The nature and essence of decision-making process in a hospital setting is fundamentally different from other processes employed in other fields such as business and management. While any decision-making process in the latter fields’ is always oriented towards profit making, it always becomes difficult when decisions affecting hospitals are made since they not only affect the hospital’s affairs and administration, but they also affect patients with specialized needs (Davidson & Clarke, 1990). In such circumstances, clarity, acceptance and balance have to be factored in when making decisions such as deciding whether a hospital requires a new cancer treatment unit as the case seems to suggest.
The case clearly raises several issues of concern. The major concern, it seems, is making a decision on whether to implement a plan of creating a specialized cancer treatment unit or recommending improvements for the existing emergency and ambulatory care. Any recommendation made in a community-based healthcare setting must first and foremost seek to offer creative and cost-effective remedies to the issues at hand, and with the realization that patients must be assisted to attain their abilities to the fullest (Davidson & Clarke, 1990).
The cancer treatment unit is being fronted by committee members and other work colleagues. However, it should not escape mention that the upgrading of emergency and ambulatory care is desperately needed within the neighborhood. To make a suggestion, it would be more prudent to start with the needs directly affecting community members such as improving the emergency and ambulatory care before embarking on building an expensive cancer treatment unit.
The social economic status of community members also comes across as a significant area of concern. Using such theoretical concepts such as the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and cost-benefit analysis, it is clear that building a cancer treatment unit in the community will not be in the best interests of the community members, the very people that the hospital is expected to serve. According to Maslow, needs should be met starting from the most basic needs upwards (Davidson & Clarke, 1990).
This is not meant to suggest that a cancer treatment unit is not important to the community and the wider populations. To the contrary, what should be of concern at the moment is to meet the people’s most basic needs in terms of providing emergency and ambulatory care before setting up the unit. This line of thinking has been informed by the fact that the hospital is located in a low-income area.
Another area of concern comes in terms of infrastructure and personnel needed to run the cancer treatment unit in the event that such a recommendation is passed. From the case, it is apparently clear that the hospital does not have the requisite infrastructure needed to install such a facility, translating to the fact that it has to dig deep into its pockets to fund the space, housing and personnel needed to run the project.
A simple cost-benefit analysis audit on such an undertaking will inarguably punch holes in the implementation plan since any project undertaken in the interests of the patients must also be sustainable in the long run (Davidson & Clarke, 1990). As the case rightly suggests, the local community will be the major loser if such a project is implemented since it is in dire need of the most basic healthcare services such as emergency and ambulatory care.
Lastly, indecisiveness and loyalties are a major issue in any decision making process. Although it is only human to be torn in between two or more areas of interests as the case portrays, it is important that decisions are made as objectively as possible. Personal agendas and loyalties should not override professional decision making processes. In healthcare settings, decisions that favor efficient delivery of healthcare services must supersede all other decisions irrespective of whether the other decisions are influenced by the management or fellow members of staff (Davidson & Clarke, 1990).
Reference List
Davidson, K.W., & Clarke, S.S. (1990). Social work in healthcare: A handbook for practice, volume 1. Routledge. ISBN: 0866568468.