Mount Sinai Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Unit - Term Paper Example

Mount Sinai Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Unit Number Introduction It is not in doubt that Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the most respectable healthcare institutions in the US. With its headquarter in New York, Mount Sinai Hospital provides a wide range of medical services and specializes in areas of care sure such as heart attack (coronary artery disease), arrhythmia (heart rhythm disorder), interventional cardiology, heart failure and transplantation and general heart health (prevention, treatment and rehabilitation). Mount Sinai Hospital is successful because of its organizational culture, vision, mission and values and the streak of stability that it has maintained over the years, since its formation in 1852. Reasons behind Mount Sinai Hospitals Success One of the reasons behind Mount Sinai Hospitals huge success is the management practices it adheres to. Mount Sinais view of organizational effectiveness is more wholesome, as opposed to profit-making ventures. A critical look at Mount Sinai Hospital shows that as an institution, it sees effectiveness as a culmination of the integration and application of the three dimensions of management: focus, structure and time-horizons. As is postulated by Robert Quinn and John Rohrbaugh, when the three dimensions they form four dynamic and competing models of organizational effectiveness (Tompkins, 2004). The first model is the human relations model which internally focuses on people who make up the organization and is emphatic on the need to promote structural flexibility, intra-organizational cohesion, motivation and training, as the means of actualizing organizational effectiveness, as can be seen in the human relations theory. Mount Sinai Hospital can be seen to have perfected the use of the human relations models. This exemplified by the fact that the New York Magazine in 2009 listed 129 of Mount Sinai Hospitals physicians to its Best Physicians List. One of the ways this healthcare services institution has been able to do is by sustaining competitive recruitment processes for its medical and non-medical staff. To this effect, Mount Sinai Hospital sticks to: commitment to patients welfare; the candidates wellbeing; and roundedness; and overall grades that the candidates scored during his medical training. These measures are usually observed if the recruitment exercise is being done to applicants who wish to work as physicians. Mount Sinai Hospital uses previous commitment to community work in medical or healthcare institutions as the yardstick for measuring the love for the patient (commitment to the patients welfare). Experience and academic records are also considered when recruiting non-medical personnel. The team of doctors that makes up Mount Sinai Heart features heavily in the list of the worlds top cardiologists (Aufses and Niss, 2002). To complement the measure above, Mount Sinai Hospitals ensures that it extends competitive rates of remunerations to its workers in both the medical and non-medical departments. For the physicians, the remunerations come with an enviable salary package, allowances and sabbaticals. According to Tompkins (2004), there is the open systems model which touches on the external needs of the organization, and stresses on structural flexibility and readiness as a way of acquiring resources that are essential for an organizations survival or success and adapting to uncertain environmental conditions. This model totally is highly concomitant with the structural functional theory. The way the hospitals Division of Pediatric Cardiology has successfully applied the open systems model is illustrated by its partnering with Childrens Heart Fund, and redrawing its internal structures to accommodate this partnership. The main drawback that the division sought to stem through this partnership was inadequate finances. It is this partnership that saw waiting areas, echocardiography and exam rooms, corridors and administrative offices of this hospital being refurbished to provide patients and their families with more comfort and better services. That this application of the open systems model was successful is a matter that is illustrated by Mount Sinai Hospital receiving over 165,000 US dollars from the Childrens Heart Fund Gallery Event, for the renovations. To ensure utmost success, Mount Sinai Medical Center used underwater themes and dramatic aquatic environment to whip up the highest number of attendance. The event featured whales, sea turtles, dolphins, crabs There is the rational goal model which emphasizes the need to plan and set goals in order to achieve organizational target in a manner that is efficient and productive. This model mingles with the scientific management theory and administrative management theory. Going by the arguments that Morgan, Frost and Pondy (1983) advance, there is also the internal process model which stresses on the importance of information management and proper management of communication, as a means for coordinating and controlling work activities so that tasks can be carried out in a disciplined, predictable and systematic manner. This is seen in the manner in which Mount Sinai Hospital is hierarchically and horizontally structured. For instance, Mount Sinai Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Unit exists as a full-fledged and autonomous department. It exists and operates under the guidance and direction of Ira A. Parness, and in collaboration with the department of Cardiothoracic Surgery [to form a division]. Cardiac MR imaging, Cardiac Catherization, Holter Monitoring and Electrophysiology are some of the services that feature in this division. Closely related to the foregoing, every pediatric cardiologist who is a member of the Faculty Practice Associates is not only a member of Mount Sinai Hospital staff, but also the Icahn School of Medicine. There are also administrative roles that doctors in the division discharge, with these roles being specific to every office in the division. For instance, there is the President, Dr. Gary Meltzer and Medical Director of Pediatric Cardiac Intensive care Unit at Mount Sinai hospital, Dr. Umesh C. Joashi. The hospitals use of the internal processes model is underscored by these offices having offices that are autonomous enough to ward off cases of duplication and superimposition of roles, yet close enough to discharge complementary roles as organs of the same division. The manner in which the hospital has applied internal process model to sustain its Pediatric Cardiology Unit is epitomized in the manner in which it has harnessed its synergies and resources to ensure that all systems within the hospitals pediatric cardiology division are fully working. For instance, to ensure cohesion, every pediatric cardiologist in the Faculty Practice Associates is recognized as an important part member of Mount Sinai Hospitals staff. Through the structuring and proper planning of its internal processes, Mount Sinai Division of Pediatric Cardiology harnesses the use of state-of-the-art diagnosis and an elaborate family-centered treatment to achieve outstanding success in diagnosing and treating the most complex cardiac conditions in young adults, children and even fetuses. It is also through the use of these state-of the-art medical equipment and proper coordination with the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery that its experts have been able to provide a more comprehensive spectrum and interventional catherization forms of medical intervention for both acquired and congenital pediatric heart diseases and complications (Goffman, 1967). This aforementioned practice of integrating the use of state-of-the-art equipment for diagnosis and highly competent and a strongly cohesive workforce has yielded a high class fetal and pediatric echocardiography, Holter monitoring, exercise testing, cardiac MRI, exercise testing, cardiovascular genetics and electrophysiology. Some of the Challenges that face Mount Sinai Hospital and How It Has Attempted to Solve Them Nevertheless, it is important to take stock of the fact that like any other organization, there are problems that accost Mount Sinai Hospital Pediatric Cardiology. Chief among these problems is the financial strain that come with the cost of running the Pediatric Cardiology division. This problem of financial constraints is compounded by the highly exorbitant prices which accompany the procurement and maintenance of the state-of-the-art medical equipment, the costly nature of the materials that are used in the Pediatric Cardiology division and the non-profit making nature of Mount Sinai Hospitals undertakings as a whole [given that it is a medical or healthcare services providing institution]. In this case, the hospital has found the open systems model very important, given that it allows for the restructuring of structural operations in readiness for an adaptation to an uncertain environment and to help the organization meet the needs necessary for its survival or success. In this light, the Pediatric Cardiology division redefined the roles of its physicians so that they could also take part in fund raising programs, as an artifice to seeing the division earn extra financial resources. Mount Sinai Hospital has attempted to use creativity to stave off financial setbacks that threaten to dampen its operations. In 2005 and 2006, the hospital came up with The September 14th event called A movie for Medicine. This event was held at Lincoln Square Movie Theater, Manhattan and it began with a donation of items that had been donated by different organizations, followed by the screening of the movie, Hollywoodland which Ben Affleck starred. The President of the Childrens Heart Fund, Gary Meltzer and the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Ira Parness then gave speeches concerning the needs of the division and their personal experiences with infants, toddlers, teenagers and young adults with heart conditions, in respect to the limited financial resources. Overall, the whole event raised more than 16,000 dollars to benefit the division. The execution of this project, A movie for Medicine can also be cogently said to have heavily relied upon the rational goal model. In this fundraising project, a clear plan and set goals meant at achieving organizational target (raising more funds for the Division of Pediatric Cardiology) in a manner that is efficient and productive are clearly manifest. References Aufses, A.H. & Niss, B. (2002). The House of Noble Deeds: The Mount Sinai Hospital 1852- 2002. New York/ London: New York University Press. Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Morgan, G., Frost, P. J., & Pondy, L. R. (1983).Organizational symbolism. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Tompkins J.R. (2004). Organization Theory and Public Management: Chapter 3: Management Practice and Organizational Performance. New York: Wadsworth Publishing. Read More