Governing Policy, Board Members, Roles, Responsibility
Stakeholders, Clients, and Community
[Institution Title]
Introduction
Every organizations are not without a stakeholder. It only means that every organization is rightfully composed of different individuals who are classified as the “organization’s stakeholders.” In an article published in 2014, the author described the stakeholders as the brand of the organization. In other words, the stakeholders serve as an image that represents the organization and what it generally stands for. There are two types of stakeholders. These include the (a) external stakeholders, and (b) internal stakeholders . Each type of stakeholders have a specific role in the organization and each contributes to the success of the organization. This paper would like to identify the different stakeholders of a non-profit hospital organization, taking important note of the two types of stakeholders. In addition, this paper will also discuss the roles and responsibilities, as well as the interests of the stakeholders in the selected organization. Furthermore, a discussion on how conflicting stakeholders’ interest are resolved through a process of organizational governance.
Defining a Non-Profit Hospital Organization
In January 2010, an article published at the Trustee Magazine mentioned that over 60% of the hospitals in the United States are operating under the category of a non-profit hospital organization . This was the revolutionary change that Pointer and Orlikoff mentioned in their book that hospitals had undertaken as a response to rendering and funding healthcare services . The author furthered that somewhere during the late 90’s many health institutions had been experiencing bankruptcy. One of these included Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation in Pennsylvania, which faces US$ 1.3billion worth of debts in over 6,500 creditors . With this situation being in the way, there is a risk that hospitals operating privately or publicly to seek ways on how they can continue to financially support their advocacies. Converting private and public hospitals to non-profit organization allows the hospital administration to seek private individuals to support the financial needs of the organization. Furthermore, by having this new system qualifies them to a tax exemption. Hospitals operating as a charitable institution, rendering their services for a charitable purpose entitles the bearer exemption from paying taxes . Needless to say, there were articles to assert that non-profit hospitals profit the most compared to profit hospitals.
Who are the non-profit hospitals’ stakeholders?
As mentioned earlier, there are two types of stakeholders—external and internal stakeholders. A stakeholder is defined as a group of individuals whose support matters to the survival of the organization . These are also a group of people who becomes significantly impacted by any decision that the organization chooses to make . An internal stakeholder refers to the people whose commitment is towards the service of the organization . These people includes the board of directors, volunteers, staffs, and donor. On the other hand, an external stakeholder would refer to the people who are affected by the work or services of the organization . The non-profit hospital organization’s external stakeholders included the following: (a) the patients, (b) community partners, and (c) groups served by the hospital but are not using their services. Each type of stakeholders have their respective roles and duties to play in the organization. Furthermore, each also have their own interest that are advanced by the organization.
Internal Stakeholders: Roles and Responsibilities
Internal stakeholders are the individuals who serves the organization. To identify the roles and responsibilities of ever internal stakeholder, please refer to the table in Table 1,
External Stakeholders: Roles and Responsibilities
The external stakeholders of a non-profit hospital organization refer to the group of people who receives the services rendered by the organization . These refers to the end consumers and benefactors of the organization. Listed under Table 2 ae the different external stakeholders of the non-profit hospital organization.
Interest of the Internal and External Stakeholders
Every stakeholder of any organization have their expectations. This expectations are typically translated as the interest of the group. As far as the interest of the internal stakeholders is concerned, the goal of a non-profit hospital organization is not to amass profit, instead simply to help patients and the community to receive the much needed medical assistance without have to worry about finances. The interest of the internal stakeholder is simply to promote health and wellness. Furthermore, it is also in their interest to aid in the spread of proper information relating to the prevention of diseases, promotion, and preservation of health.
On the other hand, the external stakeholders’ interest is to receive appropriate and quality healthcare services without discrimination based on age, gender, and social status. Furthermore, it is also in the interest of the external stakeholder to ensure that medical assistance and service are accessible for everyone who seeks help in terms of their health.
The Board’s Role in Resolving Conflicting Interests
Majority of non-profit hospital organization are governed by a set of Board Members who are assigned with numerous responsibilities to ensure the growth and performance of the organization in general. However, while both the internal and external are both after the appropriate and quality medical and healthcare services there are also instances when the interests of the internal stakeholder varies from the interest of the external stakeholder.
In the case of conflicting interest, the Board of Director for a non-profit hospital organization are created to help resolve these issues. According to an article that appeared in the “Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation”, the Board Members are in-charged with the different tasks to resolve the issue . Among these include development of policies and protocols to follow to maintain order. The Board has the obligation to protect the best interest of internal and external stakeholders. In the case where there are conflicting interests, the principle of utilitarianism are usually applied in this case. The principle of utilitarianism would assume for the position where a larger group of people. Usually decision is award to the individual or groups who are greater in number or the group who will be able to extend the impact to other sector. This is in the belief that it will significantly useful to more people, therefore, the benefits are spread across all identified boundaries rather than favoring a very few individual.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it has been brought to the attention of everyone that non-profit hospitals are significantly governed by individuals who have equal roles and responsibilities to share in the success of the organization. Such roles and responsibilities are assumed to ensure that everyone has a valuable contribution to the success of the organization, Another significant insight drawn from this paper is the realization that while non-profit hospitals are deemed as charitable intuitions, the intention for why it has been set in this manner may not necessarily be to render affordable and accessible medical assistance and services. Instead, it has been shown that it was for the purpose of survival during an arduous event in history when hospitals were going bankrupt because of high cost of operations. The tax exemption awarded to charitable institutions for rending such type of services, i.e. charity works, is recognized by the US government. Furthermore, considering the significance of healthcare services, such noble act of rendering accessible and affordable healthcare service is of great importance. Nonetheless, it is imperative that the government review whether or not the indicated cause are actually implemented because some agencies and institutions may simply take advantage of this special privilege to gain exemptions and recognitions for something they are not doing or executing.
References
Adams, A. (2004). Quality of Board Governance in Nonprofit Healthcare Organizations. The Internet Journal of Healthcare Administration, n.p.
Brown, D. (2010, January). The Governance Imperative for Non Profit Hospitals . Trustee Magazine, p. n.p.
Certo, S., & Certo, T. (2011). Modern Management: Concepts and Skills. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Pointer, D., & Orlikoff, J. (1999). Getting to Great: Principles of Health Care Organization Governance. Sam Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rosenthal, L. (2012). Nonprofit Corporate Governance: The Board’s Role. Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, n.p.
The Denver Foundation. (2014, January 14). Identifying internal and external stakeholders. Retrieved from The Denver Foundation Website: http://www.nonprofitinclusiveness.org/identifying-internal-and-external-stakeholders
