In any patient care setting, doctors, nurses, and other medical and clinical professionals ensure that patients receive the necessary care and quality care they need. However, to remain afloat, make profits for shareholders, and be able to pay medical professionals, healthcare organizations must undertake administrative tasks such as budgeting, personnel management, and procurement (Dunn, 2021). These administrative tasks are the prerogative of healthcare organizations’ managers. The managers’ main duty is the creation of an environment that fosters the provision of quality healthcare while maximizing profits and shareholder value. They ensure that their organizations comply with various healthcare laws and industry and internal standards and adopt the latest technologies. However, besides their routine duties and primary responsibilities, managers have a legal and moral duty to ensure quality care that improves a patient’s experience is provided in their respective healthcare organizations.
Unlike doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals in a healthcare organization, healthcare managers are in a prime position to influence organizational culture, procedures, and policies. Consequently, their role in the improvement of patient experience through quality care is second only to their fiduciary duty to the for-profit healthcare organization shareholders (Ogbonnaya & Babalola, 2020). Therefore, as part of their evaluation, healthcare managers are assessed by Board Quality Committees on their contribution to the improvement of quality and safety. Safety and quality together with other metrics contribute to the overall improvement of the patient experience. Thus, despite performing administrative tasks for most of their time, managers are tasked with ensuring quality and safety improvements by fostering a positive organizational culture. Such a culture prioritizes the safety and comfort of patients under the care of medical personnel. Thus, managers are by default a part of the quality and safety improvement in any healthcare organization.
While healthcare managers may require a level of knowledge in medicine, their interactions with patients in primarily for relationship building. When they are not fulfilling administrative tasks, managers spend their time enquiring about the quality and safety of care being provided to patients. In these interactions, the managers ensure that patients are referred to specialists promptly and a schedule is developed if they require regular visits or specialized care. As the individual responsible for maintaining work schedules, managers are strategically placed and act as a bridge between doctors and patients (Ogbonnaya & Babalola, 2020). Further, in instances where a patient is uncomfortable with a doctor scheduling an appointment, they can always ask the manager to help. Thus, relationship building between a manager, patients, and the medical staff in a healthcare organization contributes to patient experience improvement.
As the manager has a legal and moral responsibility to the improvement of patient experience in the healthcare organizations they run. As a manager, it is their legal duty to ensure that policies and procedures are followed by the medical professional under their supervision. Additionally, they are in a position to influence the organizational strategic decision-making and policies to ensure that they respond to the needs of the patients while optimizing profit and shareholder value maximization. The proper implementation of policies and procedures would lead to an improvement and the quality and safety of services offered. Morally, managers have an ethical duty to foster a conducive working environment and organizational culture that responds to patients’ concerns. Building relationships with patients is especially key because it creates a perception that a healthcare facility cares about the well-being of their patients, which leads to loyal and satisfied clients.
References
Dunn, R. (2021). Dunn and Haimann’s Healthcare Management (11th ed.). Health Administration Press.
Ogbonnaya, C., & Babalola, M. T. (2020). A closer look at how managerial support can help improve patient experience: Insights from the UK’s National Health Service.Human Relations, 74(11), 1820–1840. Web.