The Health care supervisor最新文献

Most health care managers wonder how to change employee "attitudes" so that their staff will be more accountable for patient satisfaction, cost reduction, and quality of care. Employees were trained to function in an industry where the power players were the physician and the administrator and now it is exceedingly difficult to get them to switch their attention to the patient and the payer in a market-driven economy. For hospital managers, the answer may be right at their fingertips: The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' standards demanding that employee competence be objectively measured, proven, tracked & trended, improved, and age specific. A comprehensive competence assessment system can save the health care manager enormous work in measuring fewer things, focusing performance assessment on the 20 percent of things that are true problems, and helping to specifically define certain competencies such as customer focus and cost consciousness so that coaching, training, and giving performance feedback is easier. Developing a comprehensive competence assessment system is a powerful tool to change the culture of organizations. Consequently, it is important that managers be aware of those possibilities before they embark on developing "competencies" or before their organizations get too carried away on redesigning systems to satisfy standards.

Many health care organizations are cutting costs by eliminating or reducing their recognition and award systems. Salary increases and bonuses are harder to come by. To compensate for these losses at a time when morale is flagging and stress is increasing, it is imperative for supervisors and managers to fine-tune their recognition and reward skills.

Health care managers find their work increasingly difficult, due in part to rapid environmental change that plagues organizational life. Management practices and attitudes that may have been appropriate in previous eras are ineffective today. A study was conducted among managers in the Ministry of Health, State of Bahrain, seeking information about current trends in the macro or external environment that affect the Ministry of Health, as well as internal environmental pressures that may be similar or different. This article provides a clear picture of the context in which managers perform their work and offers recommendations for coping with change in dynamic, complex organizations.

Crazy behavior is an aspect of organizational life. This article examines the two sides of crazy behavior, positive and negative, and suggests guidelines for its management so that it does not become pathological or destructive to the competence of the organization. Crazy behavior is related to professional and ethical behavior, but the boundaries of craziness are often less clear than those for professional and ethical behavior. Therefore, crazy behavior is often tolerated, if not supported and encouraged, by the reactions of administrators.

Health care supervisors are being driven by the rapid changes in health care today. One demand is to complete their undergraduate degree or even a graduate degree. Few of us are able to devote the many hours required to attend on-campus classes full time. Now there is an alternative. Busy health care supervisors can now complete their undergraduate or graduate degrees from the comfort of their home--maintaining a job and family life.

Formula management is the unjustified reliance on a set of rules or prescribed behaviors--a management formula, fad, or "flavor-of-the-month"--as the answer to an organization's needs. It is the manifestation of a tendency to believe that the essence of management can be proceduralized, that the art of management can be replaced with an expanding science of management. This tendency has been repeatedly demonstrated in the application of concepts such as management by objectives (MBO) and the variants of total quality management (TQM). All of management's "formulas" have their place; however, none of them provide all of management's needed answers. To view any of the specifically delineated "kinds of management"--all of which are highly susceptible to misapplication and resistance to change both blatant and subtle--as a cure-all is fully as inappropriate as denying their value out of hand. Formula or not, organizational results will continue to depend on the practice of the art, as well as the science, of management.

Change is a significant concept in health care. It is critical that health care professionals understand change dynamics and implement strategies to adapt to the changes in the modern workplace.

This article focuses on methods of resolving conflict either within or between health care organizations using an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) strategy. After identifying the principal sources of contemporary disagreements within health services settings, the authors describe the basis of ADR. This is followed by a discussion of some common obstacles to settling a dispute. The principal communication guidelines and stages of a mediation session are presented. An alternative dispute resolution framework is proposed that includes an Office of Dispute Resolution (ODR). Also provided is a series of attributes that together comprise the core of mediation as a discipline.

This study investigated the impact of music on visitors in a hospital surgery/intensive care unit waiting room. The researchers controlled the presence/absence of music in the waiting area. Visitors' stress levels and perceptions of customer service were assessed through a questionnaire handed out by hospital volunteers. Results indicated that music reduced self-reported stress levels and that visitor stress levels were inversely related to perceptions of customer service. The implications of these findings for supervisors and other health care personnel are discussed.

Beset with job uncertainty and shifting responsibilities, today's health care supervisors are faced with frequent decisions that impact their careers and professional status. To stand pat and avoid change usually involve greater risk than taking chances and may result in job loss. To make bad decisions can also be detrimental. The goal of this article is to encourage one to accept accountability, to avoid the "victim complex," and to make decisions more effectively.