Question

Whether in a skilled nursing facility, a private medical practice, a hospital, or a health care company, a health care manager plays an essential role. Health care managers deal with the business side of medicine, providing the support their employers need in order to deliver the best health care available.

Health care administrators are entrusted with numerous major responsibilities which often include; recognizing the trends and challenges in health care delivery, managing human resources, identifying and resolving staffing issues, and motivating employees and managing issues of conflict.

This Assessment has two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) which must be completed:

Part 1

Write an 850-word report that evaluates the role of a health manager in promoting the delivery of health services in one of the following health care settings:

• Nursing home or skilled nursing facility,

• Outpatient facility, such as a physician’s office or urgent care clinic,

• Hospital department (i.e. laboratory, radiology department, surgery department, emergency department, etc.).

From the perspective of a health manager, the following must be included in the report:

• Identify a health care setting from the list provided

• Describe the role the health care manager may have in managing human resources in the chosen healthcare setting and include:

o Hiring and termination responsibilities of the healthcare manager

o Staffing and organizational strategies the healthcare manager might use to achieve better outcomes

o The health care managers’ role in staff education

o Tactics a healthcare manager might use to increase employee engagement and increase motivation

• Describe at least one method to manage conflict in the workplace

o Hint - Conflict resolution is a necessary task for the health care manager. Conflicts may exist between staff, between physicians and staff, between the staffand the patient or patient's family. The conflicts may range from disagreements to major controversies that may lead to lawsuits or violence. Conflicts have an adverse effect on productivity, morale, and patient care. They may result in high employee turnover, decrease staff involvement, and affect productivity

Format the document per APA guidelines. Include at least three scholarly references and in-text citations.

Part 2

Using the provided template complete each section of the chart for the health setting you selected in Part 1. An example is supplied to give an idea of the expectations, do not include the provided example as part of the completed chart assignment.

Answer 1

There have been a lot of changes in healthcare owing to the technological advancements, change in patient dynamics, new emerging diseases, legal and ethical awareness among masses and changing trends in human resource management. All of this has emphasizes the need for better healthcare management due to which the healthcare managers position in healthcare settings has also diversified and structured to a great extent (Knorring et.al 2014).

The various roles of the healthcare manager in the hospital setting has been specified below:

· The primary role of the healthcare manager is to ensure a high quality of patient care and to strive to improve care (Parand et.al 2014). The article in Cron (Locsin 2018) states the basic responsibilities of the manager should be to deal with financial resources, order and receive supplies , oversee payroll and benefits and communicate effectively to staff members.

· Partnering with agencies such as higher education institutions, public health departments and staffing agencies can help managers in recruiting motivated and competent staffs in the hospital.

· There are various ways in which healthcare managers can improve employee motivation and retention (Vincent,2018) which reduces turnover, burnout and improves job satisfaction.

· Good leaders improve staff engagement in ways of recognizing excellence in patient care, celebrating teamwork and doing informal check-in with staffs.

· Promoting communication and providing competitive compensation improves job satisfaction and retention of staffs for longer periods.

· Involving in staff education is an important responsibility of managers, (Gesme ,2010) which includes a formal orientation programme, cross functional training, maintenance of professional skills, coaching, career development and personal development.

· By promoting personal and professional development managers create an environment that says their employees are important to them.

· Continuing training of employees on the job has to be provided by the manager at regular intervals. This can be in the form of Journal clubs, seminars, webinars, vendor-sponsored programmes and by membership to professional associations.

· It is stated in Nursing times(2019), that acknowledging a conflict is likely to occur in any work place is a good start to managing conflicts. Mayer,(2000) described 5 basic forces that serve as the major sources of conflict: communication, emotions, values, structure, and history.

· Creating policy manual and specific job descriptions is helpful in preventing conflicts.

· When members of the staff together formulate the policies and job descriptions it boosts moral and improves team building. These policies need to be unambiguous and same for all (Harolds,2006).

· Conflicts can arise between departments or within departments, managers need to have an unbiased approach to solving these conflicts. Indifferences arising due to cultural and language differences among staffs is very common, this can be simply avoided by having awareness among staff members on cultural and language differences along with promoting tolerance at work place.

· Regular meetings need to be conducted where an atmosphere for open communication is encouraged so that employees feel free to voice out their concerns.

References :

1. Knorring M, Alexanderson K, Eliasson M , (2016).Healthcare managers’ construction of the manager role in relation to the medical profession. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 30(3),421-440. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-11-2014-0192

2. Parand A, Dopson S, Renz A,Vincent C,(2014). The role of hospital managers in quality and patient safety: a systematic review. BMJ open, 4(9). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005055

3. Locsin, A (2018). The role of managers in healthcare. June 29^th 2018. https://work.chron.com/role-managers-health-care-16590.html

4. Vincent, J G. (2018). 5 effective employee retention strategies in healthcare. April 3^rd 2018. https://www.eaglesflight.com/blog/5-effective-employee-retention-strategies-in-healthcare

5. Gesme D, Towle E, Wiseman M, (2010). Essentials of staff development and why should you are? Journal of oncology practice, 6(2),104-106. doi: 10.1200/JOP.091089

6. (2019)Nursing times . https://www.nursingtimes.net/roles/nurse-managers/workplace-conflict-why-it-happens-and-how-to-manage-it-11-02-2019/

7. Harolds J, Wood B, (2006). conflict management and resolution. J Am Coll Radio, (3),200-206. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2005.10.005