The paper focuses on understanding and evaluating the needs for introducing cultural changes in healthcare firms. It would also focus on understanding the fashion through which the changes can be introduced within the healthcare setting with also the different types of resistances that can be gained thereof. Finally, it would also highlight on the different types of strategies that can be undertaken by the change leader for reducing and countering the impacts of resistances to the changes introduced in a healthcare institution.
Cultural change within different categories of institutions whether healthcare or non-healthcare types is identified as an ongoing journey requiring the business leaders to evaluate the current situation of the firm, focus on generating vision with needed clarity, aligning and synchronizing the behaviors and potentials and in enhancing the accountability of the organizational members. Further, cultural changes are also invited by firms such that the same accounts for improvement of their competencies in the stated industry (Shen, Chanda, & D’Netto, 2009).
Organizations focus on differentiating their image and in reflecting themselves as unique compared to their competitors operating in the like industry. The organizational culture of the healthcare and other firms are ideally shaped by the career ambitions and growth needs of the employees along with their expectations regarding reward and compensation, promotions and also the manner they need to be treated by their colleagues and superiors in the firm. Different steps are required for incorporating by change leaders to bring about a cultural change within both healthcare and non-healthcare setting (Rozkwitalska, 2012).
Change leaders are required to develop needed knowledge and awareness about the present cultural situation of the firm. Further, the change leaders are also required to evaluate the current vision and mission statement of the firm such that needed changes can be introduced thereof. Further, the change leaders are also required to evaluate the desired behaviors expected of the organizational members and the different types of rewards and compensation strategies that are required to be incorporated for enhancing their performances along the different departments (Shi & Wang, 2011).
Similarly, cultural changes to be brought about in a healthcare firm also require the development of an effective communication strategy for helping in the consistent flow of messages and guidelines along the firm. Finally, cultural changes brought about both in healthcare and non-healthcare firms also require the synchronization and alignment of managerial decisions and performance potentials with the values, vision and mission of the firm. The same would contribute in enhancing the strategic importance of the managerial decisions and the performance objectives of the different business units in the firm (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013). Further, change management initiatives in the firm also focus on interlinking the compensation and reward systems with the behaviors, potentials and achievements of the staffs (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013).
Further cultural changes needed to be incorporated within a healthcare firm also requires the development of a safe workplace such that the same encourages staffs for rendering the right quality of performances in the firm. Again, the development of a safe workplace inside the firm would also encourage the organizational members to rightly accept and oblige to the changes introduced by the change leaders in the firm (Ferdman & Sagiv, 2012). Cultural changes to be introduced in healthcare firms also require the incorporation of needed innovation which in turn would contribute in meeting the reengineering objectives and in adding value to the firm (Khanaki & Hassanzadeh, 2010).
Further, introduction of cultural changes along the healthcare paradigm contribute in the generation of effective benchmarks and expectations regarding the performances of caregivers along different units like patient safety, quality of care, healthcare experience and also operational efficiency of the healthcare departments. Other types of cultural changes are also focused on being introduced like the reduction of cost of healthcare and also in improving the quality of healthcare and patient services provided by the medical institutions. Similarly, cultural changes in healthcare organizations also focus on the incorporation of needed flexibility and also the development of a multitasking workforce (Stevens & Ogunji, 2010).
Change leaders focus on generating changes in the existing culture of the healthcare institutions based on the use of five integral elements identified as five Cs. Caregivers and physicians are required firstly to effectively comprehend the problems associated to a particular or specific health case associated with their patients. An effective ability to comprehend the problems underlying a specific case contributes in helping the physicians generate the right kind of solution to the health and environmental problems affecting the stakeholders (Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011). Mutual conversation between the caregivers and the patients are required to be developed in a potential fashion for helping in the generation of quality solutions to emerging healthcare problems. Further, change leaders operating in healthcare institutions are also required to rightly suppress the emotional issues associated with work safety while focusing on the incorporation of effective communication channels for providing needed information among the interested and needy groups (Olsen & Martins, 2012). Nursing staffs and other caregiving communities based on the use of quality information can gain needed potential for enhancing the level of safety in the healthcare setting. It would thereby help in enhancing the quality of healthcare and the level of trust of the organizational workforce with also the patient groups on the health institution (Shen, Chanda, & D’Netto, 2009).
Secondly the physicians and caregivers are also required to work based on needed compassion and commitment while aiming at providing needed cure and support to patients. The caregivers and physicians are required to invest specific moments in meditation and in silence such that the same helps in enhancing the level of mutual respect towards each other and in focusing to work in a collective fashion for meeting of healthcare objectives and goals (Shi & Wang, 2011). Working in a compassionate and committed fashion also contributes in encouraging the physicians to understand faulty practices and thereby aim in taking proper steps for improving the quality of healthcare provided (Bhatia & Kaur, 2014).
Thirdly, the physicians involved in a healthcare setting are required to carry out continual collaboration and communication with nurses and other junior caregivers like residential staffs. The nursing staffs and other healthcare teams are also required to work in a cooperative fashion with the healthcare experts for generation of needed care and effective healthcare solutions to the patients (Shi & Wang, 2011). The healthcare institutions staffed by potential amount of nurses, physicians and other support teams like technicians and other administrative staffs must reflect proper teamwork. An effective teamwork setting potentially contributes in enhancing the level of mutual dependency among the organizational members in a healthcare institution and thereby encourages better performances (Rozkwitalska, 2012).
Fourthly, the physicians and other caregivers are required to operate in an effective coordinated setting laden with different types of clinical and non-clinical information. The complexity and variegated nature of healthcare processes with also the different types of healthcare services creates potential problems for accessibility and processing of different types of information (Salas, Tannenbaum, & Kraiger, 2012). Failure in effectively documenting, processing and also regarding flow of needed information among concerned quarters creates the emergence of fatal and critical incidents. The above fact thereby requires the healthcare institutions for properly standardizing and unification of data sets and also in encouraging workflows along different departments of the medical institution. Coordination and standardization of processes and information ideally helps clinicians and physicians for easily accessing needed information without depending on their memory (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). The same reduces the chances for emergence of errors and also improves the level of professionalism associated with healthcare practices. Further, the level of coordination and collaboration developed between the members in a healthcare setting together with the availability of potential information enhances the level of organizational citizenship for the organizational members. The same enhances the quality of healthcare provided by the medical teams (Dartey-Baah, 2013).
Finally, the fifth element reflecting cultural change in healthcare firms relates to the issue of convergence whereby it aims in converging both dedication to the fulfillment of vision elements and also identification of needed patience for transforming potential beliefs and attitudes of peers and colleagues involved in the organization. Change leaders are required to formulate new organizational vision and also incorporate needed reward techniques and strategies coupled with compassion and empathy for encouraging the organizational members to actively take part in the change process (Edewor & Aluko, 2007). In convergence, change leaders are required to formulate new set of vision and mission objectives and also identify the goals that are required to be achieved for meeting the mission and vision objectives. The change leaders also focus on prioritizing parameters associated with patient safety and care where the importance for such is figured from both the personal and organizational front (Ferdman & Sagiv, 2012). Further, the change leaders are also required to identify different types of communication tools that can be used for generation of needed awareness regarding patient safety and care. The performances of the healthcare teams are required to be evaluated based on the use proper benchmarks or scorecards like quality indicators. Scores for safety are required to be prioritized in parallel to the financial metrics and are required to be put for discussion in team meetings (Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011).
Resistances to changes in healthcare firms would be effectively studied associated to different cases. The implementation of electronic patient record (EPR) systems in a healthcare institution reflected potential resistances from the physicians in that the same required the formulation of new routines thereby making days more stressful for them. Resistances rendered by the physician community affected the steady implementation of the EPR systems in the healthcare organization (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Further, the healthcare staffs in the organization also generated needed resistance to the electronic medication system in that the staffs suffered from the premonition that the introduction of the EPR system would not only generate new routines creating greater pressure but also would reduce their importance and scope of work in the firm (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013). Again, the deployment of the EPR system in the healthcare institution also required the staffs, physicians and other support staffs like those involved in billing, administration and also patient enquiry to undergo classroom based training. The requirement for development of training classes affected the normal clinical routines and also created pressure on the staffs to accommodate classroom based training in their busy schedules. Further pressure was felt by the healthcare staffs owing to the involvement of information technology applications and procedures along their normal routines (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, & Kogler, 2013).
Similarly, the introduction and deployment of electronic healthcare services also reflected potential resistances both from the viewpoint of the physicians and also from the patients. Public debates were raised regarding the deployment of the electronic healthcare services from the fear of patients in failing to rightly interpret the medical jargon. Wrong interpretation of medical jargons by patients from the records maintained in the electronic healthcare directory can potentially affect or endanger the life of the patients (Slavi?, Berber, & Lekovi?, 2014).
Similarly, the physicians feared that chances of existence of perceived errors in the electronic medical records would make them face potential aggression from the patients. The implementation of the electronic healthcare services was required to be carried out in that the same would contribute in carrying out communication both in an intrinsic and extrinsic framework in an integrated fashion. The deployment of the same also faced potential social and political inertia in that the social and political systems felt that that the implementation of the EPR system failed to effectively reflect their concerns (Rozkwitalska, 2012).
The resistance to the introduction and implementation of the technological processes in the healthcare firms also occurred owing to the conducting of a bureaucratic type of negotiation between the vendor organizations making such technology and the different healthcare firms using such. Thus changes or revisions required to be brought about in the electronic healthcare systems and also the amount of funding required to be conducted on such basis being bureaucratically decided resulted in growth of needed resistances (Shen, Chanda, & D’Netto, 2009).
Along with the above facts another cause of potential resistance to changes in the present healthcare system owes to the existence of traditional mindset among the physicians, nurses and also other non-medical staffs in the medical institutions. The physicians were observed to be highly risk aversive and conditioned to their medical education and training which in turn potentially affected the introduction of changes in the healthcare system. Conservative and proof oriented culture prevalent among the physicians made them astray the introduction of new processes and technologies in the present healthcare system(Edewor & Aluko, 2007).
Lack of effective communication between physicians and caregivers within a healthcare setting regarding deployment of some new technological process contributes to be a potential reason amounting to resistances. Creation of a new model like a ‘medical home’ thus requires the formulation of a new vision and also other benchmarks and monitoring standards for aiding and guiding the physicians in their pursuit(Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011). Similarly, the absence of staff empowerment for implementation of the new model also amounts to be a potential problem that hinders the process. Again, the medical staffs also generate potential resistances to deployment of new processes in the healthcare firms in that they lack clear understanding regarding the possible benefits and facilities that they would gain from deployment of such. Thus introduction of financial and non-financial incentives by the change team is regarded as an effective tool that would encourage the deployment of the change mechanism in the healthcare setting(Slavi?, Berber, & Lekovi?, 2014).
The change leaders in a healthcare setting are also required to actively communicate with the different stakeholders for understanding their problems, perceptions, feelings, emotions and also for gaining effective feedback to the changes generated. Such communication would rightly reflect that whether the changes were implemented in the healthcare institution based on involving and engaging the organizational members or whether the change had been thrust on them by the superiors. Changes thrust on physicians, nurses and other members of the medical and non-medical team in the healthcare institution is observed to be largely challenged and resisted by the different stakeholders(Dartey-Baah, 2013). Physicians and other caregivers like other organizational members tend to enjoy a comfort zone where they are able to work in a routine fashion on different clinical cases. The introduction of new processes and technological procedures affects their known routine and sphere of work thereby encouraging the flow of resistances. Further, as mentioned earlier the doctors feel threatened that their failure to effectively understand and operate based on the new processes would prove detrimental to their patients’ health. The same contributes to emerge as one of the potential reasons behind the physicians’ resistance to changes in the healthcare processes and systems(Rozkwitalska, 2012).
The lack of effective support from organizational leaders and peers in a healthcare setting regarding the introduction of cultural changes can be potentially tackled based on enhancing external collaboration with other peer groups or experts in implementing the change initiatives. Further, problems and challenges emerging from the existence of skeptical minded staffs requires the healthcare managers to rightly communicate, collaborate and empower the staffs for generating solutions to healthcare issues. The above method would potentially contribute in development of a team-based work culture in the organization and thereby help in the generation of effective solutions in a faster and effective fashion(Bhatia & Kaur, 2014).
The problems concerning the hesitancy of the healthcare managers regarding investing needed time and money for dealing with healthcare issues can be effectively countered based on identification of specific healthcare projects. Different healthcare cases like reduction of infections and also enhancement of staff and patient safety can be designed coupled with documentation of the needed costs required to be incurred during the project cycle and also other knowledge, medical supplies and workforce resources needed for the same. Further, the change management team is also required to enhance collaboration with other experts, individual and teams pertaining to different healthcare sectors(Olsen & Martins, 2012).
Collaboration is required to be developed for the formulation of training and mentoring programs for the internal staffs to help in the generation of needed results and outcomes. The change leader for helping in encouraging the healthcare staffs to implement the change initiatives is required to design short-term goals and objectives based on appropriating the long-term goals undertaken for the healthcare firm. Winning of the short-term objectives would help in creating needed momentum for the healthcare staffs for effectively meeting the holistic goals and objectives in tune with the vision and mission ideologies(Shi & Wang, 2011).
Failure in meeting the short-term healthcare goals on the contrary would help the change leaders in bringing about necessary changes such that new adaptations incorporated thereof would contribute in meeting of the stated targets. Similarly, problems encountered by staffs and managers involved in the healthcare institutions regarding lack of role clarity and accountability also need to be tackled by the change leaders(Ongori & Nzonzo, 2011). The change leaders involved in the above situation are required to effectively synchronize the performances of the different healthcare projects with the strategic imperatives of the healthcare institution. Synchronization of project targets with institutional objectives would contribute in understanding and evaluating the significance of the completion of such projects. It would thereby help in prioritizing the scheduling the undertaking of different projects along with the allocation of needed resources for its steady accomplishment(Shi & Wang, 2011).
Conclusions
The paper actively contributed in understanding the different types of cultural changes that can be introduced within a healthcare setting and also the manner such changes can be effectively introduced and implemented within the medical firms. It also evaluated the different factors that contributed in the birth of resistances to the changes being introduced inside the healthcare setting with also reflecting on the different strategies needed for countering such resistances.
References
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