Healthcare management at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC

Healthcare Management

Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC

Sibley Memorial Hospital is a non-profit making entity; fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. It is located within the Palisades area of Washington DC. The health facility is licensed by the District of Columbia Department of Health and Human Services. The facility majors in surgery services, oncology and orthopedics. The center is a sister facility to the John Hopkins Medicine starting 2010 (Washington Institute of Surgery, 2011)

Sibley hospital has its roots in the Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for Deaconesses and Missionaries. The Missionary society was headed at first by Lucy Web Hayes. She was the wife of Rutherford Hayes; once the president of the United States of America. The facility has been hailed for its outstanding service to the community over the years.

Sibley is inclined to deliver high quality health service to the community. It has embraced values of compassion to carry out this mission. Its mission speaks as much. The official website of the hospital states its core values as follows. Discovery and Excellence, leadership and integrity, respect and Collegiability, Inclusion and diversity (Washington Institute of Surgery, 2011) there is a total of 2 053 employees on the hospitals payroll. 1623 of these are women while 1387 are members from minority groups. The institution is anchored on John Hopkins; an advocate of social health service (John Hopkins Medicine, 2013).

. The other stakeholders of Sibley are the hospital's patients and their families, hospital students, government, the community around the hospital and goods and services suppliers

Organizational Structure and the effectiveness

The manner in which subunits are grouped and inter-related in an organization is known as Organizational Structure. In an organizational structure, the manner in which subordinates should report to those above them is defined. This increases coordination in the group's activities and its members. There are several organization structures such as functional, line matrix and product organizational structures. The main advantage brought by an organization structure is reduced conflict and confusion in the employees' roles and responsibilities.

The Sibley facility is a large one. It has over 26 departments dedicated to technical services. There is a long organization matrix chart that spans six layers. Since there are over 2000 employees, the number of layers here is acceptable. The control stretch at Sibley is short; therefore, decisions are made faster (Washington Institute of Surgery, 2011).

The reporting channels at Sibley are clearly outlined. Officers report to the trustee board via their managers, directors, VPs and presidents. The feedback from the top also follows the same channel. The reporting design spreads the burden of responsibility so that the executive staffs are not overwhelmed by the workload. Control mechanisms are put in place to ensure confidential information is not leaked by the staffs. This is critical to success of the hospital (Washington Institute of Surgery, 2011)

The different functions that employees and the supervisors in charge perform are shown in organizational structures. The supervisors use their work experience or rules provided by the organization to make their team members perform better. Rewards and punishment are provided when necessary to motivate the employees and make them accountable for their actions and outcomes. Supervisors can, thus, be viewed as role models to the employees in a way (Brown, 2016)

Sibley's organization structure is unique in that it has the vice chairman corporate affairs and President of the hospital at the same level.

Lessons Learnt from the tools

To fulfill its purpose and mission effectively, an organization should operate within the boundaries of a structure that best suits its purposes. Organizations can reduce risks through proper stakeholder management or use these new methods to identify new opportunities and establish them by engaging stakeholders in a meaningful way: readiness to embrace change will be pertinent in the pursuit. The value of the organization's operations should increase due to establishment of meaningful relations. This will lead to the following benefits: The restrictions on business will be reduced while the operational license will increase; The organization will have the ability to make future plans thus mitigating risks and increasing opportunities due to increased knowledge and understanding of the Political, Economic, Social and Technological Environment (PESTE) which is changing at a fast rate; and Gain better understanding on how to handle criticism so that the management of the organization can convince, address, or refute critics when necessary. (Jeffery, 2009)

This will help the organization to assure and convince the stakeholders that everything is under control. It might also be of help in problem solving. The money, effort and time that has been expended on the development and maintenance of the organization's projects will therefore be justifiable (Jeffery, 2009).

The absence of a formal organizational structure may create confusion regarding who employees are supposed to report to, when certain issues arise. It may also be hard to distinguish the roles and responsibilities of the managers as well as the subordinates. Organizational structures enhance and increase the efficiency of operations by ensuring that employees understand what is expected of them at all the levels of the organization. By adhering to the organizational structure, departments can work uniformly thus increasing productivity. The procedures taken in internal promotions can be outlined in the structure thus creating steady advancement tracks for new employees. (Jeffery, 2009)

Through the organizational structure, all employees are guided on the official relationships that exist in the company and how workflow is governed. It simplifies the process of creating new positions and increases the company's flexibility therefore making it ready for growth.

HEALTHCARE Management 9

HEALTHCARE Management 10

Organizational Chart of Sibley Memorial Hospital

The relationship between stakeholders at Sibley Memorial Hospital