospital’ 1. What were the “boundaries” that posed challenges to this collaborative effort? The boundaries that posed challenges to this collaborative effort include: The lack of a clear communication channel between the residents and Willow Springs Memorial Hospital. The ability of the County Health Department to work together with the residents and the hospital to improve the quality of service. The lack of funds needed to equip the hospital with the latest technology. This is important for quality service delivery. The biggest challenging is the boundaries among the residents, the hospital and the county health department. 2. Who were/are the leaders? What characteristics do you thing were displayed by the leader(s) of this collaborative effort that led to its success? The leaders of this collaborative effort were Dr. Till, County Health Department Director, hospital board member, a medical staff and the leaders of all the groups to be involved like church leaders, rotary club managers, and senior club members and so on. These leaders displayed the following characteristics: The ability to assess their environment and determine what needs to be improved and how to improve it. This is displayed by Dr. Till who knows identifies the problem and inspires others to help solve it. The ability to share power and influence to achieve a common goal. The ability to communicate to all parties and bring them together to communicate. This is shown by Dr. Till who brings all the concerned groups together. 3. Discuss the various stakeholders who can contribute to or create barriers for the success of this collaborative effort? The main stakeholders include the medical staff, hospital board, county health director and the residents. The quality of service can improve if the medical staff decide to dedicate themselves to improving the quality of service. The hospital should be able to source for funds to help in equipping the hospital with the latest technology, which will improve the range of services offered. The county health director can help by sharing information with the hospital. The residents should be willing to listen and trust the hospital before it can grow. Chapter 10 (Transformational Leadership) Case Study: The Honeysuckle Clinic 1. Nola Salem is not a transformational leader but rather a transactional leader. She focuses on achieving goals she set. She expects employees to get on implementing everything she decides. She does not worry about the relationship among the different employees. Ms. Salem is not aware that employees are worried about their future and their working conditions. A transformational leader would take time to listen to all employees and solve any disputes among them. This kind of leader would sit down with employees and come up with long term strategy and plans. This will help communicate to employees about the security of their jobs in the near future. Finally, a transformational leader would find a way to get rid of employees like Dr. Seymor who are not able to fully commit to their job. 2. The new leader should be a person who focuses on the employees, mission and possesses a strong vision, character and core values. This means he/she should understand the laws that govern human relationship and used them to create an enabling working environment. A transformational leaders should have a personal interest in people. He should focus on learning the goals of individuals. Some of the questions I would ask during an interview include: What is your strategy in leadership? Do you believe in team work and personal growth at the work place? How can you define core values and humility? 3. The list of topics of concern that can be discussed in that meeting include: What strategy is Honeysuckle using to guide their long term goals? Ways in which Honeysuckle can improve employee retention. The impact of latest technology on quality of medical services. The process of recruitment that is cost effective and leads to creating of a dedicated staff. Chapter 12 (Financial Considerations for Healthcare Leaders Case Study: Financial Management 1. The critical areas of operations in Amityville hospital that should be reviewed include: The hospital should look into expanding its bed capacity and range of services because of the increasing population. The community has a considerable number of retirees, which means Amityville can start services that focuses on the aging population. The hospital should think about expanding their facility so that they can work closely with the orthopedic unit. Amityville should approach the Orthopedic Practices and partner with them in starting a branch of orthopedic practices within Amityville hospital. Amityville hospital should think about investing in high quality oncology practices to compete with the poor services in Serenity Hospital. 2. Amityville Financial data will help in determining the range of services that are very productive and the poor performing ones. The data will guide the concerned parties on how to budget for future strategies and the projected costs. The data will, also, help in determining the revenue earned by Amityville and ways to improve. Finally, financial data helps identifying key areas responsible for losses and improving or eliminating them. 3. The healthcare reform will considerable reduce the amount of revenue that Amityville hospital earns. The hospital will have to come with a strategy to reduce costs and maximize on Medicare reimbursements. Amityville should reevaluate strategic planning to focus on offering specialized care, which will attract additional revenue. 4. The community impacts Amityville strategic planning because of its setup. The presence of retirees, young people and middle age, means that Amityville should work on offering a range of services that targets all these groups. Serenity Hospital has pushed Amityville hospital to focus on offering high quality healthcare at an affordable price to attract additional customers. The hospital’s strategic plan focuses on improving quality, maximize revenue, and minimizing the costs of operation. Chapter 13 (The Physician Leader) Case Study: Conflict of Interest or Quality of Patient Care? 1. The leaders should sit down and review the whole situation using their medical expertise and protocol guidelines. They should review the problem to ensure that the can come with a solution that will not lead to a negative working environment in future. In this step, the three doctors should think about the patient, financial stability of the hospital and the importance of a positive working environment. 2. The physician leaders should seek consultation on the effectiveness of products from BoneMedco compared to those from other companies. Second, they should consult on the other cost effective drugs that will not affect the quality of treatments that patients receive. They should consult on intricate details surrounding conflict of interest in healthcare organizations. 3. If the connection between Dr. Smith and BoneMedco was present during the filing of COI form, it means that Dr. Smith was dishonest. This implies that the only reasons he uses products from BoneMedco is make money, which means he does not care about the hospital or the patients. The administrator should take Dr. Smith to the hospital board, which can decide on the best of course of action. 4. The fact that the device produced by Dr. Smith is superior to all the products changes many things. It implies that Dr. Smith focuses on giving the best care to his patients, which is why he has been using products from BoneMedCo. A physician tends to rely on the clinical side, which would explains the actions of Dr. Smith. The data will support the argument that there is no conflict of interest. 5. Dr. Richards and Dr. Justus should investigate the quality of different products in the market to determine if they quality is good. Dr. Richards and Dr. Justus should involve the finance department to determine cost effective drugs without compromising quality of patient care. They should investigate on costs and make a case to support why it is important for Dr. Smith to consider other products. On the other hand, Dr. Smith should go update his COI form and include the connection between him and BoneMedco. Second, he should look for peer reviewed articles to support his claim that BoneMedco products are the best in the market. 6. Yes. The conflict of interest should be overlooked if they can prove beyond reasonable doubt that it would benefit the healthcare organization and the patients. The healthcare business focuses on maintaining a healthy population by preventing and treating disease on time. Therefore, a conflict of interest that helps achieve this goal should be overlooked. Chapter 14 (Government in a New Era) Case Study: Conflict in Governance 1. The fair formula for allocation should be done basing the performance of the different entities. The formula should incorporate the size and performance levels of the entity in terms of service and number of people being. The best criteria for distributing funds to different entities should be based on performance, strategic location and the size of patients that an entity handles on a daily basis. A performance based criteria ensures that the best performing entities are encouraged to pursue excellence in their service delivery. Therefore, the best criteria should be based on performance and dedication. The other factors should secondary to performance and dedication in the different entities. 2. The medical staff in an organization might feel they have same say in the distribution of capital because they are part of the organization. The work diligently to ensure that the organization offers quality services and remains in business. The medical staff are stakeholders in the organization, which means they are accountable. Therefore, they have say in distribution of capital. For example, the medical staff in Noble Regional Medical Center (NRMC) worked to ensure the quality of service improved with the little they had. They felt accountable for the success of the organization, which justifies their concern for capital distribution. 3. The responsibility of the board is to ensure NRMC runs smoothly by worrying about the medical staff, quality of service, availability of capital and general governing principles in the organization. The board should be concerned with interests of the medical staff. The medical staff has dedicated itself to achieving high standards using the available resources. Therefore, the board should make sure their interests are handled to ensure improvement in the quality of healthcare offered in NRMC. Chapter 15 (Leadership and Community Outreach) Case Study: Mobile Dental Services 1. The information available to St Mary’s is the fact that many students were suffering from dental related complications. These students were eligible Medicaid but could not access services due to poor transport and the unwillingness of the dentists to accept Medicaid patients. St. Mary’s was aware that the school that the community could support the outreach program. The personnel available to St Mary’s include the school nurse, community leaders, dentists practicing in the community and the dentist hired by St. Mary’s. As a result, it was possible to plan for the execution of the outreach program based on the available information and the willingness of the available personnel. 2. The leadership should encourage transparency and accountability to all stakeholders. This means the leadership at the medical center should communicate regularly to the stakeholders on the operations of the outreach center. In addition, the leadership at the care center should provide monthly reports on performance to all stakeholders. This will ensure that constant communication, transparency and accountability is maintained for all stakeholders. 3. The medical center gains a number of benefits, which include: They have been able to increase the population of the patients that they handle. The outreach program has allowed the medical center to expand to a new range of services, which is dental care. The outreach program has helped in improving the trust accorded to the medical center by the community. The medical center has a formed collaborations with other dentists who might help in different situations. The medical has gained marketing and promotional benefits because it has been able to reach new patients in mobile areas. It has gained the trust of the community. Financially, the organization has benefitted since it was able to gain additional Medicaid patients. This increased the amount of reimbursements they get. Works Cited Rubino, Louis, Salvador Esparza, and Yolanda R. Chassiakos. New Leadership for Todays Health Care Professionals: Concepts and Cases. Burlington, Mass: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2014. Print. Read More