Instructions
Instructions
Your Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 assignments build on one another to produce a final paper in Week 4 that incorporates the key elements of the organization and a specific department/unit where you work or functional area you are familiar with. This includes providing a description of the organization, the organization’s workforce, the organization’s 5-year strategic plan, a budget from a selected department within the organization, committees, recruitment and retention strategies, and an orientation program for new employees. To develop the paper, you will need to perform some research into healthcare organizations (e.g., hospitals, long-term care facilities, etc.) and the different aspects of management and leadership styles.
For your selected organization and the specific department/unit within the organization, using the attached Written Assignment Template, develop a detailed written report that includes each of the following elements:
• Discuss the factors associated with effective clinical decision-making.
• What are common management mistakes that occur in a healthcare organization? What are some strategies to prevent these mistakes from occurring?
• Describe how managers can tailor their message to address situations that arise in the workplace. Provide a specific example of a situation in which tailoring the message would be beneficial.
• Identify a management approach that would best be used to address the previously identified situation.
• Identify a quality improvement project in the selected organization or department/unit using the Six Sigma methodology, Using the DMAIC framework, describe the QI process for the project.
Remember to be mindful of your spelling, grammar, punctuation, content development, and APA style (7th edition).
You must use the written assignment template (provided via attachment below) as you develop this assignment. Failure to use the template will result in a grade of ‘zero’ on this assignment. You must also address every element outlined in the assignment instructions, separating each of the elements accordingly with Level I and Level II headers. Remember to be mindful of your spelling, grammar, punctuation, content development, and APA style (7th edition)
Answer
Organization Overview and Department Analysis
Student Name
Course Number
Course Name
Date
Instructor Name
Organization Overview and Department Analysis
The assignment will make use of large regional hospital known as the XYZ Medical Center. XYZ Medical Center is a 500-bed acute care facility that has provided services to the community for over 50 years. The hospital offers an array of inpatient and outpatient services, which include emergency care, surgical services, obstetrics, cancer treatment, and numerous specialty clinics.
Effective Clinical Decision-Making
In clinical decision-making in healthcare organizations, several factors come into focus regarding patient information, clinical guidelines, evidence-based best practices, and the expertise of the healthcare provider. According to Sherbino et al. (2021), this requires healthcare professionals to give careful attention to a patient’s unique circumstances, weighing the potential risks and benefits of alternative treatment approaches that need to be made in concert with the patient. Among the factors contributing to effective clinical decision-making are:
Strong clinical knowledge and critical thinking, Collection and interpretation of pertinent patient data Evidence-based guidelines and best practice Knowledge Communication includes explanations to patients, as well as interdisciplinary teams Incorporation of patient preferences and values Continuous professional development and ongoing learning Healthcare organizations can help their clinicians make informed, high-quality decisions reflective of the priorities of patient safety and quality outcomes through a culture of evidence-based practice, shared decision-making, and patient-centred care (Groysberg & Slind, 2012).
Strategies for the Avoidance of Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Many management mistakes can occur in healthcare organizations and eventually lead to poor performance, low morale of staff, and poor patient outcomes. Some of the standard management mistakes in healthcare organizations include:
Ineffective Communication
Communication between management and the front line leads to understanding, frustration, and misaligning organizational goals and priorities. To avoid this, strategies include holding regular meetings and creating feedback channels to encourage open communication. Other examples include crafting clear, concise, homogenous messaging to communicate management’s vision and priorities and providing communication skills Training to managers.
Failing to Recognize and Address Burnout
Caregivers’ burnout may be affected by highly stressful work environments and challenging patient loads. The inability to respond to burnout will lead to a high rate of turnover, low productivity levels, and, overall, a decrease in quality of care. Activities that may help prevent burnout include Wellness and access to mental health resources, Work-life balance and time off/using paid time off and Recognition and rewards for above-and-beyond performance.
Inconsistent Accountability and Performance Management
Inconsistent performance management practices and unspecified expectations detract from employee commitment and efficiency. Strategies for resolving the issues could be formulated by designing and implementing quality and frequent performance management systems that allow feedback and goal setting. Second is training and support for managers to coach and develop their teams effectively. Third, all employees, including managers, must be held accountable for their actions and performance.
Composing Messages for Workplace Applications
Healthcare managers may need to communicate through various workplace circumstances and interactions. For example, a circumstance related to employee performance feedback would indicate that the message needs to be adapted. While conducting performance feedback, a manager should adapt the approach to communicate effectively with an individual employee based on their communication style, learning style, and emotional state (Northouse, 2022). In contrast, another employee may respond more favorably to an empathetic, collaborative tone. A manager will be able to bring the feedback in light of the particular employee to make the message’s reception good and concretize performance improvements.
Choosing an Appropriate Approach to Management
The situation above, where the manager is supposed to provide performance feedback to an employee, can be better sorted out through a collaborative management approach. This will involve employees being much more active in providing feedback, seeking their input, and thus collaboratively coming up with a plan of improvement. According to Northouse (2022), it helps engage employees in becoming more receptive to the feedback process.
In employing this approach to the situation at hand, the following, as identified by the benefits in moving forward, are listed as follows: It instils ownership and a feeling of buying into the employee’s role since he has participated in the process and has a voice in the solution. Secondly, it gives the manager an opportunity to better understand the employee and any factors that may be causing performance problems (Dang et al., 2022). Through a collaborative management approach, the manager might tailor feedback to the employee in line with his needs, discuss problems or concerns and/or any obstacle to prevent him from performing well, and jointly establish a realistic and achievable plan of improvement.
Quality Improvement Project Using Six Sigma Methodology
The proposed quality improvement project at XYZ Medical Center concerns issues related to HAPIs in the critical care unit. In essence, the QI team will use the Six Sigma DMAIC model to try to reduce the incidence of HAPIs in the unit.
Defining the Problem
The problem will be clearly defined, specific and measurable goals will be established, and key stakeholders and their requirements will be identified. It will also include data on current rates regarding HAPI, a review of related policies and procedures, and an understanding of the root causes of the problem.
Measure the Problem
The team will then subsequently measure the current performance by collecting and analyzing data regarding the incidence, risk factors, and contributing factors of HAPI through chart reviews, staff surveys, and practice observation in patient care.
Analyzing the Problem
The team shall delve deep into the data collected in the measure phase to ascertain what drives the development of HAPI in the analysis phase. This may involve statistical analysis and process mapping using various tools, such as cause-and-effect diagrams.
Improving on the Problem
From the analysis phase, the team will proceed to formulate and institute interventions that will address the root cause of HAPIs. These may include training staff, updating protocols, upgrading equipment, and revising care delivery processes.
Controlling
Finally, the team will plan how the improvement made under the project will be monitored and maintained. It may include continued data collection, routine audits, and instigating new policies and procedures that will help ensure the continued reduction of HAPI incidence in the critical care unit over time. The QI team in the XYZ Medical Center will be able to systematically address the problem of hospital-acquired pressure injuries, leading to improvement in patient outcomes and quality of care, by applying the Six Sigma DMAIC framework.
In conclusion, the assignment provides an extensive analysis of the large regional hospital XYZ Medical Center, inclusive of discussion on effective clinical decision-making, common management errors, the strategies to prevent these, adaptation of a message in workplace scenarios, planning an appropriate approach to manage in choosing a particular strategy; and the conduction of quality improvement project by using the Six Sigma methodology. This profound exploration into these critical elements exemplifies the multifaceted nature of healthcare management, underpinning that evidence-based practices, effective communication, collaborative leadership, and commitment to continuous quality improvement are keystones in delivering high-quality patient care and fostering a positive organizational culture.
References
Dang, D., Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Yost, J., Cullen, L., Cvach, M., … & Stevens, K. R. (2022). Models to guide implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practice. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 19(1), 3-23.
Groysberg, B., & Slind, M. (2012). Leadership is a conversation. Harvard Business Review, 90(6), 76-84.
Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.
Sherbino, J., Bandiera, G., Doyle, K., Frank, J. R., Holmboe, E. S., Huggett, J., … & Woods, R. A. (2021). The competency-based medical education evolution of Canadian emergency medicine specialist training. Canadian Medical Education Journal, 12(1), e92-e103.