Free Essay on Applied Health Administration of Barclay Memorial Hospital

Lack of proper strategic planning and poor management/leadership are compromising the potential and organizational achievement of Barclay Memorial Hospital (BMH). These are manifested in a number of ways. First, only 275 out of the 400 licensed beds at the institution are in operations daily, which imply that about 125 beds lay idle daily. Second, financial projections indicate a whole $24 million deficit in the following year. This dismal performance is compounded by low patient volumes served at BMH and lack of strategic plan. Particularly, lack of a strategic plan is a big blow to BMH because this denies overall strategic direction to BMH management and other critical aspects of the organization, such as financial strategy, strategic management and human resource strategy (Bryson, 2011).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Besides that poor management is manifested in low staff morale, conflict within executives, and the call for non-nursing union. In many organizations, there exist some staff members that are more motivated and committed to their respective tasks and responsibilities compared to others at a higher level or productivity. In this case, there are several factors that can be attributed to poor morale among BMH staff. For instance, the current leadership style if perceived to be patriarchal and patternistic, the current COO is described a poor listener and is not respected by the team, while the orthopedic surgeon at the institution, Dr. Ray Brandon, is reported to have animosity towards VPG physicians in the PHO.

Each of these problems and issues facing BMH calls for specific solutions. For example, creating a smaller budget can help address the financial deficit; customer training can help increase patient volumes due to improved care; hiring more staff like surgeons will assist not only increase its market share, but also meet the increasing market demands. Creating a motivated team not only in the PHO, but also at BMH as a whole is critical to the institutions success and improved performance (Hunter et al., 2013). This is because when the management creates a motivating and enabling workplace, all the physicians and medical specialties and subspecialties will be motivated to perform their tasks at higher levels of productivity, which will definitely see BMH operate more efficiently and realize its strategic goals effectively. Failure of addressing this issue might result into a team with more distractive members who will distract their colleagues from their tasks as well adversely affect the overall hospital performance (Hunter et al., 2013).

Nonetheless, developing an effective strategic plan would be the most effective solution to the issues and challenges in the case. Implementation of an effective strategic plan will help the management team pay closer attention on creating a smaller budget, increase BMHs financial position and patient volumes, create trust and unity among internal publics, implement fair labor practices to improve staff morale, and improve effectiveness in leadership and individual employee job performance through training (Swayne, Duncan & Ginter, 2012).

A new effective strategic plan is critical to the success and improved performance of is health institution because it will provide an overall strategic direction to the institutions divisive management as well as provide specific direction to other imperative areas of the hospital, such as financial management (budgeting) strategy, customer service strategy, institutional development strategy, as well as human resource management and development strategy (Bryson, 2011). For instance, it can evoke strategic management of BMH where by the executive staff and the district board to pursue unified planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of important factors that are crucial to achieving the institution or managements desired goals and targets.

References

Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons.

Hunter, E. M., Neubert, M. J., Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penney, L. M., & Weinberger, E. (2013). Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), 316-331.

Swayne, L., E., Duncan, W., J. & Ginter, P., M. (2012). Strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.