Introduction
Healthcare industry is rapidly transforming as a result of the adoption of the internet (Berkowitz, 2010). Patients use the internet to search for various services in the healthcare industry. Transparency in organizations means that there is proper sharing of information among stakeholders. Transparency in the healthcare industry is essential for healthcare providers and consumers (Berkowitz, 2010).
Healthcare providers benefit by attracting many customers while the customers benefit by accessing the best healthcare. This essay will discuss the pros and cons of adopting a proactive approach to transparency by a group of cardiologists, in a medium-sized community. The essay will analyze the advantages and disadvantages that the group of cardiologists will have after it incorporates a high level of transparency on their new website.
Pros
There are several benefits that the group of cardiologists will have by adopting transparency on their website. The members of the group will effectively share their ideas and professional thoughts. This will lead to collective working that will realize fulfilment of goals and objectives in the group. Sharing of information will ensure that all cardiologists in the group are aware of the happenings in the group. Transparency among the cardiologists will foster better understanding of achievable goals set by the managers and comprehend the ways to achieve and measure the goals.
Being transparent on their website, the cardiologists will provide reliable information on cardiology matters. The information will have to be correct and scientific (Berkowitz, 2010). This is the information that patients will use for their research. In addition, the information can be acted upon because patients can identify the author of the information and engage further. Therefore, the cardiologists must be ready to educate patients and other potential customers on cardiology matters, and prepare to divulge more information about the matter at hand.
Providing metrics on the website will go a long way to ensuring that the website visitors will understand the performance of the cardiology group. Nowadays, healthcare seekers are knowledgeable, and they would like to visit healthcare providers who are good performers in the market (Berkowitz, 2010). The metric figures will provide performance trends by the group.
Transparency will ensure that the cardiologists are satisfied to work in the group. The members will feel trusted with information and will develop loyalty to the group. This will imply that greater individual participation will be witnessed than before. Greater participation and loyalty among the workers will lead to improved results by the cardiologists group.
Cons
However, adopting a proactive approach to transparency on the website will pose some challenges to the group of cardiologists. People view information from different perspectives. Therefore, the information that is intended to promote transparency might be vulnerable to distortion and misrepresentation. Some members of the group may, therefore, feel that the information on the website will be misunderstood.
Every organization has its business secrets it uses to gain competitive advantage against competitors (Berkowitz, 2010). Therefore, the group of cardiologists will decide what information should be made public and what information should remain private. If the group makes all its information public, then the competitors can use it to gain competitive advantage.
However, transparency by the group of cardiologists will be critical to its operations. Increasing the level of transparency will result in increased loyalty among the employees. In addition, the stakeholders will trust the group of cardiologists.
Reference
Berkowitz, E. (2010). Essentials of health care marketing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.