Clinical Leadership - Free Paper Sample

Introduction

Effective communication plays an integral role in healthcare institutions today. Additionally, that is in promoting the attainment of positive healthcare outcomes among patients receiving treatment for various medical issues. Moreover, effective communication in the clinical environment aids in protecting the patients' lives due to medical errors, save time on retrieving patients' data, and elevates the operational efficiency of medical staff in providing essential services. As such, a good communication strategy is an integral quality that should be adopted in all medical facilities. An Electronic Medical Record (EHR) system is an essential tool that should be adopted in a healthcare organization to promote the attainment of effective communication between healthcare providers and to promote positive healthcare outcomes among clients receiving treatment.

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Reasons to Adopt the Fully Electronic Medical Record System

The greatest benefit of adopting the EHR system is the ability to enhance communication between medical practitioners and their patients. In this case, lengthy periods in a waiting room, volumes of paperwork as well as the limited time recorded in-office visits can all negatively impact the patient-care provider relationship (Inokuchi et al., 2014). Nevertheless, by using an EHR system, medical practitioners can reduce the time taken on paperwork in a healthcare environment and instead focus on medicating clients and strengthening their communication with the patients and other medical care providers. Subsequently, this negatively impacts the attainment of positive healthcare outcomes among patients in clinical facilities.

The EHR system provides an instant flow of information between medical practitioners and their patients by creating instant access to the clients' medical histories. In this case, EHRs enable medical providers to avoid the hustle of perusing or searching for medical paper records by having instant digital access to such information (Evans, 2016). Subsequently, this promotes the treatment process and enhances the attainment of positive patients' healthcare outcomes. Moreover, EHR features such as the patient portal can enable physicians to have a live interaction with their patients via the internet.

In such patient portals, clients can set up medical appointments with their physicians, view their laboratory results, or key in crucial patient information in the computer systems through simple electronic commands. Furthermore, through EHR systems, physicians can easily communicate with their counterparts in various healthcare departments regarding essential patients' information like drug interactions, allergies, and other healthcare information that may be significant to a patients' treatment (Entzeridou & Markopulou & Mollaki, 2018). Subsequently, this decreases physicians' liability to medical errors and increases the level of patients' positive healthcare outcomes recorded in medical organizations. Collectively, the stated functions illustrate the importance of adopting an effective EHR system in promoting effective communication in medical organizations.

Lewin’s Model of Change Including Milestones and Time Frames

Change management is an integral process that should be executed in a healthcare organization, particularly when implementing new policies and treatment procedures. Today, there are numerous change management frameworks that can be adopted with the aim of transitioning an organization's personnel into the desired change. Kurt Lewin's Change model is among such frameworks that have been certified by past scientific research to be an effective tool for managing change in an organization (Mehrolhassani & Emami, 2013). Additionally, the stated model encompasses three distinct processes, which include the unfreezing, changing as well as the refreezing stage. In this context, the effective adoption of the stated model can facilitate the attainment of a new communication strategy in the healthcare sector, which can consequently improve the rates of positive healthcare outcomes recorded in such an organization.

Unfreezing

It is the first stage in Kurt Lewin's model. In this stage, the implementers of change should be focused on enlightening the personnel in the focused medical institution on the importance of adopting the EHR. Additionally, that is in order to facilitate the attainment of improved communication between medical practitioners and patients in the medical facility. Also, in this stage, the implementer of the change should enlighten the medical organization's employees on the advantages of adopting an EHR in enhancing communication infrastructure in the medical facility. Additionally, this can be achieved by inviting the personnel that will be affected by the change to weekly meetings where they can be taught on the benefit of adopting the EHR in improving communication.

Changing

It the second stage in Kurt Lewin's model. In this stage, the implementers of the change perform the actual implementation of the desired change in the organization setting. In this context, the change implementers in the healthcare institution will implement the EHR and train the personnel in the organization on how to embrace the change in executing their organization functions. Under this stage, the employees who will be impacted by the change will strive to modify their behavior in embracing the new technological setup that will require them to use EHR in executing their organization functions. Also, the Changing phase might be characterized by much resistance to change, as some of the personnel at the healthcare setting might still prefer using the traditional methods of communication and data storage, which they have been previously using.

Refreezing

It is the last stage in Kurt Lewin's change management process. Additionally, the stage entails reinforcing, stabilizing as well as solidifying the new change after it has been implemented in the organization. In this case, the targeted healthcare organization's workers will develop compliance in the implemented EHR system and use it to execute the company's processes or activities. Moreover, in this stage, the organization's workforce will adopt and accept the EHR system as the new status quo and portray no resistance to its implementation in the organization. Among the three stages in the Lewin's Change Model, the refreezing stage is measured to be the most important in ensuring that people do not go back to their initial ways of executing functions before the implementation of the change.

Identification of Effective Leadership Style to Implement the Change

The appropriate leadership style that could be employed when implemented the change in focus in the organization is the democratic leadership style. In the stated type of leadership, the management or change implementers involve their workers in the decision-making process in reference to the desired change (Al-Sawai, 2013). In the featured case, the healthcare officials who will be facilitating the adoption of the EHR system in the medical facility will involve the employees in the change process. Additionally, this will be executed by ensuring that all employees are invited in weekly meetings when communication regarding the adoption of the EHR system will be made.

In the stated weekly meetings, the change officials will encourage a discussion between the management and workers, regarding the introduction of the EHR systems in the focused healthcare organization. Subsequently, this will offer the organization's workers a chance to offer their views regarding the change by citing their own views on the pros and cons of EHR systems in a healthcare environment. Moreover, the management in charge of implementing the change will offer their views on why it would be ideal to adopt change in an organization. Ultimately, a consensus will be arrived by comparing the views of both the management and workers on why an EHR method would be ideal in enhancing communication in the workplace setting.

Comparison With a Different Leadership Style

The authoritarian leadership style can also be employed in advocating for the adoption of the EHR system in the focused medical facility. The stated leadership style takes place when the leaders or managers are the sole makers of decisions in an organization. During the focused change implementation, under an authoritarian leadership style, the employees in the healthcare will not have a vote on whether or not to adopt the change implementation process (Al-Sawai, 2013). Additionally, this is different from the democratic leadership style where both the workers and management will be involved in the decision-making process on whether or not to implement the desired change.

Resistance to Change

Two Aspects of Resistance Among the Impacted Workers

Resistance to change is a common phenomenon in most organizations and it is considered to be a key factor that facilitates the growth and development of an institution. Resistance in an organization can take place in different forms. Additionally, that is depending on the type or context of the chance being implemented. In this context, there two primary aspects of change that can be observed among workers in the face of EHR systems’ adoption. First, the impacted workers may develop mistrust in the initiators of the desired change in the organization. Second, the targeted healthcare organization’s workers may develop a challenge in understanding how to execute their routine functions and operations using the introduced change.

Explanation of How Resistance Can Be Addressed

Different organizational leaders may use different strategies in managing resistance to change. In this context, among the effective ways that the change implementers can employ to manage the change is the use of effective communication. Particularly, the management in charge of the change should ensure that their subordinates or workers in the organization are aware of the impeding change as well as the reasons for implementing such change. The second strategy that can be utilized to manage the desired change would be to involve the employees likely to be impacted by the change in the change decision-making process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, EHR systems are essential tools that should be adopted in a healthcare organization. Additionally, that is so as to promote the attainment of effective communication between healthcare providers, and so as to secure the attainment of positive healthcare outcomes among clients receiving treatment in an organization. Additionally, Lewin's Change Model can be utilized in implementing a new change in an organization and it features three stages, which include Unfreezing, Changing as well as Refreezing. Also, different leadership styles can be employed during the change implementation process. The democratic leadership style would entail involving personnel in change, decision-making process. The contrary, authoritative style would entail making the management personnel making all decisions about the desired change by themselves.

References

Al-Sawai A. (2013). Leadership of healthcare professionals: where do we stand?. Oman medical journal, 28(4), 285–287.