Change in Managerial Strategy in Monash Health - Case Study Example

Change in Managerial Strategy in Monash Health Name Course Institutional Affiliation Date Introduction Monash Health Monash Health, formerly southern health, has its headquarters in Victoria Australia. The centre has over forty branches across South Eastern Victoria in Australia. Monash Health services are spread across the human life span ranging from pre-birth health services, babies and children health services to aged care centres. Monash Health hospitals include Monash Medical Centre Clayton, Moorabbin Hospital, Dandenong Hospital, Casey Hospital, the Kingston Centre and Cranbourne Integrated Community Care Centre. In addition, Monash Health has several community health facilities such as; Berwick, Cockatoo, Springvale and Dandenong. The specialised health services provided by Monash Health Includes; cardiology, paediatrics, women's health and neonatal intensive care. Monash health aims at providing better and improved health care to the community. This objective is achieved by working to effectively meet the needs of the Australian community which is mainly diverse in nature. The health facility is driven by integrity, compassion, accountability, respect and excellence in the quest to achieve the objectives of the organization. Managerial Change Management of change is one of the major concerns in Health care management currently. Most health care providers in Australia face management issues as a result of the fear to change the managerial roles and responsibilities in the facility. Management is the highest level of running an organisation; however, management in health organisation varies with the services offered at the organisation. As much as people and workers in the health sector despise change, it occurs in different aspects in various health organisations across the country. Managerial change involves evaluation of the effectiveness of various managerial divisions within the organisation and implementing the necessary changes. Managerial changes do not involve termination of the managers’ employment but rather involves implementing changes that enhance management within a health organisation. The managers are provided with new rules and regulations with respects to the needs of the organisation. The roles of the managers are clearly indicated to ensure effectiveness in the provision of quality health services. Managerial changes also involve an evaluation of the various flaws in the organisation’s management that hinders effective service provision. Monash Health is one of the largest general health providers in Victoria Australia. The facility boasts of forty branches located across the region and quite a wide range of health services ranging from unborn to aging health services. Managing such a large organisation is tasking and hence requires effective management strategies geared towards enhancing the quality and effectiveness of service provision in the organisation. Effective change in Monash health can be defined as unfreezing old habits and introducing new regulations in the management of the organisation. Managerial change at Monash Health may be continuous, rare, instantaneous, or regular. Predictable managerial change in a health organisation provides time for preparation while unpredictable managerial change is not easily executed since it is difficult to respond to unexpected changes. Changes in health care are sporadic and unpredictable in nature given the dynamics of the health sector. The ability by the organisation to change, evolve and adapt to the new changes ensures effective completion in the health sector. The objective of Monash Health is to provide effective and quality health services to the community. This objective can be achieved through effective managerial, strategic changes. The organisation constitutes many branches across the region that needs effective coordination and hence change is necessary. Current Management System Monash health is one of the largest health providers in Victoria Australia. The organisation constitutes various hospitals, health centres and care units. The hospitals mainly specialise in the treatment of advanced infections and surgeries while the medical centres provide solutions to outpatients. Moreover, the care centres are facilities that specialise in taking care of the elderly in the society by providing them with the necessary health services that suit their age. Monash health constitutes of pre-natal care units in the various centres across Victoria that specialise in taking care of unborn babies. The children units found in their various Hospitals and Health centres enhance health services to children and babies. The current management system in the organisation is mainly composed of senior managers who are entirely trained medical doctors. The doctors are in charge of various facilities according to their area of specialisation. The doctors in charge of various branches reports directly to the general manager who is the overall manger (medical doctor by profession). The managing director reports to the hospital’s board of directors which are mainly composed of the investors and a few managers (Coran, 2001). Each of the branches comprises of various departments that are headed by departmental managers (trained doctors and Nurses). The medical departments are headed by the trained medical doctors while the care units are headed by trained nurses commonly referred to us senior nurses. This managerial structure is spread across all the branches of Monash Health organisation. The current management system at Monash Health facility is quite effective but faces various challenges especially in the management hence the need for an effective change. Purpose for managerial Change Unspecified roles which leads to role confusion High running Costs Duplication of roles Inadequate management Training Need for expansion Provision of effective quality health services The reasons for strategic, managerial changes are geared towards achieving the objective of the organisation that has not been achieved currently. Effectiveness in management translates to effectiveness in service provision at Monash health organisation hence the objectives of the organisation are achieved. The roles of the various management positions at Monash Health are not clearly specified which results to confusion of the roles among various mangers in the organisation. The roles are also duplicated, the case of a general manger in the headquarters and other mangers in the specific branches. Duplication of the managerial roles results in high running costs to the organisation. The need to provide effective and quality services results to the managerial change at Monash health organisation. This implies that, a clear indication of the roles of various managerial positions promotes effective service provision in the organisation. In order for Monash health to meet its objective of providing quality health services to the community, there is a need by the organisation to specify the roles of various managerial levels. This ensures that each manger is responsible for a failure in their department or facility. The roles of the general manger should be specified to avoid their interference with the activities of departmental and branch managers. The responsibilities of the senior nurses should also be specified to avoid confusion especially in Monash hospitals that offer a wide variety of services. For example, specification of the roles of a senor nurse in an operation room translates to effectiveness in the operation room. The patients are taken care of effectively before and after the operations since the nurses clearly understand their responsibilities. Another scenario is where the doctor in charge of the department or branch is expected to carry out medical test and operations to the individuals. The roles of departmental mangers should be clarified to avoid confusion at the instances when the patients require medical attention (Ash, 2000). The managers in charge of various branches and departments within Monash Health organisation should be trained on management skills in addition to the medical skills. This serves in ensuring effective management that translates to quality service provision to the community in accordance with the goal of Monash health. Management Strategies used to implement the Change Successful implementation of managerial change within a health organisation is crucial intheprovision of quality, safe and effective health services to the community. The management strategies utilised by Monash Health in implementing managerial change takes careful consideration of the employees reaction to such changes as well as the effectiveness of the changes to provision of quality health services. Utilisation of tools for quality improvement plays a great role in enhancing managerial change at Monash Health. There are several steps and strategies utilised when effecting managerial change at Monash health (Visionary Publications, 2010). Evaluation A critical evaluation of the current managerial system is done in order to develop an effective managerial system based on the setbacks or limitations of the previous methods. Evaluation involvesacquiring a clear understanding of the roles of various mangers with the organisation and their effectiveness in achieving the objectives of the organisation. The roles of the departmental mangers are critically evaluated as well as their respective qualifications and previous successes. Evaluation involves scanning through the responsibilities of the various managers at Monash Health. Critical evaluation of the reaction of the employees as well as the community on the managerial changes implemented by the organisation is done to ensure effectiveness intheprovision of quality services. Most of the employees are not prepared for the sporadic changes in the organisation hence there is need to evaluate the response of the employees before implementing the changes (Wallace, 2007). Competition This is the best strategy used by the organisation to implement managerial changes in the organisation. The process of scrutinising the effectiveness of the change in the edging out competition is crucial in implementing managerial changes in Monash Health. Utilisation of effective managerial system at Monash health would translate to enhanced service provision which is highly preferred in the medical industry. The organisation strategically analysed the managerial systems used by the competition that helped in developing the current managerial system. Competition serves as one of the major barriers to effective and quality service provision in the medical industry. This implies that, the use of such strategy ensures effective provision of services making Monash the hospital of choice for the community (Warrilow, 2010). Quality measures Quality measures are an important approach in implementing managerial changes at Monash health organisation. This is because; achievement of the objective of Monash health highly depends on the quality of the services offered by the organisation. Use of quality measure strategies ensures that, the developed managerial system enhances the quality in the services offered at Monash health. The Agency for Health Research and quality (AHRQ) and other health organisations in the country insist on the use of valid and reliable quality measures. This translates to quality services in the organisations that enable the company to achieve its goals and objectives. The system developed by Monash Health ensures provision of quality health services to the customers as stated in the objectives of the organisation (Barry, 2003). The management strategies utilised by the organisation in implementing managerial changes were geared towards the provision of quality services, reduction in the running cost and enhancing effectives in health services offered by the organisation. Barriers and Facilitators The managerial change implemented at the Monash Health encountered various setbacks in terms of employees’ lack of understanding of the newly developed managerial system. The employees form parts of the greatest barrier to effective managerial changes at the Monash Health. The employees are reluctant in adjusting to the new changes in managerial roles in the organisation as a result of the poor understanding of the newly implemented system. The other setback in implementing managerial changes in the organisation was mainly the reluctant by the departmental and organisational mangers to accept their new roles. The new system involves changes in the roles of various managerial positions in the organisation which is met by great resistance from the managers (Reinhardt, 2003). The facilitators of the managerial changes strategy are mainly the general leadership of Monash health organisation. The leadership composing of mainly the board of directors were for the view of implementation of a managerial, strategic change geared at reducing the organisations running cost and enhancing the effectiveness in service provision (Marshall, 2000). The leadership interventions Leadership intervention experienced during the implementation of the managerial changes in the organization came from the board of directors. Monash Health board of directors was confident that the changes would enable the organisation to strategise its operations in the health sector in Australia. It is however, recommended for leadership interventions from junior and departmental mangers that serve in enhancing the transition process. Intervention of the human resource managers would serve in reducing the setbacks resulting from the employees’ lack of understanding of the new managerial changes (Bullman A, 2000). Conclusion Monash Health is a private health organisation which specialises in the provision of a wide variety of services to the community around Victoria in Australia. The organisation’s previous managerial system resulted to increased running cost, ineffectiveness in service provision and duplication of roles. The management strategic change in managerial roles in the organisation enhances service's provision that fulfils the objective of the organisation. References Marshall M, Shekelle PG, Leatherman S, et al., (2000). The public release of performance data: what do we expect to gain, a review of the evidence. JAMA. 283: 1866–74. Reinhardt AC, Ray LN, (2003). Differentiating quality improvement from research. Appl Nurs Res. 16(1):2–8. Barry R, Murcko AC, Brubaker CE, (2003). The Six Sigma book for healthcare: improving outcomes by reducing errors. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press. Visionary Publications,(2010). 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