Managing a successful healthcare organization like a hospital can be difficult due to many different factors. One of the most problematic relationships is between the administration and the clinical side. This has been an ongoing conflict for quite sometime now. I personally can speak from experience and say there is a misunderstanding between the patient and the medical staff sometimes as well. The patient has a different perspective and understanding of things than the medical staff does and I believe this is the same situation with the administration side and clinical side of the hospital. The CEO and administration side wants everything to run smoothly and provide the best outcome for the patient but this isn't always easy when the administration starts telling the clinical side how to do things. A Chief
Physician Executive at a hospital presented to my health management class. He spoke a lot about this conflict. The physician made a comment that really caught my attention and that was, " Physicians are the best judges of one another because we understand what the other physicians are doing and how to best critique each other.". I find this to be extremely important because physicians are not trying to ignore other's ideas and critiques but physicians can provide the best advice to other physicians. They may have experienced the same situation or one very similar and have first hand experience. Many physicians know how one another feel and understand situations the same way.
Spreading knowledge and educating all medical staff that new ideas are welcomed but staff in similar specialities will critique each other best could be an important step towards closing this conflict gap. Understanding that nurses know nurses best, physicians know physicians best, and administration knows administration best, may help ease change and improvement. Educating nurses, physicians, and administration on each other's understanding is also essential to closing the gap. Understanding who you're working with and understanding the patient's best interest is critical in all health care organizations.
Hi Kayli,
ReplyDeleteAs you begin your career after graduation, you will quickly notice the "admin vs clinical" struggle. Getting buy-in from multiple clinical specialties, especially when you come from the administrative side, can be difficult. I want to take your post one step further by explaining how important getting "champions" are in order for successful rollouts. For example, if IT is rolling out a new EMR, the best way to do it is to have nurse champions, MD champions, etc who already buy in to the idea and can get other people from their specialty on board.
While understanding that nurses know nursing best, etc. is a helpful as you say, it is also important to ensure that task forces are multidisciplinary and have the right people at the table.
You've succintly identified an age-old existential challenge within healthcare. I think, to some degree, this came about when hospitals moved more to a for-profit mentality as a business, and away from charity and/or community-supported healthcare entities which existed prior to Medicare's creation in the 1960s. In addition, some clinicians simply have no clue how expensive modern treatments are, both in terms of capital equipment outlay and personnel costs. It's the admin's job to ensure the facility remains financially viable as a going concern.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you might enjoy reading this article, and particularly the reader comments which follow it. Some comments are from folks simply with an axe to grind, some other comments might provide perspective.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/human-capital-and-risk/hospitals-face-unprecedented-turnover-attrition-rates-4-survey-findings.html
Evaluating professionals is a challenge. In every large organization, you are going to find professionals with high levels of skill that a lay person could not evaluate. It's important to develop skill at dealing with that fact if you are going to move up in the hierarchy.
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