The case surrounds the management of Brendan hospital where Mr. Don Wherry is the CEO. Mr. wherry is going through a rough time after he lost favor with the board Of Trustees, doctors, and nurses. Many allegations are made against him including negligence of his duties, lack of professionalism, and leadership. The case, therefore, involves a management crisis that needs urgent resolution (Inglehart, 1996).
Case analysis
The situation in Brendan hospital seems to have gotten out of hand for the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Don Wherry. There seems to be a lot of activities that have been going on in the hospital in the Chief Executive Officer’s ignorance. There is a lot of office politics among the Board of Trustees, departmental heads dissatisfaction that he has to control, and general lack of cooperation in the hospital.
It also seems that communications channels in the hospital; both horizontal and vertical are either ineffective or absent.
As the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wherry needs to be in charge of everything. He has to be able to balance between the demands of his bosses; the Board of Trustees, the ambitions of departmental managers, and the needs of patients (Khuri, Daley, and Henderson, 2002).
Moreover, it seems that people are not being accountable and are taking the Chief Executive Officer as a sacrificial lamb. Both nurses and doctors need to be responsible. When they feel demoralized at the place of work they do not have to lay blame on the CEO. They need to manage their time properly so that they have adequate time for their families, their job, and rest. Patients on the other hand need to make their arrangement of settling their bills and doing a follow-up to ensure they are getting what they are paying for. If each participant can be responsible for their actions in the hospital, then a proper environment will be created for peaceful coexistence (Romm, 2001).
Mr. Don Wherry, the CEO of the hospital has failed to communicate to the Board of Trustees about day to day activities of the hospital. Maybe he assumes that has stayed on the board for some time now, they ought to be understanding the hospital processes. This might not be true; he needs to inform them of every step and decision he is making. This will be to his advantage because the faster they learn of his latest policies, the earlier they can support him or offer constructive criticism.
He should inform them that while coming up with a hospital price system, he considers inflation and market characteristics. They have to know that hospitals have to implement a market-driven pricing system. He also has to put into consideration government legislation while creating a system for noninsured patients. The price system of a hospital needs to put a balance between price and quality.
This means that some consumers will shop for cheaper services especially the noninsured while others who have insurance cover would seek quality. Sometimes coming up with a system that balances between the two features is not an easy task. The Board of Trustees needs to understand this clearly. The Board of Trustees needs to understand that the CEO has to create a more market-driven price system that is affordable to both rich and poor patients (Roberts, 1982).
The CEO could also decide to document price requests to enable the hospital to meet the demand generated by vast new offerings of consumer-driven or high deductive health plans. The business office of the hospital should maintain statistics on patient requests so that hospitals can gather useful data about market needs and continually improve their processes for responding. The pricing system should therefore be able to serve beyond curiosity but should be based on real market factors on the ground.
Reference List
Inglehart, J.K. (1996). Reform of the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. The New England Journal of Medicine, 335 (18), 16-32.
Khuri, S.F., Daley, J. and Henderson, W.G. (2002). The Comparative Assessment and Improvement of Quality Surgical Care In Te Department Of Veteran Affairs. Archives Surgery, 137 (I), 20-27.
Roberts, J. (1982). Accountability in Athenian Government. Washington DC: Wiscons University Press.
Romm, R.A. (2001). Accountability in Social Research. New York: Springer.