Most healthcare leaders would agree that the most common problem in the US healthcare industry is management challenges. It is obvious that its management may require drastic changes. Furthermore, there are few leaders who are willing to raise their hands and lead the charge towards better healthcare. Most health institutions comply with some of the outdated management practices that are keen to meet their management objectives including falsifying data or even layoffs. The falsification of information and data took place at some Veterans Administration facilities ( Lewis & Pflum, 2015) . Rather than having a management system that is governed by objectives, it should be guided by quality processes. The essay will evaluate the management system at Cleveland Clinic.
Cleveland Clinic
Retired air force Col. Antoon David complained Cleveland Clinic, and the government inspectors threatened to cut off the institution from receiving Medicare payments after they were stonewalled by the hospital officials. The combat veteran in Vietnam accused the institution of failing to properly investigate the charge that some other practitioner instead of his authorized surgeon had carried out prostate cancer surgery that left him injured. Furthermore, the hospital management failed to show the government inspectors all the notes and information in Antoon’s complaint file. Moreover, the doctor who claimed to have conducted the surgery declined to talk with the inspectors and surveyors about how the hospital managed the case. It was not the first time the hospital system was warned by state inspectors for not addressing the complaints lodged by patients. In 2012, the hospital almost lost its $1 billion annual Medicare payments after the hospital management team admitted that they had not properly investigated a patient's complaint that a team of doctors had implanted the heart stent without fully receiving consent from the patient ( Yao & Gao, 2016) . The hospital has major problems in managing patient’s complaints.
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The solution to the problem involves having a proper complaints management team. The team should be made up of hospital professionals who receive complaints, investigate the complaints, offer solutions, and then evaluate whether the solutions were implemented while keeping the leadership of the hospital accountable for all the patient’s complaints. The mission of the hospital entails providing better care for its patients, investigating, their issues and problems while improving the education of the patients they serve. For the hospital to foster group practice and carry out their mission, they should ensure that quality underlies every decision, improve their specialized medical care support, offer effective access to affordable care, and evaluate the new technologies ( Rice, 2013) . Complaints are part of every organization, and they should ensure that quality underlies all the management decisions. Cleveland Clinic’s vision states that they should strive to be the market leader in education, patient experience, research and clinical outcomes. The founders of the clinic gained a lot of information from military medicine, and they were confident that diverse specialists could work and think as a unit. To be a global leader in healthcare, the institution should properly manage complaints while ensuring quality.
Improving how they resolve their problems and manage complaints will have an impact on their culture. There should be accountability and transparency in handling patient issues while respecting patient privacy. The hospital should freely give information about complaints to the state inspectors so that they can avoid complications. Furthermore, they should respect the needs of their clients. All the hospital staff should work together to improve their care delivery according to their mission and vision. This kind of shared vision, cooperation, and efficiency will foster excellence in education, patient care, and research. The fundamental values of the hospital are the foundation of their culture. The values include compassion, quality, integrity, innovation, service, and teamwork ( Rice, 2013) . The hospital should continually provide the highest standards of continuous measurement and improvement of health outcomes. Patient complaints should never remain unresolved. The complaints should be properly investigated and solved. The hospital should show compassion by demonstrating their commitment to world-class healthcare by offering a supportive and caring support for the fellow caregivers, patients, and their families. Part of care is ensuring that the patients' needs are met. No patient should receive inadequate care in the hospital, and no complaint should remain unsolved.
A negative system input is appropriate because it alerts the hospital about the problems that should be rectified. For instance, a patient complains that the medication did not have the intended effects and they are still sick after taking the correct dosage and duration of the medicine. In the throughput, the hospital should properly evaluate the negative input to adjust to the hospital and environmental changes. They should evaluate the patient information before and after they visited the hospital and came up with the best solution. In the output phase, the hospital should provide the best care to the patient according to the best practice ( Lewis & Pflum, 2015) . The patient should receive the best care according to the mission and vision of the clinic. In the cycle of events, if the patient outcome is favorable, the patient is highly likely to develop brand loyalty and will refer more patients, friends, and family to the hospital. However, if the outcome is unfavorable, they may choose a different hospital. Ultimately, for the hospital to survive, they must come up with new practices that will solve patient complaints. The survival of every organization is dependent on the development of new innovative practices that will improve the patient outcomes.
Professional process management involves aligning, enabling, and improving. The management should articulate how they will align the solutions with the hospital culture. Furthermore, they should communicate directly with their employees on a regular basis to ensure that they implement quality practices that will prevent patient complaints while coming up with better methods of solving patient complaints instead of ignoring them. Enabling involves the leaders being aware of all processes in the organization. The management should visit all work areas and departments to gain insights about challenges and daily tasks while encouraging the employees to overcome barriers ( Rice, 2013) . They should also embrace success and learn from failures. They should improve by listening, seeing, and translating observations. Furthermore, they should empower the front line teams to create and develop better care models that will enhance the patient experience and improve patient outcomes.
Summary
The essay evaluates the management system at Cleveland Clinic. According to history, the hospital has major problems in managing patient’s complaints as shown by the Col. Antoon case, refusal to provide information to the state agencies, and the failure to investigate various patients’ complaints. They almost lost their $1 billion annual Medicare payments due to the flaws. The solution should involve coming up with a complaints management team made up of hospital professionals who receive complaints, investigate the complaints, offer solutions, and then evaluate whether the solutions were implemented while keeping the leadership of the hospital accountable for all the patient’s complaints. The solution should be aligned with their company values, culture, and tradition. Furthermore, they should ensure that quality underlies every decision, improve their specialized medical care support, offer effective access to affordable care, and evaluate the new technologies. Cleveland Clinic should ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future because patients’ lives are valuable not only to the hospital but also their families and community ( Lewis & Pflum, 2015) .
References
Lewis, M. S., & Pflum, K. E. (2015). Diagnosing hospital system bargaining power in managed care networks: American Economic Journal: Economic Policy , 7 (1), 243-274.
Rice, A. L. (Ed.). (2013). The enterprise and its environment: A system theory of management organization (Vol. 10): Routledge.
Yao, J., & Gao, T. (2016). Introduction to the theory of research hospitals (series 3): organization and leadership of the research hospital: Journal of Research Hospital , 1 (3).
