Strategic Plans for Achieving the Goals of the Hospital - Essay Example

Health Management Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Health Management 2 Question 1 2 Introduction 2 SWOT analysis of Rashid hospital. 3 Strengths of Rashid hospital 3 Weaknesses 4 Opportunities 4 Threats 5 Strategic plans for achieving the goals of the hospital 5 Staffing Problems 7 Question 2 9 Leadership styles 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Health Management Question 1 Introduction Handling a managerial position in a healthcare organization can be quite challenging. As the newly appointed director of medical services at Rashid hospital, my responsibility is to ensure that the patients receive the best quality healthcare services at all times. The needs of the employees also play a very big role in achieving the goals and objectives of the hospital. It will therefore be my duty to ensure all the employee issues are addressed so as to ensure that they deliver their mandate. The management of the resources at the hospital will also be my duty. The management of resources will mainly be for the purpose of ensuring that the hospital is able to sustain itself and the day to day operations enhanced. As a new director, I will prepare a report concerning the employee issues, strategic management and SWOT analysis. This is mainly for the purpose of getting the overview function of the management. Leadership styles will also be addressed in the report. SWOT analysis of Rashid hospital. Strengths of Rashid hospital Rashid hospital is a very large hospital in the UAE with a well developed infrastructure. The hospital well equipped and it has adopted the use of modern technology in the treatment of patients. This reduces the time required to attend to patients to a great extent. The hospital is able to treat more than 140,000 patients annually. The hospital also has the highest number of specialists in the Radiology department. This has played a key role in the saving of lives of many people and thus fulfilling its goals and objectives. The employees of the hospital are also very dedicated to their duties and to saving the lives of the patients. Some have displayed exceptional performance by working round the clock to ensure that the patients receive the right treatment and medication. These are thus the main strengths of the hospital since its establishment. The strength has increased the popularity of the hospital. Weaknesses Despite the good results the hospital has been able to achieve, there are still some weaknesses. Most of the specialists in the hospital are expatriates. They are highly qualified and the hospital has to pay them a lot of money for the purpose of retaining them. The medical training facility at the hospital does not have enough capacity to train specialists which has greatly contributed to the problem. The hospital thus faces a lot of strain in its budget due to the high salaries of specialists. The hospital also finds it challenging to deal with patients who cannot settle their huge medical bills. Since the hospital is known for treating extreme cases, most of the patients are referred to the hospital despite their financial background. The hospital on the other hand has to save lives and cannot turn away patients due to lack of finances. This has thus led to increase in unsettled medical bills. Opportunities Since the hospital is run by the Dubai Health Authority which is a government agency, the hospital is entitled to funds from the government. The funds can be used to expand the hospital infrastructure and thus treat more patients. This opportunity will enable the hospital to grow and expand and thus achieve its mandate. The hospital can also expand its medical training school so as to enable it train specialists. The hospital can also take advantage of the new government policies on healthcare provision and insurance to expand its facilities and recruit more medical personnel. The government policies are also aimed at ensuring that the financially unstable are able to access quality medical services. This will be an opportunity for settling the issues of unpaid medical bills in the hospital. The hospital can also benefit from government a policy tat allows public health facilities to charge a certain amount for some specified medical; services. Threats Due to the global crisis, the hospital has experienced some financial constrains. This has emerged from the high costs of importing medical equipments and drugs. The hospital has thus been forced to increase charges on the patients. This is becoming a threat to the hospital as patients with simple ailments have started leaving the hospital to other alternatives. The global economic crisis is therefore a threat to the hospital. Other specialists are leaving the hospital to seek greener pastures in the west. The western countries are increasing its packages on the specialist and thus luring them. This is considering that the number of specialists in the world is decreasing. The hospital is also loosing some of its specialist and staff to the emerging private hospitals which are increasingly becoming popular. This is a real threat to there hospital since it requires the services of the specialist so as to achieve its goals and objectives. The government policy on healthcare has also changed and most medical personnel may opt to private practice which is also a threat to the hospital (Menon, 1999). Strategic plans for achieving the goals of the hospital According to the SWOT analysis the hospital has both strengths and weaknesses. The opportunities and threats also exist. These parameter will thus be used for the purpose of coming up with strategies that will enable the hospital to grow. The planning process will involve the development of overall strategies and operational plans (Hill, 1997). The strategic plans will mainly focus on achieving the aims and objectives of the hospital which is to deliver quality medical care to al patients. The strengths of the organization will be enhanced so as to achieve better results. The modern equipment will be increased so as to ensure the rate of treatment is improved. The members of staff will also be motivated so as to enable them become more dedicated and develop a feeling of appreciation. This will increase loyalty to the hospital and thus achievement of better results. This will go a long way in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. The SWOT analysis identified the area of weakness in the retention of the specialists and the low capacity of the training college at the hospital. The hospital will try as much as possible to stop the weaknesses. This will be done mainly through improving the packages of the specialists and also sign contracts with them. The contracts will be for the purpose of binding them to their duties for a several years (Armstrong, 2006). After the expiry of the contracts, they will be free to leave or renew the contracts. The hospital will also lease with the Health authority to deal with the problems of unpaid medical bills. The hospital will also develop its opportunities so as to meet its goals and objectives. The hospital will develop a program to train specialists and thus produce its own specialists. This will solve the problem of hiring expatriates as well as the high costs of salaries to the specialists. The government will also closely work with the government to address the issue of equal access to healthcare and thus eliminate the chances of unpaid bills. The threats to the hospital will also be defended. This will be done by partnering with the private hospitals and specialists so that the hospital does not loose clients completely. The hospital infrastructure and hiring of more staff will also be used as a defense against the treats. Staffing Problems Staff issues Challenges and problems Solutions. Recruitment. The officers at the human resources department in charge of recruitment lack motivation. Some of them describe their job as a thankless one despite bringing on board the right candidates. The process takes a lot of time to fin d the right candidate considering the nature of the jobs in the medical field. A wrong candidate may end up causing more harm to the patient. The cost of recruitment has also increased drastically. An independent recruitment agency will be hired to carry out the process. This will save time and cost. Selection. The process has been responsible for locking out new talents at the facility. This is mainly because experience has been the main consideration during recruitment. This has created a gap on the age group of the employees. The process keeps on changing each time while the selection panel remains the same. This has led to selection of wrong candidates in some instances. The members of the selection panel will have to undergo mandatory training from time to time. Skill mix Shortage of specialized personnel in some areas leading to the new staff members being stranded. This is considering that some of the personnel are too busy to be involved in the process. New employees will have to undergo mandatory one month training before being allowed to carry out their duties. This will solve the problem of lack of time and shortage of personnel. Compensation and benefits. It takes quite a long time for the compensation and benefits to be processed and hence inconveniencing those who require it. The hospital will seek the services of a consultancy firm to handle the issue and thus reducing the time. Retention. The hospital is loosing many specialists to the western word due to the high packages they offer. Other specialists also decide to go into private practice after sometimes. It has increasingly become difficult to retain most specialists and other employees. The specialists will have to sign a contract that will bib them to the hospital for several years after which they will be free to move and renew their contracts. The packages will also be reviewed for it to become more attractive. Development and performance appraisal. Most of the medical specialists and doctors work as a team and it is thus quite difficult to measure individual performance as most operations are successful. Every staff member will be required to write an individual report on a daily basis explaining what the individual has done or achieved. Question 2 Leadership styles Good leadership skills are essential for any organization including hospitals. A leader may lead to the collapse of an institution or its success depending on the leadership skills applied (Bono, 2002). As a new director taking up a hospital with a lot of challenges, it will be important to apply some leadership style so as to rescue the institution from its collapse. The patients are not satisfied while the senior management is not transparent and not free with me. To deal with this issue, I will have to apply some authoritative style of leadership so as to deal firmly with the employees. This will ensure that every one performs his or her duties without delay and the senior managers will also have to play their roles. There will be no room for reluctance and all the employees should focus their energy towards customer satisfaction. However, despite being firm during the implementation of issues I will also be democratic during the formulation of policies. This will ensure that the employees are free to make suggestions before changes are made. This will be important in steering the hospital to the right path. Once every employee is focused in performing their duties, then the issues of high turn over will be dealt with (Tittemore, 2003). Being democratic will also built trust with senior management team and thus free flow of information. The issue of documentation will also be solved using these two leadership styles. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important for a leader to be flexible enough so as to steer a hospital to the right path. For this to be possible, a leader should have full knowledge of the operations of the hospital. No issues should be ignored and a complete assessment be made. This will be important in giving the leader an overview of the operations of the hospital. The information will be useful in developing strategies for development. It is also evident that leadership style can turn around d an organization and steer it to success. Poor leadership styles may worsen the situation of a hospital leading to mistrust and conflicts with the employees and senior management. The patient will also suffer as a result of poor leadership skills. References Babu, J. et al (2008). Object oriented and multi-scale image analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats- A review. Journal of Computer Science, 4(9), 706-712. Hill, T. et al (1997). "SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall". Long Range Planning Journal 30 (1): 46–52 Armstrong. M. (2006), A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. (10th edition) Kogan Page, London Menon, A. et al. (1999). "Antecedents and Consequences of Marketing Strategy Making". Journal of Marketing (American Marketing Association) 63 (2): 18–40. Bono, J. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 765-780. Tittemore, J. (2003). Leadership at all Levels. Canada: Boskwa Publishing. Read More