Unhealthy Hospital Background- Bruce Reid

¶ … Unhealthy Hospital

Background- Bruce Reid is Blake Memorial Hospital's new CEO. He faces an incredibly challenging task of dual priorities -- returning the hospital to fiscal health and improving the quality of care at the hospital. He finds that indeed the hospital services are of rather poor quality. Bruce has several choices to make, including implementing a Health Information System, what to do about the satellite clinics, and how to improve morale and expertise while remaining on budget.

It is important that Bruce wear multiple hats during this initial trying period: he must answer to the Board, get the staff on board, keep the mandate for community care, improve the hospital's technology and care, and work with his budgetary numbers. The irony is to improve health care, he must spend to improve technology and services, and without money, these services will remain second rate. He also faces a clear public relations challenge from the city and many consumers.

Questions:

1. What could Bruce do from a marketing perspective to accomplish the dual goals of improving public relations and potentially increasing revenue at the hospital? Is this a guerilla marketing approach? Why or why not?

2. Bruce meets with his Nursing Managers and finds that they are of two basic mindsets: one group believes that employees are not very motivated and require a stronger, more autocratic approach; the other believes that most of the employees are ambitious and self-motivated. Bruce forms a committee of both viewpoints and asks them to use Theory X and Theory Y to come up with a written plan regarding a new motivational strategy to retain nurses. What are some of the questions that this group should investigate and what is the basic premise they will argue?

3. If Bruce were to charge his managers to implement a TQM Paradigm, what would the basic premise be for care? How would this impact the financial performance of the hospital? Discuss.

4. Perform a simple PEST analysis of Blake Memorial Hospital. How does this analysis help Bruce with his many decisions and horizontal priorities?

5. Explain the Kurt Lewin model and show how the three stages might be something for Bruce to adopt in his challenge to remake the hospital?

6. What aspects of social theory, particularly social constructivism, could Bruce use to develop an action plan for the hospital?

Answers- (for you to use to prepare)