The organizational structure of Moreno Medical Center (MMC) can be described in both positive and negative ways. Its strong point can be seen in the way that the hospital implements a strict policy of adhering to the procedures, from admission to discharge. There must be no problem regarding with this, however, the hospital and its personnel lacks in organizing these procedures, resulting in the long delay of important processes. As a consequence, the patients lose their satisfaction although adequate medical services has been provided. The management of the procedures can be seen as the main problem of the facility.
Because of the disadvantages the current system of the MMC brought, there is a significant need to revise the organizational structure of the facility. Even if the facility has the sufficient resources which can remedy the patients’ illnesses, their proper allocation, in addition of the collaboration of the hospital’s personnel and departments will handle more patients efficiently. Also, focusing on the patients, rather than the system, will further improve their services. The reason behind this is that the health care systems must secure the safety of their patients, given that they are highly vulnerable to the environment, and some cases are already becoming worse (Lateef, 2011). If the current system will continue to be implemented in the facility. The nurses will never provide the most suitable health care for the patients. This is because the patients need a focused attention; every second and detail count because their lives are on the line, and one small mistake and delay might become fatal to them. Because the hospital strictly adheres to the procedures, and it is stated that the procedures are more prioritized than the patients, then the nurses and other providers will be unable to give necessary actions, even in the times of need, without meeting the requirements of these procedures (Lateef, 2011).
In order to solve this kind of problem, it is important to take a look at the social and cultural aspects of the facility itself. According to Dauvrin and Lorant (2015), the cultural and social aspects have something to do with the development of the health care systems and processes. In this case, the MMC has its focus more on the market rather than on the providing of the needed health care. This is the main reason as to why the processes are more prioritized, in order to increase its profits. However, the patient satisfaction was proven to suffer, as stated in the facility’s current condition of outpatient services. As such, there is a need to reconsider their priorities, and take a look more the patient’s background as well as in the environment. This will help in making the staffs and leaders more competent through maintaining the efficiency of the facility (Dauvrin & Lorant, 2015).
However, it is not just the system that needs to be dealt with; the personnel, both the medical and ancillary, must know their roles and responsibilities in order to avoid the overlapping of tasks and designations. As stated in the current situation of MMC, ancillary staff gives instruction in the absence of nurses. Though the cause might be acceptable, the intervention of a personnel who is unfamiliar with medical-related activities mus not intervene. This is not a quality improvement, but rather, a decline in the services, because it lacks the standards and professionalism. There is a need for more coordination among the staffs, so that the team dynamics will improve in terms of their roles and responsibilities (ECRI Institute, 2014).
Given the problem with the personnel assignments and the admission and discharge processes, the MMC administrators must take in-charge with the changing of the system in order to mitigate the problems with patient satisfaction and the other mentioned problems. According to Jimmy & Jose (2011), administrators should make actions in response to the reports and complaints being sent by the personnel and the patients. From this, they will be able to measure the efficiency of the current system, especially in meeting the satisfaction of the patients. They must be able to determine the causes of the problem, the suitable actions to be done, and the projected results from those actions (Jimmy & Jose, 2011).
As of now, the problem was notified to the surgical department of the facility. It is said to be the one which must pioneer the improvement of the current system in the facility. A quality consultant was hired to check upon the problems regarding the contradictions between the patient satisfaction and the business component of the hospitals. Also, the consultant already identified the problems that affected the patient satisfaction. Since the problems are now detected, future actions may include a meeting with all departments to discuss the problems. Also, it is suggested that the priority for the business area should be toned down to make way for the improvement of patient satisfaction. That is to consider a simpler admission and discharge systems in order to accommodate more patients and reduce the waiting time and delay of the scheduled operations, surgeries and other related processes.
With the head start coming from the managers and administrators, the improvement of the systems of MMC has taken a step forward in terms of coordinating with the staffs and personnel under their supervision. According to Al-Sawai (2013), the leaders serve as the driving force of change in these situations, and they are the ones to set the goals of the actions to be implemented in the future. With proper leadership and management, patient care systems are being influenced in a more positive way (Al-Sawai, 2013).
One method to determine the suitable system for MMC is through the assessment of staffing and performance evaluation. In this way, the health care administrators will be able to determine the area in which there is a poor management of the people, and this can be correlated to the problem regarding patient satisfaction. The leaders will be able to deal with this problem, and can evaluate if there is a significant change once the management is improved.
References
Al-Sawai, A. (2013). Leadership of Healthcare Professionals: Where Do We Stand? Oman Medical Journal, 28(4), 285-287.
Dauvrin, M., and Lorant, V. (2015). Leadership and Cultural Competence of Healthcare Professionals: A Social Network Analysis. Health Equity Research 64(3), 200-210.
ECRI Institute. (2014). Patient Safety, Risk, and Quality. Healthcare Risk Control. Retrieved 31 August, 2016, from https://www.ecri.org/components/HRC/Pages/RiskQual4.aspx?tab=2#
Jimmy, B., and Jose, J. (2011). Patient Medication Adherence: Measures in Daily Practice. Oman Medical Journal, 26(3), 155-159.
Lateef, F. (2011). Patient expectations and the paradigm shift of care in emergency medicine. Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock, 4(2), 163-167.
