Summative Assignment – Module 2
You are asked to read case study presented below assignment guidelines and requirements.
Discuss this statement in the context of the presented case study.
Case Study
St. Mary’s Hospital - Moving towards a commercial business
Professor Smith founded St Mary’s Hospital over 50 years ago in the heart of Malta. Professor Smith was a Surgeon and wanted to set up his own Clinic, which eventually over the years has developed into a small family Hospital with a license to operate minor surgeries with overnight stay. His two sons, George and Michael and daughter Luisa who are all in the medical profession working as a Surgeon, an Anaesthetist and a Dentist respectively inherited the Clinic over 20 years ago.
St Mary’s Hospital today is a fully-fledged hospital with 80 single beds rooms with their own bathroom and a further five halls of ten beds each with shared facilities. St. Mary’s Hospital is run on commercial basis and the best medical professionals are all directly or indirectly engaged with St. Mary’s Clinic. In all there are four Operating Theatres, an emergency department and a Dentistry Clinic in addition to an X-ray Department and Phlebotomy Section together with a full Lab Service Department. The Hospital has been very successful and over 70 percent of patients are claimed to be foreigners from Asia and the MENA region. The Commercial Director of St. Mary’s who is the top person, not a member of the family, also shares profits and ensures that he gives first preference to foreign patients.
It is interesting to note that only 20% of staff are on full time basis which the rest have a full-time job elsewhere and work at St. Mary’s Hospital in their day off. Nevertheless, they are equally committed to work at St. Mary’s Hospital since they all earn good money when compared to their full-time employment. A recent employee attitude survey shows that the employee satisfaction index is 7.3 on 10, which is however 1.5 less than previous year and 2.0 less that the year before.
Upon investigation is resulted that the main cause for the decrease in the employee satisfaction index is that following the huge investment made five years ago, the Directors have adopted a 100% commercial strategy, asking Doctors and Nurses to optimise the full potential of all facilities. One leading surgeon was claimed as saying “we are not salespersons and I will only suggest a service if the patient requires it” while a leading Nursing Managers who has been employed with St. Mary’s Hospital for over two decades claimed that “this is not on…I will not recommend any intervention if this is not required”.
There are now some signs of “us and them” syndrome, with Managers trying to pull the Management’s positions while some leading professionals are becoming uneasy with their job. “This is not in line with the Hospital’s mission and hence I will not comply” said one Nurse, who is also a Union representative working in wards day and night.
Although there has been an increase in sales and the Hospital has been registering profits year on year, it is overtly clear that the ultimate business goals are not reached. In a nut shell there seems to be an ethical issue between the what the Hospital stands for today and what the Professional Teams made up of Surgeons, Doctors, Nurses and other Paramedics hope for. In this respect, managers from the professional group are finding it extremely difficult to manage their respective teams. On one had goals are not being reached and professional team members are taking their time focusing on the patients’ real needs and not the commercial need of the organisation. In few words, Managers are having tough time managing and controlling their teams.
Assignment Question
Although management is not a profession, any person exercising the role of a Manager needs to do so professionally. Using your experience and modular content to address this statement.
In the form of a PowerPoint presentation (min. 25 & max. 30 slides) discuss this statement in context of the presented case study. As a manager, how would you solve this issue?
Assignment Guidelines and Requirements:
You will be responsible for creating a minimum of 25 and maximum of 30 slides of PowerPoint presentation.
Post your PowerPoint presentation as an attachment (PDF)
As you inject your opinion, do so in an academic manner, using citations and references to academic sources
Deadline: 27/10/2019