Innovation in a Hospital Organization Setting: Role of Leadership in the Context of Change - Case Study Example

Innovation in a Hospital Organization Setting: The Role of Leadership in Change and the Context of Change Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Assignment is due: Innovation in a Hospital Organization Setting: The Role of Leadership in Change and the Context of Change Part 1 The Foundation Trust in London is an organization that provides the community with healthcare services that include fulltime and part time hospital services. The community also benefits from a wide range of health care services in the form of inpatient and outpatient provisions for children, young people, adults and the elderly alike. There are also certain mental health care services that are provided by the Foundation Trust. Fifteen Clinical Research Facilities are directly associated with Foundation Trust in the UK. This report will focus on one of the facilities. The aim of writing this paper is to identify an area of service in my current post, which has the potential to benefit from a development, change or innovation. Following this identification, the paper then proceeds to present a critical analysis of the change processes in the said organization that will have an impact on the implementation of the innovation, development or change. The organization is currently undertaking certain endeavors in early clinical trials. Owing to this, twenty bed spaces were created as well as an endoscopy room, a clinical laboratory, a trial pharmacy and a physiology suite. There are offices that accommodate the research nurses in the unit. Having worked in the oncology department as the senior research nurse, I have observed certain problems in bed booking that I believe can be addressed using a software innovation that will make work easier for the staff and patients alike. Hospitals are increasingly using innovative ways of managing hospital beds. According to Nicholls and Young (2007, pp. 26-30) certain software like the GIS based system tool can be successfully used in the allocation of bed space such that an eBed system is used. This tool will be in the form of a software program that will be installed in the hospitals computer system. Consequently, booking of the hospital beds could take place online so that he patient does not have to go through the process again. The innovation that I am proposing in this case is the improvement of the room and bed booking by the introduction of a new computer program. It is the GIS software that can be used in bed booking (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). The twenty additional beds in the unit make the need for software for bed booking more urgent. The availability of this system will help things to run smoothly at the hospital. Currently, I am acting as the bed manager at the facility, but we are still in need of a clinically experienced person who can effectively be in charge of bed management. We are having challenges with room and bed booking. I have my own template that I use in the booking of rooms and beds. However, after attending a research conference, I got insight that some other hospitals and healthcare facilities are using software to help them in booking rooms and beds. The implementation of this system will involve teaching the staff certain crucial technological skills required to run the system. The use of an eBeds system successfully worked in the case of Downey regional medical Center who adopted a computer system that is similar to the GIS and implemented it successfully with positive results to show for it (Boyer n.d., p. 1). Thus, my idea can be measured using similar implementations in other healthcare institutions. My role is to be a researcher and provide information that will give the innovation the best chance of success. The bed booking software is dynamic and flexible such that alteration and addition of new information is possible case there is a change in the operational level of the hospital. Part 2 Having had experience as one of the senior nurses in the department of oncology at the hospital, my proposal is that the innovation be implemented under the guide of a leader who is familiar with the reality of the situation as well as the theoretical perspectives that can apply to the situation of implementing the innovation. This means that the implementation process of this change is crucial in determining its success or its failure. If the innovation is to be successful and helpful, then the leadership behind its implementation needs to be stable. It should also be backed up by theoretical ideas. Following this, the theoretical approaches that would be most suitable for this situation are those that specify the roles that leaders have in implementing a change. The roles that nurse managers’ play in health care institutions have always been recognized as being of a profound impact on the smooth operation of the units used by inpatients. The most critical of these units are the rooms and beds because this is where the patients are housed during their hospital stay (McGuire & Kennerly 2006, pp. 179-185). Transformational leadership theory in nursing requires the leader to be influential in terms of affecting attitudes and motivating performance and retention. As a result, it is important that they be involved in transformations of situations as well as attitudes. This means that they should be instrumental in the implementation of a change and the success f the change in terms of its acceptance and adoption. According to Murphy (2005, pp. 128-136) transformational leadership is praised as the new direction that nurse managers should take in their leadership approaches. The theories that pertain to leadership in nursing vary but they are consistent in the qualities that an effective leader must have. When something new is introduced in an organization, certain reactions take place and, the nature of these reactions is crucial in the effectiveness and success of the innovation. In order for the chain reaction of positive results to initiate, the leaders need to espouse certain intellectual stimulation to their subjects and consider each of them individually (Murphy 2005, pp. 128-136). This in turn empowers the staff, and improves the patient care that is offered. An innovation that involved the changing of how things work will need back up from leadership that encourages and motivates the staff. Nurse Managers’ who exhibit transformational leadership are able to surmount traditions that are oppressive and navigate the changing healthcare environment confidently (Murphy 2005, pp. 128-136). Like with every leadership theory that exists, the style that is adopted from the theory, transformational leadership needs certain conditions and attributes that, in turn, affect its qualities making them successful. The necessitated attributes are inclusive of a communication receptive environment, certain leadership antecedents and appropriate organizational and structural philosophies. It is, therefore, the role of the leader to ensure that these situations and conditions are available and, if they are not, it is their role to facilitate their development. The healthcare institution I work at carries out clinical trials, which means that the system is set up needs to work impeccably to avoid any glitches in the system. Transformational leadership takes place like a dominoes effect, in that, the leader inspires a type of behavior or situation that transfers to the rest of the workers below them like a dominoes effect (McGuire & Kennerly 2006, pp. 179-185). In essence, the change begins with the leader. This means that the leader who is in charge of the change process should find ways to initiate the type of behavior he expects from the workers if they are to adopt it too. The staff should be motivated to have a positive attitude towards the innovation. This will help in easing the workers into the new or an altered role that they may need to take during and after the innovation is implemented. Transformational leadership theory specifies that the role of the leader is to elevate the requirements and needs of those who are under their charge. These needs should be made consistent with the objectives and goals of the organization so that the workers can view their duties as being consistent with their beliefs, thus, reinforcing their conviction to work better. The role of the nurse manager would be to act as a futurist, a visionary and a catalyst for changes that require a proactive approach. The innovation that is proposed will need a proactive approach to be implemented and sustained successfully. It is a fact that health care organizations change at different times to meet different needs and, this makes the context of the change conform to the characteristics of transformational leadership. Since transformational leadership is dynamic, the implementation of an innovation will be easier since certain necessary changes will be enabled at different times in the implementation process. Transforming healthcare practices is a process that needs good leadership to succeed. Nurse Managers and those in charge of certain change processes need to be guided by some form of conceptualized practice for their methodologies to yield positive result. This explains the popularity of evidence based practice in leadership theories such as transformational leadership. The leader in charge of a process has certain roles that they need to take charge of especially, in the healthcare context. It is the role of the leader to teach their followers what they need to know (McGuire & Kennerly 2006, pp. 179-185). In this case, the leader will need to put instruments and tools in place that will prepare and sustain their followers through the process of adopting new software for booking beds and rooms. In addition, they inspire confidence in the staff such that they need to make the innovation look appealing so that the staff is receptive to the innovation coming their way. Additionally, they are tools for empowering the staff and improving their performance. One of the ways of improving performance is supporting the ideas that the staff may have for improvement such as a software innovation for booking beds and rooms. The role that is most relevant to this proposal is that, the leader should be a force of leading and developing services, in that, they are instrumental in implementing change in the hospital setup. Another leadership theory that will be appropriate for this situation us the connective leadership theory. In this case, the leader has a role in creating or developing certain networks in the organization he is in and, these networks are instrumental in effecting some type of change. The focus of leadership in connective theory is to build collaborative networks and structures that affect some type of change. Unlike with transformational leadership, which can be used at any point in the processes of the organization, connective leadership theory is only required or effective, when there is a need to effect a change that is partly dependent and determined by the connections that are between key organizational structures. The role of the leader in this case would be to ensure that the key stakeholders in the organization are well aware of their roles and the processes that will be involved in implementing the change (Murphy 2005, pp. 128-136). This includes making them aware of the financial and procedural specifics and implications of implementing the change. Possible challenges to the change process As with any change process, there are different responses that may be demonstrated by the staff. It is important to know these responses so that appropriate methods of dealing with them are developed. These responses also present as challenges, in that, the process of implementing a change will be met by certain problems and challenges. One of the responses is that the staff may decide to deny or exhibit non-compliance. This will present certain challenges so that; the staff may fail to gain an adequate understanding of the processes. In addition, they may also show some ignorance to the decisions that are made concerning or associated with the processes. This may result in an uncooperative feeling in the staff. The staff will spend time hoping that the changes will not be sustained long enough and, will go away soon. This means that they will show little or no effort, in helping to implement and sustain the change. Another reaction that is also a challenge is that the staff may comply grudgingly with the change. This means that, though they may not necessarily oppose the change, they expect that it will fail and they may voice these opinions. In addition, the staff may also choose to oppose the change covertly. They will not show their opposition openly but will do so by sabotaging the roles that they are meant to play so that the change is implemented. Context for change The era of technology and internet connection has made it so that information and processes are available to people from a computer system. People are used to getting access to information, goods and services from computer systems so that the information they need is available from a central place. According to the British Medical Association (2010, p. 3), one of the ways that healthcare institutions can make up for the information revolution is that they can offer a wide range of services online. This means that healthcare institutions will be able to provide their clients with services that are more efficient (British Medical Association 2010, p. 3). This also enhances the efficiency of time and place so that patients and the health care providers can access certain services online including booking rooms and beds (British Medical Association 2010, p. 3). The system of having eBeds and rooms uses a type of geographical format that displays information about the hospital in a visual format. This means that a simulation of the real situation is displayed on the website with beds that have already been booked indicated so that the patient can choose the bed that they want to sleep in. The software will also allow for the examination of a patient’s bed electronically along with all the other vital monitors that are connected to the bed (Murphy 2005, pp. 128-136). The nurses can monitor the progress statuses of the patient’s accommodation from their stations at all times, then go and check on them personally at required times. This way, the patient’s care will receive a major enhancement because the healthcare provider is able to monitor them more closely. This is especially useful in the context of clinical trials in oncology because it is possible that people will react differently to the medications. One of the most persistent problems in healthcare institutions is that there is a bottleneck situation when it comes to allocation of patients and the available beds at the hospitals. Public scrutiny has made it so that healthcare institutions need to have a higher degree of accountability in the facilities that they offer as well as the administration of services and information. Most institutions run with a system of peak servicing, which implies that patients almost have to cue at the emergency section while they wait for the allocation of rooms and bed space. Software for bed and room booking has the capacity to address this issue (Glasby & Beresford 2006, pp. 268-284). One of the ways is that the patient can book the room online before they arrive at the hospital. The second way is that the emergency personnel can book the bed on their way to the hospital so that there is less confusion when they arrive at the hospital. The availability of a bed is one of the most crucial and significant services at the hospital. The provision of acute health care has one of its fundamental needs and inputs as the allocation of bed space. In addition, there is a significant need to develop universal techniques of bed and room allocation that are suitable and efficient as well as compatible with the current information revolution. The geospatial technology works by integrating, managing, interpreting, mapping, distributing, displaying and managing temporal, spatial and geographic knowledge and information that will help in meeting certain operational needs in an organization. The operational need that needs addressing is the allocation of rooms and booking of beds. Usually, GIS is not directly associated with the management of healthcare operations, but it has the potential of solving complex issues that may plague allocation of bed and room space (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). For this reason, significant research is involved in the implementation of this program. The purpose of this research is to identify common and specific administrative and management inefficiencies that are linked with the allocation of beds and rooms. In addition, sufficient research will help in persuading and proving to the hospital stakeholders that there were no ethical, privacy and confidentiality breaches in the preparation of the proposal nor will there be any in the implementation. In addition, the research is instrumental in identifying the type of information and support that is available in support of the proposal as well as the possible challenges and limitations that may be encountered in the implementation of the innovation (Glasby & Beresford 2006, pp. 268-284). Other than that, the research that is carried out is important in convincing the hospital staff that the innovation will not interrupt their normal routines but rather integrate into their normal functions and processes. The process of implementing the innovation needs for the hospital to have an existing information database about beds. This database will then be integrated with the bed allocation software so that the information on the databases contains updates about empty beds and rooms that can be allocated. Geographical representation is used in the software because it helps in representing the information realistically. This presents the online client with the exact locations of the future and current occupancy of the beds and rooms. The system is dynamic to allow for addition, subtraction or alteration of other administrative information. The software provides a solution that is characterized by an automated system of workflow that addresses certain patient elements. The elements include tracking and showing the bed status across the wards as well as visually showing the views of beds in the wards. The software could also be helpful in generating reports about the status of beds and their use and perhaps even generating a trend analysis that may be invisible to the naked eye. The software proposed is meant to act as bed management (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). This implies that the software is meant to ease the processes involved in the management of the procedures that are necessary in the placement of a patient to an appropriate and vacant bed. The status of the bed should also be specified in that the location, type, and whether it is permanent or temporary, is specified for the client and the staff. It should be considered that hospitals are sometimes extremely resistant to any change that is either cultural or structural. Healthcare institutions take a long time to design and build meaning, that by the time they are fully functional and operational, some of the processes that they use have been outdated by current trends. Consequently, the contemporary configuration that hospitals have is reflective of the patterns and populations of eras that may be outdated. Hospitals in Europe today are facing certain challenges including the adapting of shifting situations (Glasby & Beresford 2006, pp. 268-284). For instance, the coalescing factors like changing patterns of disease, ageing populations, the introduction of some newer technologies and medications, a mobile and volatile healthcare workforce, new financing mechanisms, and increasing political and public expectations. It is somewhat relatively simpler to predict the trends that may catch up in diseases and population. However, it is difficult to predict the technological trends that are bound to catch up with healthcare institutions. For this reason, the GIS software would be appropriate as it is dynamic and can be altered according to the situation that is trending in the institution and the environment around the organization (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). This is a useful characteristic because hospitals are facing a great challenge in the incorporation of dynamic and flexible practices and procedures in the changing needs of the society. In addition, the technology needs to be specified according to the expectations that the society has put on the healthcare institution. Flexible GIS software will have the capacity to alter itself according to the expected roles and processes that the society has on the healthcare institutions (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). It is the role of the leader is to ensure that the context of the change is given a specification. The development of eBeds was originally visualized to provide flexible and practical tools that will help the medical and the administrative staff in planning how they will manage the allocation of the beds. The theoretical perspectives of a connective and transformational leader are both crucial in the implementation of an innovation. In the era when the nurse managers are responsible for the retention of the workers as well as their performance, the leadership style used is the most critical aspect of the positive outcomes of the innovation. As a result, it is the role of transformational leaders to go beyond the management of the management of the different processes in the organization and motivate the workers to influence their attitudes (Glasby & Beresford 2006, pp. 268-284). Technological innovations have certain advantages and disadvantages in that, they are relatively simpler to implement in this era. However, they are also complex sometimes and their implementation may be opposed. Other than the challenges that may be met in the implementation include financial investment in the network of the hospital and the power so that the system never fails (Porter O’Grady & Malloch 2009, p. 10). In case of any glitches, the system will be able to recover successfully thus the operational processes will not be disrupted for any reason. Technological systems need to be backed up fully to ensure that they always work smoothly so that there are no problems with the allocation. In addition, the system needs to be protected from hackers and other people who may have malicious intent. This will help since the system needs to be protected from intruders who may falsely acquire rooms and those who may also give other clients the illusion that the rooms are all occupied. Thus, one other challenge of implementing the innovation is developing a system that is protected from viruses and other malicious programs and actions. According to the transformational leadership theory, the main role of the leader is to motivate his followers to transform their behaviors (Porter O’Grady & Malloch 2009, p. 10). This may present a challenge in the motivation of the staff because people are different and they have different characteristics. Therefore, they will not all be motivated in the same way and by the same thing. The leader has a challenge of coming up with the different ways of motivating each of his followers. Conclusion This proposal highlights the issues that are involved in the implementation of an innovation that will help in solving bed and room allocation problems. The most critical part of the implementation is the leadership, which could adopt transformational or connective leadership or both so that innovation is successful. The GIS will integrate the information that is available on the hospital’s computer system with reality and make this information available to the public to make use of in whatever way they may see fit (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). Efficiencies that are attained in bed and room allocation, provides the health institution with increased appropriate, beneficial and economical patient care. In addition, the emergency service will also benefit greatly because the beds will be ready before they arrive at the hospital. The chances of wasting time and money in sorting out allocation confusion will be reduced because the hospital will be able to accurately and efficiently allocate rooms to patients who come to the hospital. It should be noted that most technological changes that are brought to an organization might not be readily accepted because the workers may feel like they are being replaced (Nicholls & Young 2007, pp. 26-30). However, a transactional leader will help in implementing the innovation because they will be instrumental in making their followers feel valued. In addition, they enhance a shared vision, are mentors and increase the feelings of self worth. These feelings are crucial in implementing a change. List of References Bishop, V 2009, Leadership for nursing and allied health care professionals, Open University Press, Maidenhead. Boyer, ER n.d. 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