Evaluating the services by comparing the results with the expected targets is essential not only for the healthcare sector organizations but also for the organizations operating in other sectors. Quality assurance in hospitals is done on various attributes such as the cost involved, accessibility, treatment, and benefits. Quality improvement is done in two parts or phases; firstly the actual results of any attribute involved upon which the improvement is based. This is compared with the global standards, and then secondly, the differences in the results are noted down or identified and further, proper recommendations for improvement are given (Chernev, 2018, p. 54). Clinical leaders need to have a long term plan for the improving the working standards within the organisation. Since healthcare organisation is a large bureaucratic entity that is structured in administrative hierarchies hence any change in the organisation can only be built with the help of collaborative approach.
Change initiative is basically a series of actions taken for implementing best practices through proper planning, proceedings, and operations that cater for problem solving, evaluating results, and making useful decisions (Hoy, and Smith, 2007, p. 161). Sacred Heart Hospital commenced its operations in October 1973. The hospital provides services mainly to those over 65 years of age who suffer from dementia and brain injuries. Further, intellectual care needs are also provided to the people who are under 65 years of age. This report focuses upon quality improvement in the Sacred Heart Hospital which is very necessary for both organisation and society.
The Sacred Heart Hospital is a renowned organization in its field of work. It is doing well but there is a need to improve quality, thus an improvement program is initiated by the management of Sacred Heart Hospital (Susanne, 2017, p. 47).
Every organisation works to attain the desired goals. One of the most important tools for any organisation for gaining good market value and ensuring growth is that they improve their service quality (Goldratt and Cox, 2016, p. 205). In healthcare sector, preserving the quality is a crucial factor as they have huge responsibility in person’s life. The desired quality helps the healthcare organisations to retain the trust of the customers.
The aim of the quality improvement initiative is to enhance safety of patients, improve efficiency and effectiveness of all the processes as well as improving the performance of human resources. Objectives that need to be achieved are mentioned below:
The stakeholder refers to a person, group or any organization that has interest in an organization. The stakeholders affect business or the organization and also get affected by the operations of the business of the firm (Stark, 2015, p. 17). In the context of Sacred Heart Hospital the involved stakeholders are as follows:
Suicide cases are one of the major issues faced by Ireland. Organisation (NGO or Hospital) can organise campaigns for creating awareness among people towards speaking about the reasons for depressions. Conducting seminars and giving counselling to the patients will aid in reducing the numbers of cases. Such events highlight the importance of the role of stakeholders in the healthcare sector. With the view to bring out the change, a strong support system is essential to carry forward the required initiatives (Ouslander et al, 2014, p. 166). In this regards hospitals can take help of other clinical leaders in the industry
Purpose and the strategies of the organization must reflect active behaviours by the virtue of workplace practices. It must be delivered for specific business purpose and strategy and also it must correspond towards the market position of the organization. It is a hands-on business redesigning process which is very intense and under which organization aligns strategic goals, business model and process, organization’s culture with its key purpose and core values (Dubey, and Gunasekaran, 2015, p. 375). Often the organization desires and wants all the moving parts of the business to be connected together. It is not always easy in today’s competitive climate and competition from the global market makes it further typical. Due to this, the organization needs to break internal barriers and align their strategic goals and objectives. Aligning these ensures stronger connection between mission and resources of the organization as well as it tunes goals and objectives for discovering gaps. By this issues are also addressed in context with internal efficiencies and effectiveness (Aziz, Mahmood, and Bano, 2018, p. 127). Sacred Heart Hospital will follow the below mentioned process for strategic alignment:
The Healthcare sector is one of the most crucial service-rendering sectors of any economy. Every healthcare organisation wants to deliver the best to its patients. The strategies formulated by the hospital management are mostly not implemented the way they are formulated in the initial stages. In order to adopt and adapt to the changing environment there is a need to make efforts. With rise in the population it is normal to have a rise in the health issues. The reason for selecting improvement in the Irish healthcare system is because of an increase in suicide cases and alcohol consumption which creates the demand for rendering the best trustable services for the society.
In order to meet the issue, patients must have access to the medical staff whenever required. Patient, who needs help, should not get delayed services (Kotter, 2008, p. 231). Healthcare is such a sector that only needs experts in performing the process to cure any kind of health issues. Through financial resources and leadership approach, it can improve the command over the Irish health sector which is an important tool for the suitability of the population.
Establishment of any business or organisation needs funding to bear day-to-day expenses (Fernes, Ferreira, and Moura, 2016, p. 220). An organisation is incomplete without funds and resources to accomplish the desired outcome (Hussein, 2015, p. 6). In order to get enough facility including, space, medical equipment, medicines and plenty of staff, the sacred heart hospital needs financial support as well. No organisation runs without funds or money that too when hospital sector’s expenses are on hike. Appendix 1 shows up the graphical representation of the estimated budget as shown in the tables given below:
|
Staff costing budget |
||||
|
Particular |
Concerned person |
Monthly Cost € |
Time period involved (month/s) |
Totals € |
|
Staffing Costs |
Operation manager |
1425 |
3 |
4275 |
|
Financial manager |
3251 |
3 |
9753 |
|
|
Coordination Officer |
2915 |
3 |
8745 |
|
|
IT experts |
2484 |
3 |
7425 |
|
|
Communications Officers |
2484 |
3 |
7425 |
|
|
Admin Workers |
2321 |
3 |
6963 |
|
|
Community lead( Outreach) |
1016 |
3 |
3048 |
|
|
Other Staff (in House) |
||||
|
Medical Officers |
2325 |
6 |
13950 |
|
|
Line managers |
2400 |
10 |
24000 |
|
|
Accountant |
1750 |
4 |
7000 |
|
|
Total Staffing Costs |
97584 |
|
Items |
Detail |
Totals € |
|
Rent |
Office space |
4433 |
|
Consulting Room Hire |
8929 |
|
|
Clinic Admin Room |
1500€ |
|
|
Office |
Stationery, Printing, postage |
1125 |
|
Utilities |
Telephone, broadband |
1100 |
|
Equipment |
Requirements for treatment: Syringes, weight machines, blood pressure machine |
3000€ |
|
Materials |
Resources for training (reading materials, videos etc) |
2225 |
|
Accreditation Fees |
Professional Organisations |
2000 |
|
Professional Fees |
Consultancy, Training Bodies Support & Accounts |
40000 |
|
Training |
Volunteers, Staff & Trustees |
3000 |
|
Travel |
On call and outreach workers |
300 |
|
Catering |
Tea, Coffee, snacks, water in waiting rooms (hire cost) |
500 |
|
Advertisements |
Newspaper, magazines, holdings, |
650 |
|
Total |
68762 |
The Professionals in the healthcare sector work hard to provide the patients best of services. Implementing improvements in the quality will have a favorable impact on the organization where it will be able to cater and meet up the requirement of the patients (Qasrawi, Almahamid, and Qasrawi, 2017, p. 1044). It has been found that through improvements in the quality of services and the overall system the suicidal cases are expected to come down in Ireland. All this can be achieved by taking initiatives towards improving available medical facilities. When the people living in local areas are free from illnesses or diseases, it depicts optimum utilization of the human resources. The depressed population or population engrossed in alcoholic activities will lead to bad future for the upcoming generations. It is necessary to work towards developing healthier environment in order to ensure better future (Mitra, 2016, p. 124). Adopting the best practices along with the support of different resources can help in checking the issues.
The implementation of any process or change is countable or it is beneficial only when outcomes are measurable. The efforts of the human resources and the formulation of the methodology and strategies for implementing them to turn the idea into real existence can be obtained by measuring and evaluating the results and outcomes. Measuring outcomes in simple words means to comparatively evaluate the desired aim with the actual performance towards that aim (Ross, 2017, p. 179). In the case of the sacred heart hospital where the outcome is to serve maximum number of patient with satisfaction, the concepts of measuring outcomes also presents the true picture of the success or failure of the strategies formulated. Real life viability of set target comes into role with this and alternatives can be obtained in case of any failure. To measure the results for a hospital, conducting surveys and audits at regular intervals can provide the desired results. When there is a constant decline in number of suicidal cases in regional or national wide, it will identify improvements to the healthcare provider to know that the practices were being followed in the right directions and will be done in the future as well. Conducting surveys on a regular basis will help in this regard. Collected data will be compared with the previous data available. It is effective process in the measurement of outcomes that leads to change (Prajogo, and Sohal, 2013, p. 907). This needs to be done on regular basis so as to have uniformity in the audit process.
Working with the intention to achieve the success there will be hurdles that need to be crossed. In the society, organizations work towards one goal i.e. to achieve success with limited risk. In dealing with issues in healthcare sector, every planned step is crucial. The major threat linked with it is the knowledge and understanding about the existing issues and managing with formulating strategies with reference to relevant problems. Staff members in an organization can also pose a threat in implementing improvement. This is because there is a chance that the staff may not be available to attend when patients needs it (Ulle, and Kumar, 2014, p. 153). There are some instances when the investors or stakeholders do not find any sufficient improvements. It will cause major delays in sponsoring or funding facility especially in similar projects or training programs. Such issues can affect productivity of organization. The health care staff may show lacking interests in treating their patients adequately. There are other threats such as, inadequate leadership style skills, unrealistic expectation from employees etc. Chief executive Staff member can focus on profits and are responsible for directing and managing the desired outcome. In real life situation, there will be some unseen and unpredictable threats while improving the quality. In order to overcome such threats, a strong determined attitude needs to be followed towards the work (Mohd, Idris, and Momani, 2013, p. 40). The collaborative approach could be beneficial in this regards.
Change Management Theory Used
Changes are part of individual’s living and working environments. In every challenging situation, appropriate applications can be adopted to overcome the difficulties. In case of health care organisation, working with the motivation to fulfil the needs of the population is highly necessary. With the change in the interest and preference of the society, organisations need to blend their work according to the newly generated demand. This helps them in the market in creating image of being a hospital that fulfils their demand. To match the dynamicity of the environment, the organisations need to be flexible enough to adopt and adapt changes according to the demand of the society. These changes are necessary and cannot be ignored. They are sign of growth for any individual, organisation or business (Chen,Wang, and Lee, 2018, p. 12). For keeping smoothness in the work, uniformity in various pattern of work for managing changes plays an important role especially in the health sector. If the changes around the environment is ignored it could create gap resulting in decline in the image and worth of the products and services rendered by the organisation. Thus, be it any kind of organisation it needs to maintain a balance within environment and working pattern.
Earlier, I used to believe that most of organisations that bring a change in the environment which is yes correct but up to a certain extent. The type of services and products catered to the society by different organisations do make a difference but the changes actually occur due to the change of interest and preference of the society. In the healthcare sector, medical experts undergo different kind of situations to treat a patient for known or unknown diseases. Every patient needs to be handled in different way. As per what I consider or believe about sacred heart hospital, there are number of patients dealing with depressions but all differ from one another. This makes it a crucial factor to pay attention to each and every patient but in a variant way.
As we all know, being a part of hospital staff and working as a medical expert comes with massive responsibility of many other lives to handle. With the hike in the growth of the number of people the necessity to increase the number of hospitals comes into play. Changing management in respect to healthcare sectors means to develop and operate with the recent utilized practices while treating a patient. To retain the trust of the customers, the medical experts uses the updated technology like CT scan machine, or X-RAY machines to provide the best services from the existing organisation.
I certainly believe that from situations to situations the change of application and management may differ. Management is as versatile as the humans. This is because it is applied on the human and their working but then basic structure of the theory remains the same throughout the era. In the above mentioned case of sacred heart hospital, shows the need to develop the structure and strategies formulated till now. For increasing the number of the healthy population by reducing the suicide cases, there are different theories that can be adopted by organisation. Implementations of the change depend on all factors including culture, economic conditions and the government’s rules and policies. However according to me after analysing the situation, the most suited change theory for Irish hospital will be Lewin force model. The model comprises of 3 stages namely
Unfreezing; Move and Refreeze (Bakari Hunjra, and Niazi, 2017, p. 164). I chose this as there is a need to identify the need for changes in the hospital and unfreeze the practices and policies that were followed. Firstly a step towards the enhancement of infrastructure and availability of the staff and medical experts for the patient needs to be done without any delays. The second step move comprises of actions taken towards the new approach. The movement of behaviours from old to new which displays the approaches and improvements that will be adopted by the hospital while catering their patients. Changes such as investing in hiring more medical employees, updating medical instruments with better applicability, training the existing staff and trending utilities are done. In the last step refreeze, the newly formulated policies and strategies that need to be kept intact are not disturbed. Sticking to newly established behaviours can improve the future of the Irish society in the future (Manchester et al, 2014, p. 85).
The above planned theory turns out to be the best in the Irish healthcare as I think that until the authority will realise the need for the change no new change will be brought. It is not just making an outline for the changes but also following and implementing them in real life will change the current scenario. I feel there is an immediate need to take actions for decreasing the rate of the suicidal cases from the past few years. This can be done through appropriate management strategies, for example labelling and publishing appropriate protocols for acute crisis situation including suicidal prevention.
Analysing the content above, I believe that the changes are necessary especially in the sacred heart hospital. Not only the government, but also the medical experts need to have willingness from within to do better for the society. Changes can never be implemented by one person. Customers (patients) needs to come up and speak about their issues and reasons for depression with their family, friends or dear ones so that they can consult a concerned expert to resolve the issue faced by them.
Hence, I believe that managing the internal and external factors is essential and must be addressed by all the responsible authorities like government, people and the medical experts. Until and unless everyone realises their responsibilities improving the situation will not show a positive impact in working.
Conclusion
From the above based report it can be concluded that Healthcare sector has lot of responsibilities on it. For any healthcare organisation it is essential to provide quality services irrespective of the country they are in. There are many people facing different kinds of diseases comes to the hospital. Sacred Heart Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in Ireland and hence requires quality improvement initiatives. The health service Ireland can be improved by making good efforts so as to have better strategies that influences its’ growth. The conditions became worse when there are issues such as non-availability of the medical staff to treat the patients. Improving the quality of the healthcare turned out to be essential task for the Irish economy so as to improve the health economics. It can further be concluded that in order to improve quality and implement changes various types of the changes in the operational mechanism is required. In this course there will be many challenges that need to be tackled. For aiming the betterment, contribution of every individual is required including the legal or the ultimate consumer of the medical facilities. Checking the loopholes, new strategies are formed and once implemented; the outcomes should be measured on a timely basis. Until the end results are not evaluated and positive results are obtained, there is no chance quality improvement. Hence, analysing the problem and taking corrective measures to overcome them is the important element.
References
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Chen, R., Wang, C.H. and Lee, Y.D., (2018) Total Quality Management (TQM) is the Lifeline of an Organization’s Sustainable Development: Leadership is the Impetus to Change. International Journal of Innovative Studies in Sociology and Humanities, 3(4). pp. 5-16
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