Management of Health Institutions - Coursework Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Management Essay Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @ 2009 Introduction Health institutions have an important role to play in the society. They therefore need a high level of effectiveness in their operations if they are to meet their goal of offering the best services in the most efficient manner. As organizations, they need to adopt the best management practices (Jones 2006). The management essay scenario that has been provided offers an insight into a number of management issues that relate to the activities, staff and operations in general as observed as a Clinical coordinator in a health facility. This paper addresses the management issues that arise and their relation to existing management theory. Management Issues Arising The hospital’s 13 operating rooms make it a large one. The rooms enable the adequate breaking up of departmental tasks hence easy administration and delivery of services. Communication also seems to be well developed in the hospital. The clinical coordinator is able to access every communication regarding the day to day operations in the hospital. There is a high level of task specialization. There is a clear division of labor. The specialized departments are staffed by specialized individuals. This effectively makes up a division of labor, which in management may be understood as a specialization of various groups to certain prescribed roles or tasks, with the outcome of increasing their overall productivity. Teamwork thus becomes an inevitable component of hospital management. It is what enables the members of staff to put in a joint effort towards the achievement of their shared vision. With the many tasks and specialist areas, it enables the direction of individual accomplishments to the organization’s objectives (Hernandez 2008). The issue of coordination of activities is a significant one when it comes to the operational aspects of the hospital. From the case provided, there seems to be considerable coordination in activities. However, there still remains the need for additional coordination effort as teamwork is what matters most in carrying out every task. Teamwork is necessitated by the specialized nature of each staff member’s job, and also possibilities of differences in individual capabilities, knowledge and skill. In addition to helping in ensuring smoother exchanges of information, a clear communication pattern is helpful as it promotes the development of greater coordination of resource and any other planning effort within the organizational setting (Srinivasan 2008). The issue of employee welfare may be pointed out in relation to the distribution of tasks and availability of adequate manpower. Considering the large size of the hospital, there is the need for an appropriate staffing policy that will ensure that the manpower used is adequate to avoid overworking. Overworking has a number of negative effects on the employee. For instance, there is a high possibility of burnout among hospital employees. Overworking is also a major cause of job stress. Job stress is a major outcome of possible poor resourcing and being left with the responsibility of other workers’ quality of work and attempting to meet their relatives’ expectations. Failure to control or ensure participation of workers in decision making is among the main factors that lead to ill psychological health among employees (Fried & Fottler 2008). The case offers an insight as to the challenges that face modern day health care provision. In addition to the demand for high quality, there have also been a lot of changes in hospital care. These include the introduction of new technologies and a diminishing average patient stay period in hospital. The challenges have led to an increase in the level of care that is required by patients as they remain in. New technologies in the medical field offer a chance for a lot of less serious illness cases that in the past would have been given received inpatient surgical care outpatient care instead. In addition, patients who previously completed their early recovery within hospital are often taken home or to other nursing facilities (Schermerhorn 2006). Hospital nurse staffing is a matter of major concern because of the effects it can have on patient safety and the quality of medical care. Past studies have shown the link between nurse staffing and health service delivery both at nursing unit and hospital levels. In relation to deaths in hospitals however, there is no consistent evidence on the relation between low nurse staffing and higher rates of patient mortality. In hospitals where there are more Registered Nurses, medical patients tend to have a lower rate of five identified patient outcomes namely shock, pneumonia, longer durations of hospital stay and gastrointestinal bleeding (Fried & Fottler 2008). Technology and the availability, maintenance and scheduling of equipment are also important issues in the management of hospital activities. The advances that have been witnessed in the Information Technology and engineering during the past few decades have led to a number of changes in medical science. Developments in medical equipment continue to play an important role in determining how the healthcare system of service delivery operates. The use of sophisticated equipment in the operation theatres calls for various utilities such as refrigeration, power supply and air conditioning among other systems. In today’s Hospital Management practice, maintenance and biomedical engineers have had to play an increasingly visible role in making sure that there is optimal equipment utilization and less downtime. The need for such professionals, their remuneration and retention as a new and growing breed of support staff therefore creates a challenge in the management practice (Srinivasan 2008). The equipment used in the theatres is also an important component of the issues that arise. The equipments are of a broad variety, ranging from sophisticated hi-tech CT scanners to simple patient trolleys. These constitute a major proportion of any hospital’s project costs that may account for upto about 60% of the costs. Out of this, about a half goes to biomedical equipment. Considering this, it is necessary to ensure that the equipment is utilized to the maximum and downtime is left at a minimum. Equipment maintenance is therefore a crucial part of hospital work as it is the only way through which they may be kept in a continuous original state of functioning for as long a period of time as possible. This is different from repairs, which is the restoration of such an asset to a condition as close to its original, by replacements of parts or an asset overhaul. The planning of a maintenance program begins when a purchase plan is made and extends to the time of its installation to when the equipment has reached a stage when it is written off. Maintenance generally involves preventive measures, system efficiency monitoring and breakdown maintenance (Jones 2006). Although the objectives of such maintenance are actually impossible to attain within the modern context, it is a viable objective that the hospital’s management should keep a firm focus on. The Applicability of Management Theory The management Systems, contingency and chaos theories may easily be applied in the understanding hospital’s activities. The contingency theory basically suggests that whenever managers make decisions, there is need to factor in every aspect of the existing situation and implement the aspects which are valuable within the current context. The issue here is that any measure taken depends on the situation. The need for coordination calls for the manager to make decisions on how well to carry out the hospital tasks and ensure that each member of staff play their role effectively. For instance, bearing in mind that the activities that are undertaken are always group tasks, there is ever the need to identify the most appropriate management or leadership styles and these will have to be tailored on the model schedule that is provided by the case study. In this case, considering the issues that surround the operations, there would for instance be the implementation of a more facilitative and participative leadership approach (Schermerhorn 2006). Under the systems theory, the hospital may be considered to be a system, one that is understood as a collection of different parts that may be unified to attain the overall organizational goals. In case one of the parts is taken away, there is a change in the system’s nature as well. The understanding is that the system is made up of inputs, some process, outputs and outcomes. The systems are characterized by sharing of feedback between every one of the four system components. In hospital operations, the inputs may include the resources used in offering services for instance technological devices and the people. These undergo a process in which they are planned, motivated, organized and controlled in order to meet the ultimate goal of the organization, which is to offer quality and satisfactory healthcare. Feedback is in this case the information that may be gained from the staff working in the various aspects and probably the reactions of patients to the care that they are provided with (Fried & Fottler 2008). The overall framework for the system applies to both the organization in general and the specific subdivisions that are involved in providing specialized services in the theatres under the Clinical Coordinator. The issue of technological and other innovations that characterize the current world environment also bring in the perspective of the chaos management theory. The chaotic nature of the general environment is reflected in virtually all organizations, including the hospitals. For a long time however, the different categories of managers have worked basing on the assumption that it is possible to control every event that occurs in the day to day operations is possible to control. The new chaos theory takes cognizance of the fact that events within the organization are difficult to control. With the unexpected nature of patients’ cases that occur within the small duration of time, it appears difficult to put in place any complete measures hence expectations on the eventual outcome of the medical services offered (Srinivasan 2008). From the recorded events, the cases are unpredictable and lead to varied outcomes, including death. Management therefore remains with the duty of ensuring that the overall goals of the organization are attained in spite of the unpredictability of events, mainly through having a system of readiness for any emergency eventuality. Conclusion The hospital case points out a number of management issues. It is the typical example of a system that requires effective coordination if success is to be achieved. It is large and has highly specialized staff teams. Ensuring that there is an adequate and well coordinated workforce is in itself a challenge. Proper communication is also inevitable. Technological changes also call for the best acquisition and maintenance strategies. In view of these issues therefore, three major management theories; systems, contingency and chaos become highly applicable. Bibliography Fried, B. & Fottler, M., 2008, Human Resources in Healthcare: Managing for Success, Health Administration Press, Ann Arbor. Hernandez, R., 2008, Strategic Human Resources Management in Health Services Organizations, Delmar Learning, New York. Jones, D., 2006, Hospitals: What They Are and How They Work, Bartlett Publishers Inc., Massachusetts. Schermerhorn, J., 2006, Health Care Management , John Wiley, New York. Srinivasan, A., 2008, Managing a Modern Hospital, Sage Publications, New Delhi. Don Griffin (Author) › Visit Amazon's Don Griffin Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central Read More