Work Process Organizing
Organizing the work process performs a vital role in any company. Since health institutions are responsible for people’s welfare, managing them needs to be effective to the greatest extent possible. There are two kinds of organizational structure: centralized and decentralized. The former one is more traditional. It involves a hierarchical format, allowing the employees at the highest executive level to make all decisions.
The employees at the lower levels have no authority in resolution-making even for the everyday processes or actions. The strengths of a centralized structure include a precise vision, quick implementation, limited conflict situations, and strict control. When there are fewer people making decisions, it is easier to come up with specific purposes and to enforce them faster. Also, when the organization is governed by a small number of people, disagreements happen less frequently. Control is easier obtained when there is a strict hierarchy of responsibilities (Roussel, 2013).
On the contrary to a centralized structure, decentralized one offers more freedom for each member of the team. Employees feel more freedom and the working environment is more comfortable in such conditions. Every person feels important, and there is less stress. This factor concerns the company’s owner most of all: by letting others make decisions, he/she gets rid of a lot of pressure. Another asset of a decentralized organization is that decisions are made faster since there is no need to confirm every arrangement with the higher-level authority. It is especially crucial in medicine since timely decisions and actions can save people’s lives.
The organizational structure evaluated by Nurse Hartman is centralized. It involves several levels of hierarchy, which means that some people have more power than others.
The research has shown that hospitals prefer decentralized organizational structure which allows the employees to feel authority in their unit of work (Roussel, 2013).
Accept
Even though the organizational structure of the hospital where Nurse Hartman applies is not favored by her, she decides to accept the position. Her resolution is motivated by the internal campaign launched by the hospital aiming to decrease medical errors and develop a risk reduction and safety program. Taking part in such intervention outweighs the limitations in the structure system as it presents ample opportunities for self-development along with a possibility to decrease the patients’ health risks.
A campaign on risk reduction and safety involves a number of activities aimed at lowering the potential for illness condition development in the patients (Kalra, 2011). Such interventions are established on evaluating the risk levels of the specific problems. Risk reduction programs include getting acquainted with the latest approaches and equipment. Since health care specialists work in a dynamic atmosphere, errors occur more often than in other industries.
Sometimes the decision has to be taken very fast, which may cause its inaccuracy. The situation gets more complicated due to a range of interconnected factors each of which impacts the overall result. Therefore, a risk reduction and safety program involve a thorough investigation of the most common causes of medical errors, their assessment, and coming up with the solutions.
The issue of medical errors is becoming more and more acute in medical practice. Scores of patients suffer from maltreatment which raises the public’s concern. Thus, there is a strong potential for extending the effort of risk reduction interventions beyond this hospital and involving a large number of other health care organizations.
References
Kalra, J. (2011). Medical errors and patient safety. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
Roussel, L. (2013). Management and leadership for nurse administrators. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.