Hths301 Health Service Management I

Final Exam

Mya Vang

Bryant & Stratton College

HTHS301 Health Service Management I

John Miller

March 3, 2018

1.         A healthcare administrator is usually a manager that makes certain that organizational tasks are carried out in the best way possible to achieve organizational goals and that appropriate resources, including financial and human resources, are adequate to support the organization (Buchbinder & Shanks.2012).  The healthcare administrators do a little of everything, from human resources to financial management, to being a clinic manager making decisions.  It is important that a healthcare administrator is a leader, manager, and a coordinator and has the right educational training. It is very important to be proficient in all these technical skills because any decisions made by the manager or administrator will affect the organization.

2.          Managing a healthcare organization can be very challenging. There are so many things a manager will have to constantly remember to follow. Regardless of which type of healthcare organization, from a metal health complex, to a nursing home or a doctor’s office, they all face the same challenges.

        Laws and regulations are one of the biggest challenges for a health care manager. Because of so many legal risks, a manager must be very careful on the choices that are made on a daily base. For example, in a nursing home, mental health complex, or a clinic, if a patient has DNR (do not resuscitate), and this patient needs CPR, the nurses cannot do anything about it. A DNR instructs health care providers not to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if breathing stops or if the heart stops beating (Do not resuscitate orders.2012). Even if everyone working in those facilities knows a CPR can save the patient, they will not be able to do anything. Do not resuscitate orders (Medline Plus.2014). Malpractice lawsuits are a very serious matter in the healthcare organization.

        New Technology is a big challenge for healthcare providers. Managers will need to make sure they are training their staffs to use any new technology correctly or it will affect the way the clinic is run and this will cause an impact on the patient service. Keeping up to date with new technology can be very challenging especially if one does not know much about computers.

        Insurance companies are a very big challenge to anyone managing a healthcare organization. Before any decisions for a new procedure or new equipment for a patient, the insurance company must approve it or the organization will have to east the cost. Throughout the years, as the insurance companies become stricter on the services, getting approval from the insurance companies took longer too. If we do not get an approval from the insurance company, we cannot proceed with a procedure. This has caused a big problem on patient services. To the patient, it seems like we do not want to help them.

3.        I think that the evolution of management theory is still important today. No matter how much time has changed, motivation is still needed in order for an employee to fully be productive.  Managers are continually challenged to motivate a workforce to do two things. The first is to motivate employees to work toward helping the organization achieve its goals. The second is to motivate employees to work toward achieving their own personal goal (Buchbinder & Shanks.2012). Everyone needs to feel appreciated at their job in order to want to go in and everyone needs a job that can support them.  

4.         Human resources are the people that do all the hiring of staffs. One main key domain is that they are in charge of making sure the organization is staffed with motivated and qualified employees. The HR posts up any job openings and looks for staff members that qualify for the certain job opening.  HR is also in charge of keeping track of all applicants. Once an applicant is decided, and they narrow down the candidates, HR will also be in charge of doing background check along with referrals and references. The hiring process will go through HR first; they are the ones that will do the face to face or phone interview first to see which candidate is the most qualified for the current opening. They are also responsible for pay rates, job pricing, promotions or any higher position.

        Besides hiring, the HR department is also in charge of employee benefits and complaints. Human resources second key domains are handling complaints and problems by employees and managers. Any issue that is brought up to their attention will be documented and they will make sure the problems that may occur at work are taken care of. If the problem that occurs requires firing a staff, the HR department is in charge of taking care of that.

5.        Declining reimbursements- Reimbursement from private insurances and government healthcare funding have been reduced. In effort to contain their expenses, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, private insurance, and managed care organizations have reduced their payments on behalf of covered beneficiaries (Shi, & Singh.2010). With this reduction, the organizations are not getting their full revenues and this causes HR to not have the funding they need to hire new workers, give out rises, and develop benefits and programs for employees.

Shortage of healthcare workers- The education level of healthcare workers has gone up over the years and it is very important that the staff hired to work in the healthcare organization are equipped with the right education and skills. If a worker with the right skills and knowledge comes along and the organization hires that person, they might have to pay a demanding salary, and it could mean that the department night not have enough money to hire another worker to a different position. This will cause burnout to workers who will have to do more than one job

Competition with other health service- Not every clinic charges the same price on services and procedures. For example, clinic A has been the only sleep lab in town for over five years, and they have board certified sleep specialist, while clinic B just opened and they only have a sleep specialist that is not board certified. A patient needs to see a sleep specialist and is on a budget. That patient will head to clinic B because of the cost. Situations like this will cause clinic A to not get as many patients in as they used to, and if they do not see enough patients to cover their cost, they will have to start cutting jobs, freeze pay raises, and also cut some employee benefits.