Question

Care in this capacity can range from short term to long term based upon the changing needs of the patient. Patient age can range from pediatric to elderly. Care can be provided in the patient’s private home, group home, or assisted living setting. Medical homes fall into this category and are a new focus of Accountable Care Organizations through the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Standardization, process, attention to detail, and uniform adherence to policy are the most difficult concepts for Louis to impress on his managers. As a quality insurance director for a home health company, he continually finds errors that put the company at risk. More importantly, they put people at risk. There are three shifts and 27 managers. Most follow protocol well, but there are eight managers who have been with the organization for over 10 years who do not. When the process was revamped late last year, these eight managers rejected the changes and instructed their employees to continue charting as they had been doing in the past. This has created a great deal of confusion at shift change, as well as hostility with the other managers, who feel their teams will make errors because information was not charted within the scope of the new policy. The managers who refuse to follow the new charting process admit that they understand what is expected, but they state that the new process is cumbersome, increases error, and obscures vital data. The managers that refuse to comply with the new process are also some of the best in the organization. They say they are not objecting because they want to avoid change or work. Instead, they detailed a list of problems and risks that they identified as a result of the new process and gave it to the leaders of the home health company. This put the company in a bind. They had invested $750,000 in the new system and had service agreements for the next two years. However, they could not just dismiss the concerns or risks communicated by the eight managers. Louis’ job was a nightmare. Everything was at an impasse and people were at risk.

Write a paper. Identify the steps associated with making decisions within in health care? What types of conflict were present among the employees in the home health company? What would have been the best decision-making model to use in this case study, why? How would you use negotiation models to resolve conflict in this situation?

Answer 1

Globally we can see that even one time or another, conflicts are common in workplace. So the resolution is necessary and those who are in leadership position (especially quality insurance director in this case) must know the technique to help maintain healthy work environment. Otherwise it can lead to negative impact on productivity and teamwork. Conflict resolution includes leadership skills, problem solving abilities and decision making skills.

There are some practical strategies to handle conflict in the workplace as follows:

1. Listen carefully before answering and discuss with the other person & notify points.

2. Arrange a meeting with all involved parties and give everyone a chance to speak, mainly should focus on behaviour and events, not on personalities.

3. Prioritize the areas of conflict

4. Take decision from all sides to get a fair and reasonable solution.

5. Make a plan to work on conflict

6. Follow the plan which made and build the success by encouraging and motivating team to complete the task.

In this case, we can see INTERPERSONAL and ORGANIZATIONAL conflict. That means between quality insurance director and managers which affects the organization.

The best decision making model in this case study is "The Recognition-Primed Decision Model".

There are 3 steps before making a decision:

Firstly, Experiencing the situation: Take the situation that needs to be solved. Collect all the information to make clear and appropriate decision. In this, the best thing to do is listening especially from people who are directly involved in the situation because they will be able to tell exactly what, why it is a problem and how it can be fixed.

Secondly, Analytical process: Once you get a basic understanding, move into the analytical process to start work toward a solution. In order to trigger potential solutions based on past experience, make number of different questions.

Finally, Implementing the solution: After a decision has been made, implement in a timely manner to get a maximum effect and more over practical application will be successful in the end.

NEGOTIATION MODEL can be used in this situation to make an agreement that is satisfactory to all groups involved. It is best when it includes the members in conflict. This is mainly to get the conflict resolution and improve the relationship between individuals, strengthening the team. While negotiating, all parties must separate the team members from the issue and acknowledge other points-of-view.