Introduction
Management is an important organizational procedure that involves organizing and coordinating activities within a firm. The process usually follows particular policies so that defined objectives can be achieved. The organization that I work for is St. Peter’s hospital. The hospital renders many kinds of health services including surgical, outpatient and rehabilitation services.
Management at St. Peter’s Hospital
The management of the hospital is structured to enhance efficiency and specialization of services. The specialized work force enables high quality services to be rendered. Thus, to facilitate the management of the health facility, the management has been divided into different departments.
Each department has qualified professionals that are specialized for their particular jobs. This means that there are no overlaps from one profession to the other. Tasks are therefore subdivided into separate jobs depending on who is qualified for the job based on ones academic background.
Different jobs have also been grouped together on the basis of their similarities in which the professional services are rendered. For instance, outpatient services that include family health center, rensselaer health center, dental services, Slingerlands and Madison pediatrics are all grouped under ambulatory care network (St. Peter’s Health Care Services, 2011).
Individuals and groups report to the higher authorities who are mainly departmental leaders. For instance, any matter concerned with recruitment of new staff is always done by the human resource department. The number of individuals under a manager should be optimal to enhance the effectiveness of control. The hospital has ensured that there is a wide span of control under each manager in order for employees to take more responsibility and have high morale.
Decision making of the firm is made mainly by the top management. There is delegation of duties to all departments but when it comes to administrative issues that need to be deliberated by higher authorities, the top management takes over the decision making process. Employees and managers are usually guided by departmental regulations through which overlap of duties by employees is avoided.
Technological input has helped to increase efficiency of professional services. The acquisition of modern machinery such as modern surgical equipment, digitization of documents, ultrasound machines and power wheelchairs has improved organization processes in the respective departments.
Many services such as cancer treatment can now be offered in this health facility through the acquisition of modern equipment. Many of the equipment have also greatly reduced the workload of the employees thus creating more time for other important duties to be attended to.
It is worth noting though, that implementation of technology can cause problems in specific organization processes. For instance, financial problems may arise in one department through the acquisition of expensive equipment in another department. Reduction of work load by the use of digital technology and ultra modern equipment can also cause problems that may result into reducing the number of staff. Thus, machines are replacing people in many organizations.
The uncertainty of the negative effects caused by some cancer treating equipment can also cause debates within the organization. Interpersonal relations are also affected in such a way that technology limits the amount of time employees would spend together and interact. Technology can also cause environmental problems especially in matters concerned with waste disposal.
The hospital management has done a lot in ensuring that waste disposal is done without causing environmental degradation. This is done by a department in the hospital that facilitates this process.
It is however important to note that technology changes the organization for the better. This is because acquisition of ultramodern machinery for treating diseases is quite advantageous to patients. Dangerous diseases that were once considered as incurable can now easily be cured through the use of technology.
Technological input improves the reputation of a health facility in terms of treatment of various diseases. Technology can therefore change the organization in terms of streamlining services for efficient service delivery. Technology also saves a lot of time that would otherwise be used in decision making and implementation.
There are a lot of resources required to implement technology in a health institution. First of all, decision making takes a lot of time in such a big organization. It will require extensive research to be done on particular equipment, taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of the machines. It is worth noting that individuals have different attitudes from each other.
Thus, some people may just have a negative attitude on modern equipment and thus influence the decision making process, especially if they hold a high position in the decision making group. Changing such an attitude is particularly hard and time consuming. After a decision has been passed on the purchase of equipment, money becomes the next issue. It is not uncommon to find many organizations sticking to old ways of doing things simply because of lack of enough money for technological input.
Conclusion
Thus, a health facility such as St. Peter’s hospital must have adequate funds in order to acquire any modern medical machine. The next issue is concerned with the usage of modern machines. It is quite clear that ultramodern equipment are quite complex to operate. These machines require a lot of professional training in order for employees to be able to operate. Training of the machine operators is also quite expensive and the management has to grapple with this fact.
Reference List
St. Peter’s Health Care Services. (2011).About St. Peters. Web.