Healthcare management also referred to as healthcare administration is the administration, management or oversight of healthcare systems, public health systems, hospitals, entire hospital networks or other medical facilities.

Case Study of a Healthcare Management Situation

The vice president for patient care services (VP-PCS) and the vice president for medical affairs (VP-MA) at Northeast Medical Center (NMC) were very concerned about coordination between medicine and nursing in the inpatient medical/surgical units. NMC was a large tertiary-care teaching hospital, affiliated with the Northeast Schools of Medicine (NSOM) and Nursing (NSON).

NMC participated in a joint residency program with three other hospitals affiliated with NSOM. Most residents spent six weeks at NMC. From the VPs’ observation, there was a sharp decrease in coordination after the implementation of restrictions on resident hours. The VP-PCS noted, “The residents rotate through our hospital so quickly that the nurses hardly get to know their names, much less establish a working relationship.”

Furthermore, from the VPS observation, handoffs of patients from one resident team to another were problematic. This was as a result of the shorter shifts of work by the residents. The VP-MA suggested expanding NMC’s hospitalist program to address the coordination problems. He argued that hospitalists would provide consistent medical coverage that would compensate for what he called “fragmented” coverage by residents. However, there was opposition to this proposal from the chief of medicine. His argument was about negatively affecting the educational experience of residents by reducing their responsibilities. In this argument by the chairman of medicine at NSOM aslo backs him. As is common in academic centers, the chief of medicine reports to the VP-MA at NMC and also to the chairman of medicine at NSOM.

Task
Using healthcare management as the basis of the case study, describe all individuals and groups within the scenario you feel were impacted by the coordination concern. Then, take one of the individual’s or groups’ perspectives and argue for, or against, the hospitalist expansion program. Finally, be sure to include a rationale.

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