Strategic Alternatives Identify the Strategies

¶ … Strategic Alternatives

Identify the strategies of these hospitals.

The first hospital discussed in the text (Wolf, 2001) is New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. The strategies used by this hospital are as follows. First, the hospital looked to the community for help, through the utilization of community input from Asian physicians, community leaders, and clergy members. Next, they created services to support the growing Asian population i.e. Korean and Chinese. The hospital recognized the need to learn more about the people in its community. The medical center created a process for developing new services. Executives formed a community advisory board to establish Asian service programs. The board created contained an ethnic mix of the communities' population. The board advised the hospital regarding medical needs of the community since the population did not report concerns directly to the medical facility or its staff. The medical center established special amenities, training was offered to aid medical staff in learning how to be more sensitive to Asian traditions and culture. The medical center went on to create an Asian employment recruitment plan. The success of the recruitment plan was because the center advertised in Asian papers, and other media outlets.

Howard University Hospital describes the following strategies utilized by their organization. Howard formed a relationship with an organization named La Clinics del Pueblo, a bilingual center in order to reach the growing population of Latinos in the community. In exchange for the collaboration, Howard receives a cultural sensitivity program. Howard also utilized a liaison that accompanies patients to aid with translations and other aspects of care and comfort. (Wolf, 2001)

It is evident that both hospitals utilized various people in the community to aid in making their services more appealing to their growing Latin community. However, Howard was the only one between that joined forces with another center in the community to provide better services.

Discuss the strategies, following the background materials of this module (two articles faxed for background material)

When considering decision making there are often individuals that that follow myths instead of proven methods. This form of thinking further supports the idea that the shortest path is not always the best. Eisenhardt (1992) discusses various myths in her article and the incorrect thinking that goes along with it all. These myths relate directly to the choices that Howard University Hospital & New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens used in their decision-making. The firth myth that the article discusses, limited information is the fastest route to decision making; this idea is disproved in the case of both of the hospitals discussed in Wolf, 2001. It is evident through the writing that both facilities used a considerable amount of information and time to consider what programs etc. were necessary to help the community. A lack of information only allows a company, organization etc. To overlook key information pertinent to the community, its needs, and ways to correct current issues.

The second myth discussed (Eisenhardt, 1992) states that a decision maker can save time by simply focusing on one option. Again, this is ultimately false. It is evident in the article written by Wolf (2001) that focusing on one option is not effective. Both centers utilized all of the option choices that they were given. This in turn afforded an opportunity to insure that the best choices were being made. The main premise is stated plainly as, cheaper is not always better, always consider all of your options; no particular method is a great fit for every company or organization. In addition, input is always important at every level. Lastly, community involvement is always a key to success when trying to develop an initiative in ones community. (Brockhoff, Chakrabarti, & Kirchgeorg, 1999) Environmental concerns have become an extremely important issue in today's corporations, businesses, etc. It has been stated that environmental factors do play a role in most decision-making strategies, as indicated in Wolf (2001), where both hospitals utilized their environments in order to create an increased utilization of resources by the community. It is important to note that an environment can change so quickly and then there becomes a strong need for a shift in thinking and possibly alternative methods to help that particular company etc. To run efficiently. New York Hospital of Queens and Howard are both witnesses to the key component that the environment plays on the success of ones business, as well, as how this information can be used to either help ones business prosper or fail from lack of utilizing the information gathered.

The two hospitals made their different choices, based on their subjective analysis. Would you use the same strategies to reach the goals (explain why), would you use different strategies.