WEEK TWO DISCUSSION TWO REPLIES

1. Respond to at least two peers with EACH question. Peer posts must be thoughtful, insightful and rich in content.

2. 150 word minimum.

Ricardo Moctezuma

Medical jobs require the employment of physicians (clinical doctors) with medical training, expertise, and licensing. 

Physicians would affect me as a manager (and may complicate the HCO structure) because they primarily possess enormous autonomy. This is because of their extensive medical expertise and training that takes multiple years to complete. Because of this, the presence and autonomy of physicians affect the “traditional” organizational structure usually composed of employees, followed by managers, followed by directors, followed by C-suite, and intermediaries. Furthermore, the HCO may be split into different structures: the management structure (the “traditional” manner occupied by associates) and the medical staff structure (with nurses and physician associates being under the physician) (Moseley, 2023).

Because of this power discrepancy, managers do not supervise physicians as they do with other employees. Thus, physicians have different leadership behaviors than other associates within the HCO. In hospitals, physicians carry out numerous responsibilities: they perform clinical procedures, provide direction for clinical staff, and interact with outpatient surgery centers, health insurance companies, and other HCOs (Mascie-Taylor, 2003). As a result, clinical workers may have not one, but two bosses: the physician himself/herself as well as the manager. This generates further tension, as physicians primarily focus on delivering the best patient-centered care, whereas administrators tend to manage resources and optimize for the bottom line (Edwards et al., 2003).    

Physicians usually consist of surgeons, radiologists, anesthesiologists, and so forth. However, the structure becomes complicated once these physicians occupy administrative positions, such as Radiology Medical Director, VP of Medical Affairs, etc. (Moseley, 2023). The reason for this is that these positions do not align as neatly with the traditional chain of command at any other business organization; a tech startup has a clear organizational flowchart with the CEO being at the helm, followed by the other Chiefs, and with the programmers and other associates being at the base.  

References

Edwards, N., Marshall, M., McLellan, A., & Abbasi, K. (2003). Doctors and managers: a problem without a solution?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 326(7390), 609–610. 

Mascie-Taylor H. (2003). Doctors and managers. Agreeing objectives could help doctors and managers work well together. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 326(7390), 656. 

Moseley, C. (2023, January). Week 2 – Management. HCA 620 – Health Organization Management. Online; Online.

Noelle Richards

Whether healthcare managers realize it or not, provider workflow strongly affects their day-to-day work. From handling patient experience feedback to filing reports for safety and compliance purposes, managers must work around the way that providers operate to ensure the clinic or hospital department is running smoothly. The textbook provided a statement that I find to be incredibly true, and that is that there is a lot of gray area between administration and medicine in healthcare organizations, and that the reason for this is both hold a responsibility to ensure the patient is well-cared for (Olden, 2019). Practice managers at my company are tasked with responding to negative feedback about the providers in order to promote patient retention and improve patient experience, which means that if the patient leaves the exam room feeling that the provider did not give proper care, the weight then falls on the shoulders of the practice manager to extend an olive branch and continue to medicine to ensure referrals, prescriptions, safety reports, and more are pushed through for patient satisfaction. Managers can develop leadership styles that build trust with providers and other staff to ensure patient safety and satisfaction is placed at the forefront, and make each person involved recognize that every single interaction that patients have once they step inside of the healthcare center affects the patient’s view on the organization – not just the medical decisions (Wong & Cummings, 2009). 

References:

Olden, P. (2019).  Management of Healthcare Organizations: An Introduction (3rd ed.). Health Administration Press.

Wong, C. A., & Cummings, G. G. (2009). The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff.  Journal of Leadership Studies,  3(2), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.20104