Health care organizations essay part 2
Health care organizations essay part 1
The growing number of patients of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers naturally leads to the question of increasing the number of beds. However, at the moment, Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers tend to refuse from increasing the number of discharges to open additional beds because of the lack of financial resources and poor funding. In this regard, the high costs of health care services and inability of patients to cover their health care costs or insurance virtually force Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers to refuse from increasing the number of beds because patients will be unable to uncover the increased costs of Medical Centers.
Another important issue that Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers are dealing with is the transfer patients to the next level of care from the emergency room. As they receive patients for the treatment in emergency rooms they need to transfer them to another unit of care. However, Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers face the problem of the proper transfer of patients because of their limited inpatient capacity (Fuchs & Emanuel, 2005). At the same time, this problem emerges in the result of the poor communication between units of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers. As a result, they may have difficulties with the delivery of inpatients from the emergency unit to the target unit. For example, a patient may be transferred from emergency unit to another unit, where the patient is transferred to the target unit. Such extra transfer of the patient occurs because the emergency unit fails to communicate properly with the target unit.
In such a context, Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers face the problem of the transformation of delivery of care to improve the discharge process/patient flow. The transformation of delivery of care to improve the discharge process is an essential step because the failure of the discharge process puts under a threat the overall effectiveness of health care services delivered to patients. In other words, the poor discharge process can deteriorate the quality of health care services, if Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers fail to discharge patients fast and accurately. If they lose time, while discharging patients from the emergency unit to the target unit, they may prevent other patients from obtaining urgent medical care and deteriorate the performance of other units, if patients are wrongfully discharged to a unit other but the target one.
Therefore, the introduction of the change is essential to improve the performance of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers and to prevent the failure of the discharge process because this problem can trigger the overall decline of the quality of health care services provided by Medical Centers, the decrease of the confidence of patients in the quality of health care services and professionalism of health care professionals working in Medical Center, and the deterioration of the quality of life of patients of Medical Centers. The resolution of the problem should involve the improvement of the patient flow management and discharge process (Altrichter & Gstettner, 1993). In this regard, it is possible to recommend the enhancement of the patient flow management and discharge process through the improvement of the communication between emergency unit and other units. The introduction of modern information technologies and telecommunication systems along with electronic medical records for each patient may resolve the problem and enhance consistently the patient flow and discharge process management in Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers.
The introduction of the change involves three stages: unfreeze, change, and refreeze (Lewin, 2007). This model developed by Kurt Lewing (2007) is applicable to Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers, which can introduce the change aiming at the improvement of the patient flow and discharge process management through the introduction of new technologies and telecommunication systems to enhance the information sharing and communication within Medical Centers, particularly between emergency unit and other units of Medical Centers. Each step of the change is crucial and steadily leads to the successful introduction and assimilation of the change within the organization.
The first step is unfreezing the change. In fact, this is the first and probably the most important step toward the change. The unfreezing stage implies the understanding of the necessity of the change by the management and staff of the organization. Therefore, managers and employees of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers should become aware of the urgent change that has to be implemented in the field of the patient flow and discharge process management. The understanding is an essential condition of the implementation and acceptance of the change by the staff of Medical Centers. In this regard, managers of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers should conduct the detailed study of their organizational performance. For example, SWOT analysis conducted above reveals the persisting gap between the patient flow and discharge process management and the quality of health care services that Medical Centers can deliver to their patients (Schein, 2009). As a result, managers can become aware that the change is urgent and essential.
However, the unfreezing stage implies not only the understanding of the problem by managers but also by other members of the organization (Wetherbe, 2006). Therefore, managers of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers should communicate the problem to other employees working in Medical Centers and suggest a solution to the problem. For example, they can communicate to health care professionals working in Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers that the introduction of new information system and modern telecommunication system along with medical health records will improve consistently the quality of the patient flow and discharge process management. Managers should justify the change and emphasize key benefits of the change, including the improvement of the quality of health care services delivered to patients, the facilitation of the employees’ performance, the decrease of the risk of miscommunication between professionals working in Medical Centers and others (Miner, 2005). As managers communicate the project of the change to employees, they should receive the feedback from employees and take into consideration their suggestions and remarks concerning the change (Weber & Weber, 1994). After that managers should develop the plan of the change to prepare it to the further introduction that will take place at the second stage of the change.
The change is the second stage of the implementation of the change. In fact, this stage is the implementation of the change proper. The implementation of the change should occur according to the change plan. In case of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers, it is possible to recommend outsourcing the supply of the required technology and telecommunication systems required for the proposed change along with the introduction of electronic medical records for all patients. The outsourcing will facilitate the introduction of the change because Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers will receive a ready and working product that will allow Medical Centers to introduce it immediately (Schmitt & Simonson, 2007). The training of the staff may be required to help health care professionals to use the full potential of the new information system and telecommunication system along with electronic medical records to enhance the patient flow and discharge process management.
At the same time, the implementation of the change should be accompanied by monitoring and control from the part of control officers appointed by managers of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers. Control officers will monitor and control the change to find out whether the implementation of the change matches the plan or not. Control officers will also assess the effectiveness of change and how it has influenced the performance of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers and professionals working in Medical Centers. They should also measure the impact of the change on the quality of health care services and effectiveness of the patient flow and discharge process management. For example, they may use the measurement of the patient satisfaction to assess the quality of services delivered by health care professionals working in Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers. They can also measure the time spend on the discharge and transfer of patients from emergency unit to other units as well as they can measure cases of re-transfer of patients from units, where they were delivered from the emergency unit, to other units. In such a way, control officers will notice whether there are any improvements and what improvements exactly have occurred within Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers.
Finally, the last stage of the change is refreezing. The refreezing stage implies that the change becomes an integral part of the organizational culture and it is not actually the change anymore but the integral part of the organizational performance (Wilkins, 2009). The refreezing stage involves the assimilation of the change into the organizational structure and operations. In case of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers, the refreezing of the change means that employees will use the new information system and telecommunication system along with electronic medical records on the regular basis; they will be proficient in using the new system; and the new system will have a positive impact on the organizational performance that means that the problem of the poor patient flow and discharge process management will be resolved (Mohrman, 2008). Moreover, employees of Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers should not take the change for the change anymore. Instead, they should take the new system for granted and they should use the new information system to manage patient flow and discharge process more effectively and succinctly.
Thus, Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers need consistent changes to improve the quality of the patient flow and discharge process management. At the moment, Medical Centers face the problem of the low quality of the patient flow and discharge process. As a result, patients may fail to be transferred from the emergency unit to the target unit fast that deteriorates the quality and speed of the delivery of health care services to these patients as well as other patients, who need the urgent medical aid. The proposed solution involves the introduction of the new information system that will facilitate the communication between all units and professionals within Veterans Health Administration New England Medical Centers. Hence, they will be able to manage the patient flow and discharge process more effectively.
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