Choose two issues or challenges that the leaders of today’s health care organizations face.
Select from among the following topics:
-Staff Shortage (Physicians, Nurses, Allied Health Providers, Ancillary Services)
-Reorganization in Response to Merger or Consolidation of Services
-Layoffs as a Result of Declining Revenues
-Influx of Registry, Part-Time, and Temporary Contract Staff
-Poor Performance Outcomes Leading to a Reduction in Medicare Reimbursement Dollars
-Poor Job Satisfaction Rates Resulting in Turnover
You are the manager of an ancillary service department at a large, 500+ bed hospital.
Develop a proposal (750-1,200 words) that is directed toward your staff, in which you
address the following:
1) Inform the staff of the two issues (from the topics provided) your organization is facing.
2) Describe the impact of these issues on your department.
3) Describe how improved communication, collaboration, and teamwork can improve
conditions in your department.
4) Identify at least two examples from the required or recommended readings of techniques
found to foster inclusion and improve communication and collaboration.
A minimum of three academic references from credible sources are required for this
assignment.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide,
located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
Developing a Shared Vision
Workforce shortage is one of the challenges facing the provision of health care services
in the United States of America (USA) and other countries in the globe (Buchan, Duffield, &
Jordan, 2015). Shortage of healthcare workforce in the USA accounts for about11% of all the
vacancies for Registered Nurses (Buchan, Duffield, & Jordan, 2015). The outcome of healthcare
services is a significant concern for all the health care providers including the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Healthcare outcome parameters such as quality and
safety are used to determine reimbursement of healthcare services by CMS for the services
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION2
rendered. This paper discusses healthcare staff shortage and poor outcomes as issues facing the
laboratory department in a large hospital.
Information and Impact of Staff Shortage
Shortage of Staff
Shortage of staff is one of the issues facing the department. The amount of work exceeds
the available number of workers in the department. There has been an increasing demand for the
services of the department due to the overall demand for healthcare services. The staff in the
department perform extra amount of work to compensate for staff shortage. Staff shortage leads
to corresponding increase in the amount of work assigned to any worker (DesRoches, Buerhaus,
Dittus, & Donelan, 2015). Therefore, the available members of the staff in the department
performs extra amount of work created by the shortage.
Shortage of staff in the department compromises the quality of services offered. The aim
of the healthcare organization is to provide quality and safe healthcare services. The services
offered by the laboratory department form a crucial requirement to achieve this objective. The
lack of sufficient size of workforce within the department has led to inadequate variety of skills
and expertise (DesRoches et al., 2015).Subsequently; the department cannot provide some of the
services to the expected standards due to staff shortage.
The shortage of staff in the department prolongs patients’ waiting time. The department
provides services that are necessary for diagnosis and patient evaluation by the clinicians.
Shortage of staff in the department delays the collection of specimen and samples, conduction of
the tests and release of the results of the tests. Overall, the time patients spend waiting to receive
be assessed diagnosed or evaluated using laboratory results increases (DesRoches et al., 2015).
Poor Healthcare Outcomes
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION3
The outcome of the services provided in the departments has been a concern. The
department is essential in providing diagnostic data. However, different clinicians have raised
concerns on the accuracy of the diagnostic results provided by the laboratory department (Reeves
et al., 2017).
Poor health outcomes in the department lead to misdiagnosis. The laboratory department
provides crucial data necessary for making a diagnosis. Inaccuracy of the tests misguides
clinicians making diagnosis (Reeves et al., 2017). Misdiagnosis leads to inappropriate treatment
and poor patient outcomes and compromises patient safety.
Communication, Collaboration, and Teamwork
Shortage of staff
Communication solves staff shortage. Staff shortage is characterized by excess fatigue
and may result into burn out syndrome. Further, shortage of staff creates a mixture of skill and
expertise that is not sufficient to meet the demand for the services. Improved communication
within the team members facilitates the identification of the impact of staff shortage and the
deficit in the skills. The data collected from the employees through improve communication is
used to develop measures to acquire employees with the required skills (DesRoches et al., 2015).
Further, the data is useful to identify the areas of expertise which the available staff members
should be trained on.
Collaboration is key solving staff shortage in the laboratory department. One of the
universal and effective ways of solving staff shortage is increased training of the affected
professionals. The laboratory department is part of a large hospital (Buchan, Duffield, & Jordan,
2015). Decisions on staffing are made in consultation with the hospital’s overall human resource
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION4
management. Therefore, the laboratory department and the hospitals human resource will
collaborate to hire and apprentice more staff members into the laboratory department.
Teamwork will reduce the work burden in the understaffed department. Teamwork
involves inter-professional collaboration in the healthcare setting. The laboratory department
practitioners need to developed common goals with the clinicians. Each of the healthcare
professionals is restricted by the scope of practice regulations (Buchan, Duffield, & Jordan,
2015). Through teamwork, healthcare practitioners assist each other to perform duties improve
the quality of care as a group. Therefore, risks for unsafe care are mitigated.
Poor Outcomes
Inter-professional communication improves outcomes of the healthcare services. The
laboratory personnel and other healthcare professionals have been trained differently. The
differences in knowledge, skills and expertise are harmonized through communication (Foronda,
MacWilliams, & McArthur, 2016). Inter-professional communication eliminates the structural
and organizational challenges that hinder professional interaction.
Collaboration and teamwork will improve the outcomes of the laboratory services.
Teamwork that involves the staffs from the laboratory department and other departments
promote effective use of the available healthcare resources (Reeves et al., 2017). The laboratory
personnel and other healthcare staff members will have common goals of improving healthcare
outcomes from the department. Collaboration and teamwork will promote adherence to quality
standards. The collective aim of the healthcare team is to provide services that conform to the set
standards.
Examples of Techniques to Implement the Measures
Shortage of Staff
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION5
Increased funding is necessary to achieve increased laboratory staff training.
Development of in service training and programs require resources. Further¸ the department staff
members under apprenticeship and after completing training will be paid salaries (Buchan,
Duffield, & Jordan, 2015).
To improve collaboration creating clinical teams is necessary. Staff from different
disciplines in the clinical setting needs to work as health tams to maintain collaboration (Buchan,
Duffield, & Jordan, 2015). The members who make up the team need to be identified.
Poor Outcomes
One of the examples of improving teamwork and collaboration is organizing joint patient
clinical rounds. The laboratory staff members attend the rounds with other clinicians. During the
clinical rounds, all the professionals learn communication skills and acknowledge the challenges
caused by poor patients’ outcomes (Foronda, MacWilliams, & McArthur, 2016). The team
formulates solutions collaboratively.
Organized meeting with other clinicians in the hospital is an example of techniques to
improve patient care outcomes. During the meetings, the clinical teams develop common goals
to improve patient care. Similarly, the team harmonizes its standards for quality care (Reeves et
al., 2017).
In summary, this proposal acknowledges the existence of staff shortage and poor
outcomes in the department. The paper discusses the effects of staff shortage such as poor quality
of services and fatigue. Poor outcomes in the department lead to misdiagnosis. Communication
helps in identification of the causes of staff shortage and harmonization of teamwork.
Collaboration enhances resource utilization in an effective manner. Increased funding, organized
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION6
clinical teams meeting and joined clinical rounds are techniques that could help implement
improved communication, team work and collaboration.
References
Buchan, J., Duffield, C., & Jordan, A. (2015). ‘Solving’ nursing shortages: do we need a New
Agenda?. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(5), 543-545.
DesRoches, C. M., Buerhaus, P., Dittus, R. S., & Donelan, K. (2015). Primary care workforce
shortages and career recommendations from practicing clinicians. Academic Medicine,
90(5), 671-677.
DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION7
Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B., & McArthur, E. (2016). Interprofessional communication in
healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse education in practice, 19, 36-40.
Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional
collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews, (6).