Introduction
Gap analysis is a very important process in any organization. Through a gap analysis, businesses are able to access their current state and determine if their actions lead them to wherever they want to be in the future. In this case, we have Kalba Health Complex, a healthcare institution that aims at being an effective and comprehensive institution. Kalba Health Complex’s mission is to comply with the international standards and to offer high quality communal healthcare services.
Indeed, the mission statement acts as the pathway towards attaining the set goals. Kalba Health Complex has printed and posted their mission statement in all notice boards at the hospital. This is a very desirable action as patients have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the mission statement as the employees work towards attaining the mission.
In fact, Kalba Heath Complex should go ahead and post their mission and vision statements in their website, business cards, adverts, and even in live campaigns for the entire world to know. However, to determine if indeed Kalba Health Complex will attain its target, there will be a need to compare the current activities in the complex with an efficient excellence model.
Specifically, the gap analysis will scrutinize the leadership style, employees’ performance, customer satisfaction strategies, process management, continual improvement strategies, and the planning strategies employed at Kalba Health Complex. Thereafter, the detailed analysis will give a decisive conclusion on whether Kalba Health Complex is on the right path towards attaining its goals or whether the healthcare will need to re-examine the set goals.
Leadership
Identification and choice of leaders
Leaders are the most important stakeholders in any organization. Leaders lead by example, and in the gap analysis, it is important to determine how Kalba Health Complex identifies leaders, and how it recruits them. The complex identifies leaders by examining the qualifications, skills, and experience. Upon identification, the potential candidates attend a training session voluntarily to enhance their abilities.
This strategy is recommendable; however, Kalba Health Complex ought to know that leadership is a calling. A company could have very influential employees who do not have tangible credentials. Such employees could make great leaders despite the fact that they lack the documents to prove their potentiality (Pillay, 2010). Therefore, Kalba Health Complex should give such employees a chance to train and exercise their hidden potentials.
Leadership traits
According to the interview, the only common characteristic that leaders of the Kalba Health Complex have is the teamwork spirit. Moreover, it is evident that the leaders of the organization majorly inspect the operations in the organizations. It is recommendable for leaders to go round the hospital to ensure that all the activities run smoothly. However, a leader ought to lead and not to supervise (Franklin, 2006).
The supervision role is characterized with bossy traits that have negative effects on the employees’ performances. A leader ought to be an influential and inspirational person who sets directions for employees to follow. A leader will set achievable goals and accomplishments and guide his followers towards attaining the set goals. By default, a leader who leads by example wins the trust of the employees, and employees will tend to deliver the best because their leader is also doing the same.
Conflict resolution
From time to time, conflicts are likely to arise in any organization despite the harmonious work environment. Therefore, it is very important for the organization to have a stringent approach to address conflicts whenever they arise. From the interview, it was evident that the conflict resolution approach at Kalba Health Complex has some deficits. The respondent simply stated that in case of a conflict, he would simply understand the root cause of the conflict.
He would then try to resolve it locally even if he has to stand in and apologize on behalf of the offender. This is a very traditional way of handling conflicts. Kalba Health Complex should adopt an efficient way of resolving conflicts by having a strong culture that supports high ethical standards within the organization. Any conflict that arises within the organization should have a reference point, where the offender will have to be answerable for engaging in unethical behaviors.
The culture should not tolerate unethical behaviors within the organization, and any conflict that arises due to unethical behaviors is resolved in a lawful approach. Essentially, a culture that is taken seriously within the organization will streamline all the involved stakeholders to behave in the rightful manner that reduces conflicts altogether. Kalba Health Complex should integrate the work values and organizational culture to achieve the best results.
Motivation of employees
Employees are the most important stakeholders in an organization as they determine the products and services offered in the organization. Therefore, through all ways and means, the management team should ensure that they employ strategies that motivate all employees. It is recommendable that Kalba Health Complex’s manager increases the salaries of employees from time to time to motivate them.
Moreover, the manager employs all the possible ways to create a favorable working environment though provision of annual leaves, emergency leaves, and by offering a listening ear to the pleas of the employees. However, the manager ought to know that these strategies will become monotonous with time. Moreover, it is not efficient to make it a habit to increase the employees’ salaries from time to time, as this may render the organization bankrupt after some time.
One of the best approaches that the manager can employ is carrying out annual performance evaluations and rewarding employees according to their performance. An employee who shows some improved performance can be rewarded through promotion and an additional allowance whereas those employees with sluggish performances are subjected to probation with a possibility of demotion. Through this, the employees will work hard to offer the best, as they are aware that their actions will either reward or penalize them.
Measuring employees’ performance
Measuring individual employee’s performance is a very challenging procedure in a healthcare setup. This is because all employees work collectively for the common good of the patients. Therefore, there is a possibility of some lazy employees to joyride the positive compliments of the hardworking employees. The managers of Kalba Health Complex responded that they measure the efficiency of their employees though patient satisfaction surveys.
The surveys will give a collective compliment for all the employees. However, if the managers made it compulsory for employees to have nametags, it would be easy for patients to identify the employees who do not perform efficiently. The patients can raise their concerns by writing compliments or complaints and dropping them in the suggestion boxes. The suggestion boxes can work efficiently towards obtaining the right information about individual employee performance.
It is also noteworthy that the flocking number of patients is not an efficient measure of the hard work and efficiency of the employees. Probably, the facilities offered in the complex are not offered in other hospitals, or rather their charges are lower than the charges in other healthcare facilities. The manager noted that the hospital has few employees who work from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM. This is a clear indication that the employees are strained with responsibilities.
This clearly indicates that employees are not working hard out of will, but because of the unavoidable circumstances. Therefore, the manager should offer the employees with a chance to voice their pleas. An occasional open talk forum would be necessary to determine if the employees are indeed working hard and efficiently.
Employees’ training
Employee training is a measure that seeks to keep the employees with up-to-date information on how they ought to handle patients. Employees’ training should take place occasionally. Kalba Health Complex’s manager indicates that indeed, the healthcare facility has a workshop in the composite health department. Lecturers and scientific programmers offer trainings about 3-4 times in a year. According to the manager, the training sessions are limited because of the lack of time in the pressured work environment.
This is a recommendable approach; however, it is not enough in the contemporary world. The manager ought to know that employees do not offer the best services in a pressurized work environment. Therefore, the manager should hire new employees to reduce the pressure in the work environment. This will give an opportunity for employees to attend to training outside the healthcare. Seminars and exchange programs would offer the employees with the best opportunity to learn new ways of attending to patients.
In fact, the complex should find ways of rewarding their employees with sponsored study leaves and sponsored trainings under strict conditions. Essentially, the employees who obtain sponsored study leaves should sign an agreement of coming back to work for Kalba Health Complex for a specified period.
Organization’s performance
A critical analysis of the interview indicates that the employees in Kalba Health Complex are few in number. The few employees are forced to work for extra hours to meet the demands of the flocking patients. Although the managers are satisfied with their hard work to meet the patients’ needs, this is a clear indication of a problem that needs to be solved. As indicated, some employees have even opted to retire from work because of the work pressures. Working for 42 hours a week is too much for employees to bear.
The employees work for six days in a week and they lack time for their social life and their families. Evidently, a tired employee who is stressed up with life struggles cannot perform efficiently (Christoglou, Vassiliadis, Sigalas, & Mylonakis, 2012) Moreover, it was indicated earlier that the employees’ training sessions are limited to a maximum of two courses per year. Given that this is an evolving world, where technologies are invented every other time, two training sessions in a year are not sufficient to make an employee competent.
The only solution to the above-mentioned hitches is hiring new employees and not outsourcing employees at specific times. With the flocking number of patients, Kalba Health Complex is a healthcare setup that has a bright future.
The complex cannot just afford to destroy its reputation because of overworking their employees. If the managers find that hiring new employees would raise their expenses, they can consider increasing the healthcare costs by a small percentage to generate more revenue. The healthcare setup can also seek for funds from the government, well-wishers, or credit institutions to expand their premises and upgrade their healthcare services and the general organization’s performance.
Customer satisfaction
As indicated, the number of patients who visit Kalba Health Complex increase on a daily basis. Moreover, the complex has had return customers from time to time. This is a clear indication that the patients are satisfied with the services and they even recommend other patients to visit the complex to receive medical services. Indeed, this is a good thing, as all organizations with an aim of making profits would desire to have infinite number of customers.
As indicated, the survey questioners that the patients filed their complaints and compliments were sent directly to the ministry of health. Therefore, Kalba Health Complex does not know exactly how their patients perceive their services. The flocking number of patients is not an assurance that the customers are satisfied, therefore, the managers of the complex have to find a way to measure the patients’ satisfaction levels. Maybe, there would be a need to follow up on the survey reports from the ministry of health.
The managers can also carry out another interrogative survey that will fish first hand information from the patients. It is also noted that patients have a tendency of walking direct to the manager’s office to air their problems.
This is very wrong as the manager is presumed to have a tight schedule of the overwhelming managerial role. There should be a protocol to follow when issues arise, where; individual patients are not allowed to directly face the manager to air their problems. There should be some specially trained staffs to deal with difficult patients.
It is encouraging to note that Kalba Health Complex organized a breast cancer campaign, diabetes campaigns, and health awareness campaigns. Patients with the mentioned medical conditions would be difficult to handle. Kalba Health Complex should set up a special unit that deals with individuals with special medical conditions.
A diabetic patient, for example, is prone to heart attacks and high blood pressure (Feng, Patel, & Brunetti, 2013). Such a patient requires a calm medical practitioner who has not overworked all day. The above-named approaches would work efficiently to ensure all the patients gain maximum satisfaction of the healthcare services at Kalba Health Complex.
Process management
Indeed, a hospital setup like Kalba Health Complex has a number of departments. Patients who come in for the first time may have difficulties in locating the exact place that they need to go.
Posters, directions, labels, and even employees would guide them; however, the hospital would find it worthwhile to sketch its map in a small piece of paper, print several copies, and place them in a small box at the entry point. New patients can pick the map sketches that would guide them throughout their entire stay in the hospital. Thereafter, they would drop the maps in a drop box at the exit point.
It was noted that a patient’s file might be lost mysteriously. The respondent stated that if such incidences, they simply resolve the problem by opening a new file and making news records. This is a very dangerous approach as the patient’s medical records are very essential in guiding the physicians. The best approach to curb this issue is to computerize the medical records. Kalba Health Complex should adopt the cloud computing strategy, where all medical data is safely stored through cloud computing.
Continual improvement
Indeed, Kalba Health Complex has room for improvement. The heath care facility has deficits in its ICT. While the ICT department updates the complex’s software and machinery from time to time, there is a need to be at par with the newest technologies. Oracle databases, cloud computing and networking ought to be on the forefront of Kalba Health Complex’s improvement plans. The sudden signature machines and the electronic fingerprint machines to track employees are efficient but not sufficient in the evolved world.
In fact, the complex can use CCTVs and tracking machines to monitor the actions of the employees in the work environment. To combat the issue of dodging from duties, and other issues, Kalba Health Complex should find out what other healthcare facilities do. This will be a great opportunity to recognize opportunities for improvement (Hu, Lee, & Yen, 2010). Regardless of how efficient Kalba Health Complex’s healthcare services may be, there is always a need to implement continual quality improvement strategies in the evolving world.
Strategy and planning
So far, Kalba Health Complex managed to record the highest patient turn-up in the past financial year. This was evident through the increased pressures in the employees’ responsibilities. Essentially, the increased number of patients should act as a motivational factor to recruit new employees and expand the medical facilities.
Kalba Health Complex’s managers ought to come up with an organized scheme that would help in combating the problems faced in the preceding financial year. A strategy to increase employee satisfaction would act as a preventive measure to any possible tribulations.
Reflection
Indeed, Kalba Health Complex has not existed for long, and the flocking number of patients caught the involved stakeholders unaware. This is a clear evidence of an immature quality management system. There is a high probability that the healthcare managers did not anticipate to have their employees overworked, but it has happened.
The employees are overwhelmed with the increasing number of patients that they have to handle on a daily basis. They are even forced to sacrifice their weekends and work for six days in a week, and this is very encouraging. The employees would be urged to be loyal enough to bear up with the management team as it re-organizes itself to recruit new employees.
Conclusion
From the discussions, it is evident that Kalba Health Complex started from a low level but patients have flocked in unexpectedly. Therefore, the increased number of patients has created various gaps that ought to be mended. Firstly, the managers ought to drop their supervisory role and lead by example. Departmental managers who are able to attend to patients should do so whenever they can to ease the work pressures.
As identified, there is a need to upgrade the conflict resolution pathway that may bring problems in the future if it is unattended. Moreover, the employee motivation procedures need to be reviewed. It is noteworthy that Kalba Health Complex has room for improvement.
The complex’s managers ought to examine other healthcare institutions to identify the strategies that they employ. They can copy the strategies or improve on them for their own advantage. Lastly, through all ways and means, Kalba Health Complex needs to recruit new employees to ease the work pressures and ensure their employees work in a favorable environment.
References
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Feng, Z., Patel, B. V., & Brunetti, L. (2013). Effects of coverage gap reform on adherence to diabetes medications. American Journal of Managed Care, 19(4), 308-316.
Franklin, M. (2006). Performance gap analysis: Tips, tools, and intelligence for trainers. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development.
Hu, H., Lee, Y., & Yen, T. (2010). Service quality gaps analysis based on fuzzy linguistic SERVQUAL with a case study in hospital outpatient services. TQM Journal, 22(5), 499-515.
Pillay, R. (2010). The skills gap in hospital management: A comparative analysis of hospital managers in the public and private sectors in South Africa. Health Services Management Research, 23(1), 30-36.