Hard Elements of Change
As it is well-known, our governments spends an enormous sum of its expenditure on health care. Often a certain percent of this money usually goes to waste or even unaccounted for or misused through ordering unnecessary tests. It is then important for the Healthcare stakeholders and the government to cut down on the cost of Healthcare to reduce wastage of resources that would be used elsewhere effectively. High level of competition in the health care field has an impact on the capability of resources being given to different health care providers. This paper uses the storytelling technique as an efficient and effective tool to move the necessary change forward (Austin, Lemermeyer, Goldberg, Bergum & Johnson, 2005). The proposed change entails various strategies to reduce the health care cost by health care providers by avoiding the unnecessary ordering of tests (Axt-Adam, Van Der Wouden & Van der Does, 2013). This article discusses both soft and hard elements of change, how they facilitate or become barriers to the needed change in eliminating the ordering of unnecessary tests (Miyakis, Karamanof, Liontos & Mountokalakis, 2006).
Hard elements can be easy to be tackled, and at the same time, it can be challenging causing serious problems and setbacks in an organization if not addressed. An effective response to change is hard and often become an issue in the running of a firm and may turn out fatal for instance when the limited resources are used in the ordering of unnecessary tests (Rycroft-Malone, Kitson, Harvey, McCormack, Seers, Titchen & Estabrooks, 2012).
A primary key in health care provision is management (Holman & Lorig, 2004), professionals in the medical field are obligated to acquire expertise required to perform and undertake the respective professional tasks (Al-Abri, 2007). Change in Managing is the process of handling complexities that always occur around us. In we can be for the change or against the change. Change in managing is dynamic and complex that always turns out to be a challenge. The prediction on health care is difficult due to its rapid occurrence (Parkin, 2009).
Managing change would favor efficient performance if the managing staff of the health care is in support for the change then the health care facility would be advantageous. The management should have a clear view of the structure and project links that of its facility (Parkin, 2009).
Quality service provided by this health care facilities should always be of a high standard. This high-quality services help restore patient ability and make them function normally again. The central achievement of a health care firm is to improve the already running health care and to work on new areas that need focus. Improvement of quality services and reducing the errors of medical work is necessary in reduction of ordering of unnecessary tests. An excellent quality service should involve communication, and have a serious way of handling problems as they arise at any time (Duggirala, Rajendran & Anantharaman, 2008).
Managing Change
Every service ordered in a health care should focus on a professional level. Agencies such as Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are working hard to develop, test and try out the new measure in the giving of quality services. Underuse or overuse of health care services is not acceptable. When quality services are offered it also reduce the loss of lives from patients who need the quality medical attention (Duggirala, Rajendran & Anantharaman, 2008). This quality services also help in the in the full achievement of the health facility set goals.
Quality service can be a barrier to change in such a way that when the professionals in a given health care facility offer low standard, this will hinder change. This would make it hard for cutting down the cost because more resources would be needed to cater for such kind of incompetence (Duggirala, Rajendran & Anantharaman, 2008).
The soft element of change can be easy to sited and work in the improvement of it in the reduction of cost in the health care sector (Aarons, Sommerfeld & Willging, 2011). Such elements are necessary to be tackled to make the health care industry friendly and safe to work in.
Culture change is a journey that has no fixed date of completion or has any shortcut. This is a journey that is always moving. Leaders and management staff should have a clear and well-understanding state of the current affairs in the organization and medical field as a whole to reduce unnecessary tests. Bright visions and behavior alignment should be checked on regular basis. Often survey of the health facility should be carried out to check and undertake ways in which challenges are affecting the organization. Such Surveys done is a major step in achieving ways in which culture change can be tracked. Problems that arise should be well addressed to a full potential to avoid any further setbacks (Hertter, 2011). The ongoing process cultural shift can be achieved by; having a clear and transparent assessment of the organization culture, a well set desired goal of the organization, code of desired behavior and offering rewards and gifts as encouragement.
Having a positive culture change in an organization will enable reduction of cost because the workers in the organization will work to their full potential of professionalism. Culture change is essential and should be taken seriously to ensure that the resources are not wasted. When the culture of the organization is active, the set goals are easily achieved (Hertter, 2011).
Quality Service
A critical health system plays an important part in health improvement. A health system that is well-functioning and helps in the achievement of good health. The well-functioning system is critical in efficient and accurate response to health emergencies. The global health field is always changing, by this is hard and unpredictable to face this challenge (Young & McClean, 2008).
Systematic thinking is necessary and a major tool and a dominant language of communication in the organization, it is helpful to consider system thinking as it enables for future expectations. System thinking allows finding in the same field to be connected to a notion of the whole entity (Young & McClean, 2008). System thinking enables the quality improvement of the perceptions and interactions in between levels.
System thinking would act as a barrier as it is hard for a whole organization to think and work the same. Different people work and think differently. This makes it a major challenge in the reduction of cost in medical fields (Young & McClean, 2008).
Conclusion
Cutting down the cost of health cost is left do the organization to follow and set flexible but strict methods in which the work was done is of the highest standard but a reasonable price through reduction of unnecessary tests. (Horngren, 2009). The paper has highlighted the hard and soft elements of change in the healthcare system. Medical personnel’s and the patient should try and reduce this is such a way after a patient visit one clinic should not hope to another in search of the same kind of consultation. Medical personnel should try and find out whether the patient background of the same illness or condition they are to be treated for. This would reduce wastage of resources and facilitate effective treatment. The organization should set strict measure to punish medical personnel found in underuse or over the use of resources on a patient.
The government should also acquire expenditure spend from this health care services on either on an annual basis or monthly basis. Any health facility with doctored outcome should face strict penalties. The organization should also check in its management status and work out where they find errors and mismanagement. When all this is achieved resources would be used properly avoiding any wastage (Miyakis et al. 2006).
References
Aarons, G. A., Sommerfeld, D. H., & Willging, C. E. (2011). The soft underbelly of system change: The role of leadership and organizational climate in turnover during statewide behavioral health reform. Psychological Services, 8(4), 269.
Al-Abri, R. (2007). Managing change in healthcare. Oman medical journal, 22(3), 9.
Austin, W., Lemermeyer, G., Goldberg, L., Bergum, V., & Johnson, M. S. (2005, March). Moral distress in healthcare practice: the situation of nurses. In HEC forum (Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 33-48). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Axt-Adam, P., Van Der Wouden, J. C., & Van der Does, E. (2013). Influencing behavior of physicians ordering laboratory tests: a literature study. Medical care, 784-794.
Duggirala, M., Rajendran, C., & Anantharaman, R. N. (2008). Patient-perceived dimensions of total quality service in healthcare. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 15(5), 560-583.
Hertter, J. (2011). Culture Change and Healthcare.
Horngren, C. T. (2009). Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis, 13/e. Pearson Education India.
Miyakis, S., Karamanof, G., Liontos, M., & Mountokalakis, T. D. (2006). Factors contributing to inappropriate ordering of tests in an academic medical department and the effect of an educational feedback strategy. Postgraduate medical journal, 82(974), 823-829.
Rycroft-Malone, J., Kitson, A., Harvey, G., McCormack, B., Seers, K., Titchen, A., & Estabrooks, C. (2012). Ingredients for change: revisiting a conceptual framework. Quality and safety in Health care, 11(2), 174-180.
Young, T. P., & McClean, S. I. (2008). A critical look at Lean Thinking in healthcare. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 17(5), 382-386.
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