The issue at hand is having a fully staffed respiratory team or not fulfilling the open positions to

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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670

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Management

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Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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The issue at hand is having a fully staffed respiratory team or not fulfilling the open positions to save money and use it somewhere else in the department. The department is fully staffed when there are 125 respiratory therapists; this is with part-time and full-time respiratory therapists. Currently there is only 112 respiratory therapists meaning there is 13 positions opened that can be fulfilled with new employees. The department chair is currently on the fence about hiring 13 new employees when the respiratory care department is in desperate need of a new ABG (Arterial Blood Gas) machine and ventilators. A new ABG machine would allow results to come in faster and potentially save someone’s life. Ventilators when cared for and regularly used are good for years, but the ones in the department that are used are pushing 10 years old and technology has developed better ventilators to help assist patients more effectively when they cannot breath on their own. The main issue here is understaffing. Being understaffed can have multiple negative effects on the department and its reputation. Reputation is everything and if one wrong thing occurs it can damage it entirely. “The majority of business owners around the country worry about spending too much on their labor costs, and for good reason. Service-based businesses might be spending upwards of 50 percent of their total business costs on employees, which might seem like a lot. For other types of businesses, keeping labor costs between 15 and 30 percent is generally considered to be a healthy margin. Though spending too much on labor costs can certainly cut into your company's profit margins, being short-staffed or understaffed might be an even worse scenario (DiVincenzo, 2022).”  Working at a level one trauma hospital and being the biggest in the state a lot of weight is carried with an employee each and every day to uphold its name as well as its standards. “ Hospital understaffing is a major contributor of medical mistakes made due to negligence, which can lead to malpractice claims (Young, 2023).” When it comes to
a decision and the department people have to realize is having better equipment more efficient or having people help pick up the slack when needed when it comes to staffing issues. The decision traps that are fitting for this scenario are shortsighted shortcuts, group failure, not keeping track. Shortsighted shortcuts are trying to get to the end goal while skipping multiple steps. The respiratory care team jumped to conclusions and never gave managers the chance to explain themselves as to why they decided not to hire 13 new employees. Understaffing can be troublesome but it was never given a chance to see the positive side of the outcome. Group failure occurred when we all agreed that it was not okay to not hire new employees. Time and effort goes into training new employees taking away from patient care which can hinder the patient’s outcome. Not keeping track allowed conclusions to be made before the understaffing even began. A survey was sent out immediately by upper management before a weeks’ time has passed to see if there was in hindrance in the performance of the respiratory team. The decision to not hire 13 new employees occurred during the slow season so no major impact would be noticed until the changes of the season. Changes of the season are when respiratory cases pick up volume. The decision traps could have been avoided altogether through communication as a team. Whenever there is major impact whether it is big or small a critical analysis needs to be performed to understand if it really had a big impact on the organization, like understaffing. One has to consider both the pros and cons of the outcome of eliminating 13 positions. Newer ventilators could mean less time spent with patients, which would allow a therapist to take on more volume. This goes hand and hand with the new ABG machine the faster the results the quicker it is to treat and discharge, freeing up time for the therapist. That is the purpose of a critical analysis is to find weaknesses that need to be addressed like understaffing to ensure that
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