Systems and Organizations exist on many different levels inside a healthcare facility. The whole hospital is a team on some level and each unit also has special organizational characteristics. To keep up to changing consumer demands each system within a healthcare setting must be willing to adapt. Adaptation to change is a hallmark of any successful organization. There a few factors that cause failure to adapt. Lacking a strong plan and rationale for change can lead to an organization failing to change. Weak communication and follow-through can also cause a plan for change to fail. (Thomsen, 2013) In this blog post I will walk through a brief organizational assessment and the strategies used to study the dynamics at work in an organizational. The organizational assessment can be used then to find the strengths and weaknesses and the organization’s ability to adapt to change. I will utilize the Delphi technique and show the steps used in this method of organizational assessment. The first step is research. One must study the data behind the organization. I looked at the statistics on my facility, Haysmed. According to Haysmed.com “A total of 6,033 admissions and 172,421 outpatient procedures documented last year”. These pieces of data are important and relevant to the assessment. These data points also help the assessment sponsors understand the organization’s ability to change. Another good data point would be that Haysmed staffs approximately 1500 associates (Haysmed, 2014) Research does not give one the whole picture so this method would utilize interviews to gauge the employees and patients subjective view of the organization. According to John Knotts, a strategic business advisor, “You must interview people to verify your findings and get to the entire picture.” (Knotts, 2014) This assessment method advises the evaluator to devote copious time to this step. It is advised each interview be around three hours long and to do around 30 individual interviews. For the purpose of this blog post I didn’t perform any interviews but a real assessment would include many of them. After the research and interviews are done the assessment will be presented in very specific way. The purpose of the organization is key and should be the first part presented. The purpose or mission of Haysmed is to help people be healthy and to the best tertiary care center in rural Kansas. An organizational assessment may include key recommendations for an organization. One recommendation I would have for Haysmed would be incentivize employees to work harder. Identification of customers and partners is another portion of this assessment method. Haysmed is partnered with the University of Kansas and services mostly patients from rural northwest and southwest Kansas. The assessment can also look at key metrics that outline the facilities strategic progress. (Knotts, 2014) I could highlight that when compared to the Kansas and National Benchmarks our surgical sight and hospital-acquired infection rates are lower. Some of the problems facing the organization may be raised such as Haysmed’s difficulty keeping doctors long-term. A thorough organizational assessment would overview a strategic plan to succeed in the future and this will be the majority of the assessment.
References
Thomsen, S. (Producer). (2013). Kotter’s 8 step organizational change model FC. [Video File]. Retrieve from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Knotts, J. (2014, June 24). How to Conduct an Organizational Assessment. Retrieved April 01, 2018, from https://johnrknotts.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/how-to-conduct-an-organizational-assessment/
I enjoyed reading this and learning how this Delphi technique of organizational assessment worked when applied to an organization. Kennerly, Yap, Hemmings, Beckett, Schafer, and Borchers states, ” Nursing culture is manifested
along six dimensions: behaviors, expectations, teamwork, communication, satisfaction, and professional commitment” (2012). From your assessment, it sounds like HaysMed would benefit more from professional commitment. You suggested better incentives to make employees work harder, which is not a bad idea. It may also be useful to know if there are specific things about the facility that the staff do not like to improve commitment to the company. This could even help with doctor retention.
References:
Kennerly, S. M., Yap, T. L., Hemmings, A., Beckett, G., Schafer, J., & Borchers, A. (2012). Development and psychometric testing of the nursing culture assessment tool. SAGE Journals, 21(4), 467-485. doi:10.1177/1054773812440810
Finding out specific things about the facility that the staff do not like would be an essential part of a full observational assessment. The patient interviews utilized in this method of assessment would help me as a researcher understand exactly what problems exist. Once we assess the problems it is much easier to figure out an effective way to change. Professional commitment is a very important dimension to a successful nursing culture. I believe this would exist somewhere near the top of Mazlow’s Heirarchy Triangle of Needs. This need would not be met unless other, more basic nursing needs, are met. These basic needs would be effective communication and job satisfaction in my view
Weak communication and follow-through can definitely make something fail. Recently, my job has been trying to implement bedside shift report. I have never seen anything put together with such haste and little guidance. We were told that it was mandatory, but management has been inconsistent with enforcement and many of the veteran nurses are flat out refusing. It has made productivity low and the first 15 minutes of report time chaos as people are trying to figure out what to do.
I like your suggestion that HaysMed give incentives for employees. I think, too often, that people feel under-appreciated with makes job productivity go down and general moral decrease.
Reference:
Thomsen, S. (Producer). (2013). Kotter’s 8 step organizational change model FC. [Video File]. Retrieve from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
My facility has been trying to implement steps on better monitoring of staff and patients. They are setting up cameras throughout the hospital, to ensure that protocol is being followed. I agree that protocol should be followed, however the camera’s invariably leads to paranoia for the staff. Haysmed if the facility wants to keep its doctors it may need to give incentives for the doctors to stay, especially the ones that are productive.
Great Post. Having a strong plan is a must. I think building a vision and focusing on the poignant and creative aspects is essential to drive the change to its next necessary step. When a vision is first created there will be numerous ideas and solutions to consider, however the need to associate all the concepts together to create an overall vision that all management and staff can connect to and easily grasp and retain.