Main Problems
In sustaining positive change and development at Providence Healthcare, Chief Executive Officer Josie Walsh faces many challenges and problems. She faces both professional and leadership issues in her pursuit to make Providence Healthcare a better service-providing facility. Some of the problems she faces include:
- Lack of ethical leaders and workers in the organization.
- Uncooperative and divided stakeholders.
- Poor communication within the organization.
- Poor organizational structure leads to reduced patient flow.
Solutions to Main Problems
To improve and develop Providence Healthcare, CEO Josie Walsh needs to come up with solutions to these problems. To resolve the lack of ethical leaders within Providence Healthcare, Walsh needs to lead the organization through ethical leadership. Leadership allows acceptance of diversity among healthcare workers. If the leaders provide mutual support, it enables support and care within the environment (Barkhordari-Sharifabad, 2017). Providence Healthcare has moral values that guide the facility, for example, social justice, human dignity, and compassionate services. Based on these values, CEO Walsh needs to have ethical leaders that uphold these values, including integrity, accountability, justice, and humility.
She needs to devise ways to encourage stakeholders to work together to resolve the problem of uncooperative and divided stakeholders. She must ensure that she influences employees’, shareholders, and stakeholders’ behavior to align with her leadership-valued approach and Providence culture. Walsh is a value-driven leader that focuses on driving the organization to success in the future (Weil & Reddin, 2017). Therefore, since stakeholders play a crucial role in facilitating organizational change, the leader must maintain a strong stakeholder association. Some of the main stakeholders that are involved are donors, patients, physicians, Providence Healthcare BOD, and employees, and they all need to be encouraged to work as a team.
When it comes to communication within an organization, leaders need to create a direct and systematic way to convey their message around the facility. Engaging employees is crucial to the success of an organization (Shannon & Cad, 2018). Walsh should ensure that she is directly linked to everyone in the institution and creates time to engage with the employees. This will ensure that her visions, ideas, and messages are passed on to everyone in the facility. This will make workers feel appreciated and involved in Providence Healthcare’s development. Getting workers involved in projects is the only way Walsh can ensure the achievement of set goals. She should also get patient feedback to create room for improvement and changes.
Poor organizational structure leading to reduced patient flow can be resolved by creating a new design that allows a smooth transition of patients from one department to the other. Increasing the patient flow will enable one to effectively balance the increasing demand of patients with limited resources available in the hospital (Gualandi et al., 2019). By changing the design of the initial building, CEO Walsh could be able to create space that allows the free flow of patients. Employing people to help older adults to get to their facilities and the different departments will also help decongest and allow the flow movement of patients (Weil & Reddin, 2017). It will also reduce the number of patients admitted to the hospitals as many will be treated and discharged.
Recommended Solutions to the Problems
I would recommend that CEO Walsh lead her workers by example and show them how good morals can help in the running of the company. I would also encourage her to vet any incoming leaders on matters of integrity and any found with issues to be fired and replaced. I would also recommend that she foresee the management of funds within the organization to ensure there is no mismanagement or loss of funds meant to develop the facility.
I would recommend that she gets to the ground level and get to know the workers around the institution. Workers are crucial to any organization as they help run things around the facility (Weil & Reddin, 2017). This will make it easier for her and them to share ideas and even for them to open up on issues they may be facing, thus creating room for changes and growth. This will make it easy for her to communicate with them and engage them on projects. It will also increase employee engagement, productivity, and organizational effectiveness ((Shannon & Cad, 2018). I would also recommend she hire the right staff in the facilities. Each department should have qualified personnel that carries out activities and help run the departments. Hiring extra staff to help in case there are many patients is also an effective way of increasing the flow of patients.
Outcome Expectations
After applying these changes in Providence Healthcare, the expected outcomes are improved healthcare services, better communication within the organization, good governance by organizational leaders, and teamwork among employees. This will also improve the quality of services provided by the facility and increase the flow of patients in the hospital. By having good leaders in the organization, Walsh will also be able to attract more investors to the facility as there are assured of proper management of funds by the sitting leaders. It will also build an institution driven by virtues, thus encouraging its employees and enhancing teamwork.
References
Barkhordari-Sharifabad, M., Ashktorab, T., & Atashzadeh-Shoorideh, F. (2017). Obstacles and problems of ethical leadership from the perspective of nursing leaders: A qualitative content analysis. Journal of medical ethics and History of medicine, 10.
Gualandi, R., Masella, C., & Tartaglini, D. (2019). Improving hospital patient flow: A systematic review. Business Process Management Journal, 26(6), 1541-1575.
Shannon, D., & Cad, W. (2018). Effective management communication strategies.
Weil, M., & Reddin, C. P. (2017). Boldly Go: Character drives leadership at Providence Healthcare. In Leadership in Practice (pp. 188-202). Routledge.