Major Healthcare Issues - Essay Example

1. The Mayo Clinic, the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group medical practice in the world", has a mission of providing "the best care to every patient every day through integrated clinical practice, education and research (Mayo Clinic). With its primary value of putting the needs of the patient first, it has consistently garnered the reputation of being America's second best hospital, according to US News and World Report rankings (Best Hospitals 2006). Strengths - Its strength lies on its world-renowned system of teamwork and speed in its operations by its "one-stop-shop" of providing diagnosis and treatment to virtually all fields of health care. It also has proactive and aggressive campaign in researching of cures for various health problems. As a result of this, there are cases where treatment for some seemingly incurable diseases was successfully done in this institution. Weaknesses - Though superb in providing health care, the Mayo Clinic had been allegedly accused of "defrauded the United States by misapplying certain grant funds from the National Institutes of Health and its parent agency (Harsh Criticism for the Mayo Foundation's Accounting Practices)." High medication fees cost is another weakness of the company. Opportunities - With its state-of-the-art medical facilities and research, Mayo Clinic has capability to dominate its market share. It is also a world leader in achieving breakthroughs and improvements in health care technology. Threats - Bioterrorism is one of the threats that infests medical institutions nowadays especially in distinguished medical institutions like Mayo Clinic. The incompatibility of applying modern IT technology to Mayo Clinic's system is another threat. 2. Leadership is a very vital component in any organization. Though in practice maybe distributed to various people, still the importance of having a single leader that will orchestrate the activities of the organization that he is leading is very necessary. Especially when quick and very important decisions are to be rendered, a single leader is very relevant to avoid confusion and power struggles. In the case of the Mayo Clinic, its clinic chairperson has virtually no decision power in terms of corporate matters. He only recommends on appointments, promotions, and other administrative matters. Decisions come from a committee with a multi-departmental representation. Its principle in incorporating teamwork in its design is clearly reflected in its management system. Mayo Clinic has been very successful under this management system. In fact, it has been hailed numerous times for its world-class quality medical service. However, at times when snap and urgent decisions are needed, a single capable leader should do the job. Mayo Clinic should address this topic to avoid any cases where prompt and immediate action is needed. They should add a policy in the by-law stating that when cases of this nature happen, they should give the chairman the power to decide on and to implement emergency regulations. 3) There are various conditions where alliances are very risky between the parties involved. One of these is when a party's business or interest belongs to a totally different nature than that of the business nature of the alliance being formed. An example of this is when two businesses form a biotechnology firm where one party belongs to the field of health care services that has no background on medical research and the other is from the realm of software development that has no previous product line that caters to medical services. The lack of familiarity of one or both of the parties is very risky for the partnership or corporation, especially now that competition is very fierce and speed of technological improvement, very rapid. Though we can say that the learning curves of both parties are very high, still the risk of delivering quality results are high considering the time spent on learning the trade and the necessary operational know-how and wisdom that the parties need to avail, which only experience can provide. Another instance where risk on alliances is very high is when parties involved in it have incompatible goals. For instance, while both parties aspire to increase profits, A aims to do this in a quick-fix method by retrenching personnel, on the other hand B advocates the long-term manner by employing technological improvements and systems. Unless they both meet at a certain point of agreement, the alliance is very likely to dissolve. Over-optimism of one or both parties is another risk factor in alliance formation. There are business alliances that eventually fail because of falling to the trap of expecting high on their alliances without minding the data and facts that show the vulnerability of their decisions to doom. 4) There are alliances that have been successful in forming an alliance. A good example of this in the field of medicine is that of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis and biotech research leader Idenix. Idenix's mission of providing "patients with treatments that are more effective, more tolerable, and safer than the current standards" has been manifested in their leadership in global antiretroviral market (Successful Alliances: Novartis and Idenix). Having developed breakthrough researches on treatments for hepatitis B and C and HIV, Novartis Pharma AG has been impressed by Idenix's milestones and eventually become supportive to it by placing the company to its list of venture alliances. Mutual relationship that ties both parties is probably the best key for a successful and profitable alliance. A merger of two companies that share a common mission and vision, as well as a common philosophy on how to achieve fruitful results are on its way of becoming successful. In the case of the above alliance, Novartis' vision of becoming a world leader in producing quality medicines especially for previously incurable diseases, and Idenix's goal of providing treatments for the said nature of disease have made these two companies a compatible alliance. The mutual goals and strategies of both companies as well as their almost identical way of converting their goals into realization has further gelled the Novartis/ Idenix collaboration into a more successful merger. Both of them share the passion in achieving their identical goals. This is the key in maintaining a successful long-term business relationship. 5) For me, transformational change is the most mature forms of change in organizations. Currently, I believe that there are stages of change that organizations undergo. The first is when new tangible technology is being introduced in it. It may be in the form of new technological improvements in computers and other state-of-the-art gadgets that would facilitate its workflow and production. This is technical change. The second stage is when a company adopts a new management and business philosophy in its system that would eventually change its vision and mission. Since the inception of new business concepts is still fresh, the company is yet to change its methods and processes on how to fulfill the company's mission and vision. This is transition change. The last stage happens when the technological changes as well as the changes in ideology in the organization is already deeply rooted within it that it can now change its structure and processes. This is the transformation change. Half-done change would yield half-done or even negative results. By just introducing new technological change in the company, you would just give your personnel machines and gadgets that could increase their productivity but not the effectiveness of the entire group. Without fresh mission and goals that the entire organization - with the use the new technological advancements - that comes from its leaders, there will be blueprint to realize the much needed organizational change. Lastly, it is only when technological improvements and new vision and goals coming from its leaders can an organization be matured enough to transform the organization towards effectiveness by laying down fresh systems and processes in realizing the organizational change and upgrade. 6.) American health care system has always been the envy of other health care systems all over the world. By its leadership in providing sophisticated technologies in treating patients and its employment of the best healthcare practitioners in the world, the United States should have the clear edge in providing health care services as compared to the rest of the world. However, according to Clancy, a recent report form the Commonwealth fund "found that the United States scored 66 out of a 100 across 37 indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity." This report testifies that though the United States is a leader in health care technological changes, its culture slows down the pace of maximizing the use of these breakthroughs to improve its health care system. By these facts I can conclude that though American health care system is improving, it climbs at a slow pace. The United States is inarguably a leader and trendsetter when it comes to technological and theoretical improvements. In this respect, Americans are pioneers in change. In fact a considerable number of Nobel Laureates in the field of Medicine and Physiology are Americans. Researches in innovations and discoveries in medicine have been undergone in American laboratories. Despite these awesome achievements in healthcare technology, we can see that when it comes to practicing health care, the American culture, primarily its "culture of blame" considerably protracts the advancement of American health care system (Clancy). The notion that treats "errors as personal failures" and not as "opportunities to improve," hinders the progress of US health care system. 7) Structural - Mayo Foundation, is the largest US charity, having total revenue of $5.616bn (The 200 Largest U.S. Charities). Mayo Clinic is placed second in U.S. News' list of the America's Best Hospitals (Best Hospitals 2006) scoring 26 points in 13 specialties. It is ranked 89th in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For because "eighty-nine percent of employees say they are proud to tell others they work at this hospital, known for both its cutting-edge research and unique collaborative style, in which doctors and other providers work on teams for each patient." Process - With its "one-stop shopping" system for diagnosis and treatment, Mayo Clinic provides comprehensive medical solution to its patients. Teamwork is one of the vital foundations of its success. Time efficiency of patients is maximized under this practice. Physicians and surgeons here are paid on a fixed salary that is unaffected by the number of patients. This will enable them to maximize their time on patients' needs. Outcome - Mayo Clinic has a reputation of rendering outstanding patient care and comfort with compassion. Mayo Clinic is a world-renowned center for research and development in medical technology. Mayo Clinic boasts its roster of expert medical practitioners that are well known around the world. This is the reason why famous personalities worldwide preferred Mayo Clinic to other medical institutions. Mayo Clinic is the "largest, integrated, not-for-profit group medical practice in the world (Mayo Clinic)." 8.) Though it is understandable that health care organizations need ample amount of finances to sustain its operations, it does not efface the fact that they should prioritize their vision of rendering quality service before financial security. Health care organizations rely on their reputation concerning the quality of their services. They do not belong to speculative and impersonal industries that heavily use advertising to garner media mileage and popularity of their products. Quality health care service attracts not only patients but also investors. No amount of advertising can substitute a faulty and defective health care service. Another point to consider is the ethical and moral responsibility of medical practitioners. Unlike other institutions, lives of patients are at stake in the health care industry. In this field, a seemingly tiny mistake in applying medical treatment for a patient can mean his death or a lifetime of suffering and disfigurement for him. The Mayo Clinic is an exemplary example of prioritizing service quality than counting its margins. Its personnel's commitment to provide quality service has compensated them huge amount of income. In fact, according to Forbes.com the Mayo Foundation is America's Largest Charity, having total revenue of $5.616bn (The 200 Largest US Charities). Clearly Mayo's mission in providing utmost health care service to their highly esteemed patients has been returned. Works Cited Best Hospitals 2006. U.S. News and World Report. 08 Oct. 2006. . Clancy, Carolyn M. The Culture of Safety. Nurse Alliance of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Networking Conference on Quality, St. Louis, Missouri, 25 Sept. 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. 08 Oct. 2006. Ebeling, Thomas and Sommadossi, Jean-Pierre. Successful Alliances: Novartis and Idenix Share the Secrets of Success. 1 Oct. 2005. Pharmaceutical Executive. 08 Oct. 2006. Lam, Michael D. Why Alliances Fail. 1 Jun. 2004. Pharmaceutical Executive 08 Oct. 2006. Mayo Clinic Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 2006. CNNMoney.com. 08 Oct. 2006. . The 200 Largest U.S. Charities. Forbes.com. 08 Oct. 2006. 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