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Introduction
The case study concerning Hillside Hospital illustrates the abundance of challenges that the healthcare institution has encountered over the years, which have significantly affected its profitability and care quality. The institution’s mission statement has clearly established its responsibility to improve community health; however, sadly, the public perception was that the requirement was not being met (Perry, 2020). The ethical issues that the institution’s executive encountered included questions regarding which method is appropriate for addressing the financial shortcomings of the organization, who should be the authority for the proper course of action, and whether more people should be involved in the senior management. Besides, ethical issues were encountered when it comes to the adherence to the mission and value statements of the organization and its standards, as well as clinical quality overall.
Discussion
It remained unclear whether rightsizing and thus the reduction of staff at the facility was the correct answer to solving financial issues. While reducing the number of employees at the facility would reduce expenses, it will not solve care quality problems because there would be fewer professionals available to provide care to patients (Teisberg et al., 2020). As a result, care quality indicators would decline, leading to adverse patient outcomes, their decreased satisfaction, and lower ratings of Hillside Hospital among its competitors in the area. The most ethical solution is seeking investment and financial assistance from third parties, including non-governmental organizations, and implementing staff training initiatives aimed at strengthening care quality. Investment in care quality is an ethical solution because it ensures that the number of professionals at the facility remains the same; however, the focus on care quality will neutralize the financial investment and ensure that the staff meets the established standards of patient care.
Teamwork and collaboration are considered the cornerstones of quality improvement and financial well-being. While senior management possesses data on relevant areas of performance, including economic outcomes, they lack clarity regarding smaller everyday processes that occur at the facility. The problem with listening to senior staff only is that they operate in larger categories; for example, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Hillside determined that the most significant area of expenses at the facility is linked to staff, thus encouraging rightsizing. However, what the CFO did not take into consideration is the daily impact of reducing personnel numbers at the facility, which could lead to poor patient outcomes and reduced care quality altogether.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is recommended for the CEO to listen directly to nurses, doctors, and management personnel to identify the most pressing issues that they experience on a regular basis when dealing with patients. By doing so, the CEO could gather the most comprehensive information regarding diagnostic difficulties, patient stay times, the need for equipment, reasons for personnel dissatisfaction and turnover, as well as issues with staffing and scheduling, such as overtime work. Research findings have shown that the quality of environments at healthcare institutions directly influences practitioners’ effectiveness in caring for their patients (Busse et al., 2019). Because staff deals with these problems on a daily basis, they represent a group to which the CEO should listen to identify the most relevant risks and pressing issues and determine strategies for solving them. Thus, the combination of improved human resource efforts and seeking financial support from relevant organizations and investors could solve Hillside’s financial problem.
References
Busse, R., Klazinga, N., Panteli, D., & Quentin, W. (2019). Improving health quality in Europe: Characteristics, effectiveness and implementation of different strategies. Web.
Perry, F. (2020). Ethics and management dilemmas in healthcare. Health Administration Press.
Teisberg, E., Wallace, S., & O’Hara, S. (2020). Defining and implementing value-based health care: A strategic framework. Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 95(5), 682-685. Web.
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