Carlos Albizu University Risk Management in Healthcare Responses

Week 1

Reply

Risk Management in Healthcare APA Style Reply

As a healthcare leader, it is important to know and understand the many obstacles that any healthcare facility may face. Consider a walk-in clinic and a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). How are the following obstacles similar and different in each setting? Reply to each Peer about their post

As a healthcare leader, it is important to know and understand the many obstacles that any healthcare facility may face. Consider a walk-in clinic and a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). How are the following obstacles similar and different in each setting? Reply to Paolo:

For this week’s discussion, we examine the challenges that healthcare leaders face and address as they execute their responsibilities and duties. Leadership challenges in healthcare are unique compared to other businesses. According to Dye (2017), organization complexity, diminishing employee morale, weakening physician-organization relationship, shifting reimbursement processes, patient satisfaction, and lack of organizational succession are the most significant obstacles that healthcare leaders need to address in today’s environment.

Let’s discuss these obstacles further by considering two different organizations: a walk-in clinic and an acute hospital ICU. How are they similar in terms of employee engagement and loyalty, dissatisfied patients, and succession planning? How are they different?

The significance of employee engagement is exemplified in the transformational leadership theory. The premise of this theory suggests that organizational success is contingent on employee buy in and participation, and it is the responsibility of the leaders to achieve this (Dye, 2017). For the walk-in clinic and hospital ICU, both facilities similarly require that leaders elicit staff engagement for the vision and mission of the organization to be achieved. The difference may arise from the amount of effort that may be required as the functions of a hospital ICU staff may be more challenging, and complex compared to the responsibilities of a walk-in clinic staff.

For a walk-in clinic, patient satisfaction can be higher up the priority list of obstacles compared to a hospital ICU. The hospital ICU, as a part of the hospital system, can be afforded with more resources to ensure patient satisfaction versus a walk-in clinic, which is theoretically commonly a stand-alone organization. Moreover, patient satisfaction can be a driving force of a walk-in clinic’s reimbursement versus a hospital ICU. Due to non-emergent, low acuity status of walk-in clinic patients, they can delay the care and find other facilities that have a higher patient satisfaction data. This, therefore, differentiates the walk-in clinic from the hospital ICU. Leaders must ensure that patient satisfaction is prioritized and guaranteed.

Lastly, succession planning is both important for the walk-in clinic and a hospital ICU. However, as mentioned previously this step can be more significant for a walk-in clinic. Compared to a hospital ICU which is under a governing board leadership type of system where directors are voted or appointed, walk-in clinics are commonly sole practitioner providers which increases the necessity to ensure proper leadership transition to safeguard facility interests and processes.

The similarities and differences of leadership obstacles between a walk-in clinic and a hospital ICU are evident. The most significant difference, however, can be attributed to the organizational structure and patient acuity of a hospital ICU. As discussed, some challenges can be more influential to a walk-in clinic which requires a more targeted attention from its leaders.

References:

Dye, C. F. (2017). Leadership in healthcare: Essential values and skills (3rd ed.). Health Administration Press.

As a healthcare leader, it is important to know and understand the many obstacles that any healthcare facility may face. Consider a walk-in clinic and a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). How are the following obstacles similar and different in each setting? Reply Martina:

For this week’s discussion, we evaluate the topic and impact of leadership in healthcare. Leadership matters in healthcare, and is one of the most important aspects to consider. Leadership focuses on making organizational changes. Leaders in healthcare are trusted to make good decisions, while also working to bettering an organization and its future. Although leadership is a broad topic and can have a lot of benefits to it, there are also a lot of challenges. Some of these challenges include: complex organizations, employee engagement/loyalty, disengaged physicians, pay for value/clinical integration, dissatisfaction, and succession planning (Dye, 2017). Therefore, the right leadership shapes the healthcare environment. To compare the two different healthcare settings – walk in clinic vs. a hospital intensive care unit (ICU), they are different in their own way yet the same.

Employee engagement and loyalty is an ongoing issue that both these settings have in common. As Dye said based on a recent study, “According to Gallup (2016), “A staggering 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. The world has a crisis of engagement—one with serious and potentially long-lasting repercussions for the global economy” (2017). Employee engagement in the settings are similar as the job security is never stable. What makes them different is the overall work environment. Employees are more likely to be more disengaged in a walk-in clinic in contrast to a hospital environment in the ICU, just because of how different the atmosphere is. Therefore, leaders can respond to this by strengthening job security in organizations and keeping employees engaged by strengthening the trust between them and management.

Patient dissatisfaction is a big challenge and is the most common. Healthcare organizations face patient dissatisfaction everyday. Some of the most common dissatisfaction complaints include “Staggering healthcare costs, high insurance premiums or narrow-network insurance plans, poor quality of care, limited access to care, and lack of attention or information from providers…” (Dye, 2017). For a walk-in clinic and hospital ICU, the patient dissatisfaction complaints are similar. Patients can complain about different things related to their care, but what makes them different is the type of treatment given. For example, a trigger for patient dissatisfaction in a walk-in clinic might be high-insurance premiums in contrast to a ICU with lack of attention due to not enough staff available or too many patients to be seen. So leaders can respond to this by responding to complaints right away and addressing it as goes.

As healthcare continues to grow, increasing and innovating care to meet patient demands for quality and value is important. Succession planning is important for maintenance and quality in healthcare. For both settings, succession planning is essential. In a walk-in clinic, succession planning would be a little bit easier because a smaller clinic is easier to manage than the ICU. The succession planning would include patient flow and changes could be easily made. In contrast, the succession planning would be managed by the management board in an ICU setting. Because the ICU is a bigger field than a walk-in clinic, strategizing in that sense would be more difficult.

References

Dye, C. F. (2017). Leadership in healthcare: Essential values and skills (3rd ed.). Health Services Administration Press.