Assignment 3
Health care administration leaders face many challenges when executing decision making for day-to-day operations in their organizations. For example, consider how organization-wide initiatives, such as promoting patient and employee safety, represent overarching guidelines that a health care administration leader must ensure are thoroughly enforced.
How might health care administration leaders determine what is best for their organization? What types of considerations might health care administrators take into account when enforcing organizational guidelines and practices?
For this Assignment, review the resources for this week and the “Case Study Assignment” document. Reflect on the issues presented in the Case Study assigned and consider how you might approach the case as a health care administration leader.
Individual Case Study Analysis (1–2 pages):
- Create an individual Case Study Analysis that includes:
A summary of the facts associated with the case, including the primary leaders
A description of skills and traits of the primary leaders in this case
Week 4 Case Study Assignment
Case Study 1: Higher Payments for Hire
One of the performance goals for the Health and Wellness Consortium (HWC), a multi-
health system for-profit corporation, is to drive up profit margins while minimizing
payments for medical care. The CFO of HWC examines and reviews the financial
records of the services provided by the health systems in HWC. The CFO determines
that supplying each health system with a 24-hour acute care clinic would allow other
departments within the HWC to increase profit margins. The CFO organizes a meeting
with the CEO of HWC to determine how they might be able to recoup lost profits in a 24-
hour acute care clinic if patients do not carry health insurance.
The CFO has organized a planning meeting with the CEO of a debt collection agency,
Assured Payments, to see how they might be able to offer services for recouping lost
payments in the 24-hour acute care clinic within the HWC. The debt collection agency,
Assured Payments, has suggested that they post two of their debt collectors as intake
receptionists at the 24-hour acute care clinics within the HWC to not only process
admissions paperwork but to also assist in instituting an upfront fee collection of $250
for acute health services. The debt collectors who are employed by Assured Payments
will not disclose their association with the debt collection agency and instead will
represent each individual 24-hour acute care clinic within the HWC.
After three months of instituting this new strategy, the CFO of HWC is happy to provide
a profit margin summary to the CEO of HWC that indicates that revenues are on the up
and up. Shortly thereafter, the CEO of HWC receives a heated phone call from the
Attorney General of the state in which HWC operates. The Attorney General’s office has
received numerous complaints detailing how aggressive debt collectors are stationed
within the 24-hour acute care clinics serving the HWC. Furthermore, private health
information has been stored for each patient/client within the Assured Payments
database, which does not have fully encrypted security measures that allow any
employee or representative of Assured Payments to gain complete access to patient
records. The CEO is charged with a violation of HIPAA policies as well as intentional
misrepresentation and collusion to use debt collectors as agents of HWC.
Case Study 2: Inappropriate Use for Points
You are the health care administrator overseeing the operations at New Haven Wound
Treatment Center. You have noticed that several of the nurse managers and nurses
have increased recommendations to physicians on using a new product, Healthy
Healing, for patients in the wound treatment center. You have received complaints from
some physicians in the wound treatment center that have indicated that the nurses are
quite insistent and appear to be ignoring doctor’s orders for treatment on using a
different product that is less expensive and just as efficacious.
You decide to do a walk-through in the wound treatment center. You meet with the
nurse managers and hold a brief meeting with the nurses during their breaks to
determine why Healthy Healing is considered a superior product. While the nurse
managers and nurses appear to quote material from a sales brochure highlighting the
benefits of using Healthy Healing, you are familiar with the other products that doctors
have used over several years that have contributed to successful and effective results
for patients in the wound treatment center.
As you wrap up your meetings and walk-through, you overhear a nurse manager
discussing her newest purchase that she was able to get as a result of HH points. The
nurse manager exclaims, “Next month, I will be sure to use enough Healthy Healing so
that I can earn the HH points needed to get that trip for two to Paris!” You cannot help
but feel that this represents a direct conflict of interest and decide to approach the nurse
manager about the HH points system. The nurse manager is surprised to see you and
begins explaining how for every instance of Healthy Healing used, nurses receive
various points. The more Healthy Healing product used, the more points the nurses
earn. These points, called HH points, can then be used to trade in for various products
and goods in the Healthy Healing catalog.
You ask the nurse manager if she sees a problem with this and she immediately
defends back, “Those sales people walk up and down these halls every week. If the
hospital or center did not want us to use these products and take advantage of the
perks, they would not allow them to be here in the first place.”
You immediately determine that this does indeed present a problem and you organize a
meeting with the CEO of the New Haven Wound Treatment Center to initiate the
cancellation of the Healthy Healing points system.
Case Study 3: An Inconvenient HR Challenge
As the hospital administrator for Forest Glenn Medical Center, you oversee human
resources functions for the medical center. Recently, within the outpatient medical team,
three of the five doctors have submitted resignation letters effective immediately. You
recognize that this presents a big problem because the outpatient medical team is a
high-performance area in the medical center and cannot function with two full-time
physicians alone. You immediately organize a meeting with the director of the outpatient
medical team, Dr. Caron, to determine why these physicians are so determined to
resign immediately.
You meet with Dr. Caron and he states that he is just as surprised as you are that three
of his team members have decided to leave suddenly. He is at a complete loss as to
why they have decided to leave. After meeting with Dr. Caron, you decide to set up
individual meetings with the three physicians, Dr. Lowe, Dr. Howell, and Dr. Cardenas,
to process and discuss their resignations.
Upon meeting with Dr. Lowe and his purpose for resigning, he states, “I just could not
continue working for a tyrannical leader like Dr. Caron. While I love providing care to our
patients and working for Forest Glenn, I cannot live up to the standards that Dr. Caron
wants. Nor does he even let me try.” You decide to delve a little deeper into this
complaint and mention to Dr. Lowe that there is a process in place to submit complaints
for a hostile work environment. He states that he did not want to get anyone in trouble,
and that he would rather find employment elsewhere.
You then meet with Dr. Howell and Dr. Cardenas, who appear to corroborate with Dr.
Lowe’s reasoning on resigning from Forest Glenn. You approach them with the
possibility of talking to Dr. Caron about these complaints and whether they would be
willing to stay while you search for suitable replacements if the hostile work environment
is alleviated. Both Dr. Howell and Cardenas agree that they would be willing to stay for
two months while you address the issues with Dr. Caron in the outpatient medical team.
You immediately schedule a meeting with Dr. Caron to discuss the complaints and to
initiate necessary steps for the establishment of a productive and effective work
environment.
Case Study 4: Privacy at Lakeview Medical Center
You are the CEO at Lakeview Medical Center, an urban medical center, consisting of
two acute care hospitals, a medical school, a dental annex, and an allied health
complex. Earlier this morning, your Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) enters your office
quite frantic and relays the following story:
Mrs. Henry was a patient on one of your med/surgical floors. She was experiencing
some complications when a medical team rushed into her room to resuscitate her.
When she came to, she looked up and noticed a man in her room observing the entire
scene. She dismissed this, thinking that he was probably a member of the medical team
or the administrative staff. As the medical team proceeds to attend to her, she was
shuffled around and she felt very aware of the fact that this man kept staring at her
throughout the ordeal. After a few minutes, Mrs. Henry asked the nurse, “Who is that
man in my room and why is he here?” The nurse quickly addressed her and responded,
“Oh, him? That’s Mr. Davis. His wife has been in here for over two weeks. Don’t pay him
any attention, he likes to roam the hallways and peek in every now and then to see if
any action is going on.”
Mrs. Henry was quite upset and devastated that her privacy and safety was
compromised. Worse yet, Mr. Davis was a complete stranger and no one was even
aware that he was in the room the whole time.
The COO then proceeds to hand you a letter that was delivered by the Henrys’ family
attorney requesting immediate action on what you, as the CEO, intend to do to uphold
the privacy and safety for all your patients in your medical center. The attorney has
advised that you respond to his notice immediately or he will be contacting the media on
how patient rights are not taken seriously at your facilities.