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Running head: HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION 0

Healthcare Administration Barriers

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Institution

Healthcare Administration Barriers

The healthcare administration is a field of healthcare relating to leadership, management, and administration of the public health and other healthcare systems. This field is however faced with issues and problems in the execution of its tasks. Such barriers need to be significantly addressed for reliable and effective healthcare systems.

Poor management as a Healthcare Administration Issue

One of the problems in the healthcare administration is poor healthcare management. The management team is the head of the healthcare system and their actions and decisions are largely reflected in the overall performance of the healthcare sector. Individuals in the top ranking positions should be qualified and competent enough to impact the performances of healthcare systems (Levey et al., 1984). The fact in the current healthcare state is that there are no adequate resources necessary for delivery of services, no enough time between health care givers and patients, lack of enough training relating to healthcare delivery, poor organizational cultures and structures to enhance effective communication, very few staff, work overload with very poor salaries and remunerations, and so on. All these problems in the healthcare administration boil down to one major issue, poor management (Levey et al., 1984). This problem comes with a number of consequences in the healthcare system in general.

Poor management result into higher operational costs. When healthcare centers and facilities fail to account for and track assets, their operational costs increase unnecessarily. This, as a result, could lead to the medical facilities cutting corners in other areas they see fit as an effort to make ends meet. This poses risks to patients and it keeps them vulnerable positions in the delivery of the healthcare services. (Levey et al., 1984)

Patience safety is another consequence. Patients are exposed to various risks and mistakes bound to be made by the healthcare givers such as losing of lab samples as well as medical devices (Levey et al., 1984). Drugs can also be administered wrongly to the patients. This, as a result, can lead to worse cases of confusion in the medical facilities. The management is supposed to create a conducive environment for healthcare givers and when this is not done, mistakes are bound to be made.

Resources and Facilities Needed

The engagement of key stakeholders in the healthcare administration such as the doctors, officers, authorities as well as other healthcare practitioners; different stakeholders have different perspectives on health in general. The main stakeholders who are influential in healthcare administration include the government, patients, physicians, boards and so on. Government plays a big role in facilitating, controlling and funding the healthcare sector of the country and therefore, it must be included in the plan (Gomes & Gomes, 2001). It is the goal of the government to ensure the public health of its country is in perfect state. It accomplishes this through regulating the healthcare administration. The government has the power to dismiss incompetent personnel who are performing very poorly in healthcare service delivery.

The other stakeholder who plays a significant role in healthcare administration is the health care board and executive leadership. They review and give reports about the status of healthcare facilities; the board also has the power to advise the government on the moves it should make in enhancing the health of the public sector (Gomes & Gomes, 2001). They provide visions and strategies and therefore, they are in the perfect position to do something about the managers in healthcare sector who are not doing enough to ensure success in the health administration.

Access to data is one important resource in assessing poor management as a barrier to the administration of health care. Through reliable data, the performance of the individuals can be assessed to uncover the root causes of poor management, the current state of the health and what can be done about the issues relating to poor management. (Levey et al., 1984)

Internal Regulations

Healthcare practitioners and other stakeholders are answerable to the government with regard to their duties and responsibilities including poor management as an issue. Government regulates the healthcare sector through outlined rules and policies that the stakeholders in the sector are supposed to comply to. In response to this, organizations set up rules and regulations that are to be observed by all the staff for purposes of conforming with the overall regulations of the government and other government agencies that oversee the activities of the sector such as FDA. (Levey et al., 1984)

Among the internal policies set aside include punctuality among the staff members, ethical values, and confidentiality of the practitioners to the patients, security to the patients and the general public, conforming to investigation and analysis and so on. Of the regulations set aside the ones that must be observed in the health sector include the security and ultimate care to the patients and confidentiality of the information to the patients. Patients must be held with utmost care and anything pertaining to their health must be kept private and confidential unless stated otherwise by the given authorities. (Gomes & Gomes, 2001)

Organizational and Strategic Development Process that Address the Problem

To address the problem, there should be a development of the strategic and organizational processes to see into it that incompetent managers are wiped out from the managerial positions and replaced with new qualified and competent ones. As mentioned, the actions and decisions of the senior managers are reflected by the overall performances of the organization providing healthcare services to different patients.

This can be achieved by different influential stakeholders in the sector stepping in to address the issue through particularly devising organizational and strategic processes that will see the improvement of the health administration. There should be set aside strategic rules and regulations that would see the top performance of the management (Gomes & Gomes, 2001). Penalties should be installed for poor performing managers and rewards for top performing to encourage and motivate the practitioners to give their all.

One reason for poor management is communication and this is caused by mainly having the organizational structure in place that does not facilitate effective communication. Healthcare is a very demanding sector and in some cases, fast decision making is required. For instance, during an emergency operation and the top management are supposed to give a directive (Levey et al., 1984). There should be an organizational structure that will ensure the top doctors who are highly dependent upon getting information as fast as possible for quick decision-making purposes.

Having employees who are results and goal oriented as opposed to remunerations can enhance the health sector. The managers should, therefore, be driven by results as opposed to profits. This can be achieved by the regulators of the healthcare assessing the public health to check on the status and progress in the provision of health care services to different patients all across the country. Having the right people involved in the provision of the services ensures critical safety to the patients and enhances the general productivity in the sector. (Levey et al., 1984)

The world is constantly changing and the healthcare administration is no exception, the organizations should be set to accept change whenever it occurs. By day, new methods of doing things are discovered, new diseases are discovered, and new solutions are found among others. Some of these changes impact well in the healthcare sector and whenever such changes are observed, they should be welcomed (Gomes & Gomes, 2001). Major changes normally occur in the technological aspect of the medical facilities and they make work easier and more efficient. Healthcare organizations should be encouraged to adopt cultures that would easily welcome such changes.

Recommendation and Conclusion

Healthcare administration is a critical aspect of the overall health system of the country and therefore, it should have all the resources and a conducive environment it needs to perform all its duties and responsibilities. Healthcare administration faces a number of issues and the most common and one that is likely to give birth to other problems is poor management. Therefore, the above measures discussed see into it that the problem is addressed by involving various stakeholders.

References

Gomes, R. C., & Gomes, L. D. (2001). Stakeholders’ Expectations on Health Services. Healthcare Management and Economics, 1-15. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-3982-9.ch001

Levey, S., Loomba, N. P., & Brown, R. E. (1984). Health care administration: a managerial perspective. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Quality Management in Healthcare. (n.d.). Quality Management and Managerialism in Healthcare. doi:10.1057/9781137351999.0006