Medical Center And Its Impact On The Health Care Industry

Firstly, it will seem that the management and the labor union of any organization have a stake in the success or failure of that organization. The success of the organization has to be the priority or the number one goal of any member or members of the organization. As such, the entire organization has to work as a team in order to succeed, thrive and survive. In the real world, that is not what is happening. As a matter of fact, the labor unions and the management of some organizations see each other as adversaries.

In mid-April 2000, Sherri Worth was faced with some very unsettling news about Pate Memorial Clinic’s future with a competitor potentially moving into the area. Worth was the assistant administrator at Pate Memorial Hospital (PMH) and was also responsible for the Pate Health Clinic (PHC). A study by the competitor was being done to see whether sufficient demand existed to establish a clinic 5 blocks north of PHC. The two biggest concerns in regards to the new competition were:

Change is a hard concept for most, but change in the hospital setting can be beneficial for both staff and patients. According to Mclean (2011), “Every change begins with an ending” (p.79). How people respond to change can make the process easy or hard depending on how the change is presented.

On paper, the merger between these two institutions made sense – both institutions were close to one another and competing for diminishing resources. Together they could reduce administrative costs and join forces to negotiate with large insurance companies. The need to create a new culture and dissolve historically existent power struggles were two large tasks that needed to be addressed in order to ensure a successful merger. However, the way in which the merger was organized did not lead to a successful merger. UCSF Health Care did not spend adequate time creating a shared culture in which the two organizations would see one joint organization with shared power (resources).

The internal resource which can support the change initiative is the employees of the healthcare organization. The employees will support this change because the change will have a positive impact on them. With the recruitment of new employees the work load of the existing employees will change. Thus they will favour the change. The external resource which can support the change initiative is competition. Since due to shortage of employees the quality of care will be reduced and other organizations make take advantage of this and draw patients to their healthcare institution. The healthcare organizations will be forced to bring this change so as to compete with other healthcare

This week’s case looks at the critical situation occurring at Riverview Regional Medical Center located in Etowah County, Alabama. The medical center, located near a strong competitor, is run by a veteran in the hospital management market, Mr Matt Hayes. Hayes is actively in the process of developing new ideas and revolutionary steps in an attempt to remain competitive in the market and regain profitability. The overall performance of Riverview Regional Medical Center appears to have decreased throughout multiple departments except outpatient surgical procedures, outpatient CT imagining, MRI imagining and inpatient MRI scans.

Through merging, the quality of healthcare services is bound to improve while at the same time, the adverse economic impacts that come as a result of closure could be averted. Merging would therefore be a financially viable option to closure.

From a strategic perspective, in order to address its organizational needs, EMC stands a better chance if anchored to a larger, more financially and structurally sound medical entity through the option of a merger. Benefits would include gaining increased bargaining power, the improved ability to retain its best and brightest, a “longer reach” in attracting quality personnel from all around the state or the country at large and a better position from which to compete for customers.

Since most specialty procedures are inpatient services, EMC’s inpatient occupancy rate suffers. The occupancy rate for Emanuel Medical Center – fifty percent – is far below that of its competitors and industry benchmarks. To accompany this, EMC (on average) receives a lower reimbursement for in-patient Medicare services per patient seen in comparison to its competitors. A result such as this is correlated with directly to the fewer amount of specialty services that EMC offers. In order for Emanuel Medical Center to be able to compete with other hospitals in its service area, it is imperative that EMC evaluates what services they currently offer and are capable to offer in the future to add value to the hospital, increase its revenue stream, and expand its patient mix. Currently, Emanuel Medical Center has not succumbed to its increasing financial pressurealthough EMC has had a negative operating income for five straight years. A negative operating income places EMC at a disadvantage because it limits the hospitals ability to renovate its aging building or hire new specialists to offer revenue enhancing procedures. EMC’s competitors, on the other hand, have large sources of revenue due to their mergers with large healthcare networks such as Catholic Healthcare West. Another competitor, Kaiser Permanente Modesto Medical Center, has extremely large financial resources due to the fact

Some hospitals have merged with other healthcare organizations in hopes of providing a more integrated delivery system. However, delivery in many organizations is still quite fragmented leaving many US citizens dissatisfied. According to a 2011 survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund;

“Running a health care organization is a team sport. It is very important that all members of the team-whether on the medical staff, in management or on the board-understand the role of governance and what constitutes effective governance” (Arnwine, 2002). Running a hospital is a difficult task. Several factors need to be seriously thought of and considered in every decision and undertaking. Unfortunately, all the three important factors in governing a hospital is not always in harmony. As likened to a team sport, if the three major components are not working with each other as a team, there will be tension and a great divide will be experienced. And often times, the patients will be in the middle and will be greatly impacted. This writer believes that there are several factors that contribute to the tension that usually exists among the medical staff, the board and administration. One factor is the disconnect, where each entity is not seeing each other eye to eye and their visions may be different from each other. Another factor may be the lack of communication in order to bridge the gap and to build a respectful and a relationship wherein there is trust for each end every member of the group. Often times, the medical staff is concerned with ensuring that patients are cared for in a manner that their practice is protected as well as the patients are getting the appropriate care. On the other hand, the board of trustees may be focused in ensuring that that

Unfortunately, a lot of things went wrong in the UCSF and Stanford merger which ultimately cost them tens of millions of dollars. For instance, they were projected to save almost $300 million by 2020, when in reality they lost almost $90 million in two years’ time. It didn’t help that reimbursement rates were down at the time and patients were starting to move to lower paying plans. One notable problem from the start was that USHC continued to hire and ended up with 1000 new employees. Additionally, the IT costs for the year 2000 were astronomical to say the least, and the merger expenses were double than what

Individuals have been at work for thousands and thousands of years. Over the last century there have been many changes in the United States that protects workers in their positions and the duties they perform. There has been many changes for employers as well that protects companies and organization and offers beneficial information to keep them in compliance with changes and away from any from and form of discrimination. Over the last century there has been the organization of Unions (Bargaining Unit) in which are to protect workers in their positions, give them fair marketable pay and be the liaison between the employer and employee. Union organizations represent employees and negotiate contracts that

The role of management and unions in society today is to protect the employee. The management team needs to make sure she/he is treating the employee fairly, needs to provide a good work environment. If management fails to do a good job and the employee feels discriminated, treated unfairly, feels discontent for different reason, management does not want the union to get involved, they feel respect for unions and will do whatever it takes to make their team happy. This is why so many companies have employee parties, employee recognitions, etc.

The company needs to get the employees on board and support them. The staff do not seem to think the company has their best needs on board and are looking to join the Unite trade union, which the company does not recognise. Trade Unions are not there just to protect their members in matters against their