Management Class Case Analysis

CASE APPLICATION #T Rx: Teamwork 322 Parl 4 Leading he health-care ir.rdustry is the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy, with annual revenues projected at over $1.6 trillion (that's 12 zeroesl) and employing over 18 million workers.64 Many challenges face the health- care industry, including changing laws/regulations, changing technologies, an aging population and increase in chronic disease, and labor shortages (physicians and nurses). But the goal is still the same-efficiently and effectively provide qual- ity (appropriate and timely) health-care to patients. Given the challenges, health-care organizations are looking for better ways to do this. And one way is through using a care" was designed to enable health-care staffers to work together to make sure that no patient concern, need, preventive action, or matter was missed or overlooked.6s As one indi- vidual described, staffers often literally chased patients down hallways to get them to schedule needed screenin_es. But the team approach is working. After a number of years using this model, research on Kaiser's team model showed significant gains in patient medical care across a wide range of stan- dardized measures. Getting to that outcome wasn't easy, however. Departments that were accustomed to working on their own now had to work IEAITIING IIP f*r better outcomes "team-based care" approach, which research studies have shown can improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. Many hospitals, clinics, and medical practices have adopted this team-care approach. What does that entail? A patient receives care from a team of medical professionals who divide up responsibilities for performing tasks that tradi- tionally would have been done by a person's primary physi- cian. Although supervising physicians still manage (oversee) together. Instead of focusing on their own specialties, a team of specialists now worked together to provide patients with a well-rounded health-care experience. Physicians had to be retrained to view themselves as part of a team, supported by other professionals such as nurses, assistants, and other staff. As the health-care environ- ment continues to be challenging, is teamwork the Rx? Discussion 0uestions patient care, tasks such as completing prescription refill re-ft ro-ra what chailenges are managers of health-care organizations quests, adjusting medication dosages, helping manage chronic - facing? diseases (for example, teaching someone diagnosed with6! 10-15 How would the way health-care organization managers diabetes how to take blood sugar counts and to administer manage be different in a team-based model? insulin), and other routine tasks are now done by a team of fi tO-t6 Explainhowroles,norms,statussystems,andgroupcohesive- health-care providers. For instance, at Kaiser Permanente, one ness might influence the success of a team-based model? of the largest not-fbr-profit managed health-care companies Q 'f O-f Z What are some reasgns you think a team-based model has led in the United States, a new program model called "complete t0 improved patient outcomes and reduced costs?