Leadership Strategies in Healthcare - Essay Example

of affiliation Introduction Healthcare is an important industry (Menaker, 2009), and many parties take part in this industry making it more complex to understand as the decisions made are a result of a common ground between different personalities. Such decisions by the management affect directly the quality and reliability of healthcare services delivered. Performance of these institutions lies wholly on workforce motivation by the management and teamwork to ensure goals and objectives are met appropriately (Friedman, 2001). My paper seeks to discuss the various problems facing healthcare industries hence challenging their leadership and suggesting suitable solutions to curb such drawbacks. This paper seeks to advise leaders of the healthcare centers on the future of administration to avoid challenges in the work hence comprising health standards. Background The success of healthcare industry is affected by both controllable and uncontrollable factors. This white paper seeks to discuss the controllable factors so that it can address them accordingly. Some of the factors that affect the leadership in such industries as discussed in this white paper include invention and innovation. There is continued development of goods and services in the market that are out to provide improved healthcare for patients by advancing the levels of the physicians. This brings about confusion in the management on whether to update their employees on recent inventions or just resist changes; this then compromises the quality of the outcome of the service providers, due to uncertain decisions. This white paper continues to discuss some of these problems facing healthcare services to educate the leaders and try to find the possible solutions. A continued change in cultures of patients especially caused by internal and external movements has proved to be difficult. Reason being, there are many challenges between the physicians and the patients such as language barriers, differences in cultural beliefs and the nature of the patients (McAlearney, 2006). This challenge also poses a threat of time wastage as this may require involvement of a third party in treatment to intervene in the differences. Cultural differences such as language barrier require the third party to be a translator so that the service provider and the patient can be able to understand each other. This has proved to be both expensive and time wasting for the physicians hence delays in services provided compromising the qualities of services. Rising costs in healthcare like insurance premiums, revenue costs and the government revenues (Menaker, 2009) are a major drawback on leadership of healthcares. This is mainly because of financial constraints hence the lack of motivation to work and deliver the desired services as the wages and salaries of the service providers are minimal. The rising costs in medical care are seen as negligence of the government as they could otherwise subsidize the relevant costs to reduce the high costs that are a bridge in the healthcare centers. This can also be interpreted as lack of an understanding between the government and the leaders of healthcares to set up an ideal remuneration system. Financial imbalances in these centers imply that the service care provider salaries are delayed or are slashed by a large percentage, discouraging them to work. Having too many rules to abide to is a major problem for the physicians. At least each day new rules are put in place to govern their practice which has a very negative impact on their services. Increasing administrative demands are a waste of finances as they are utilized in passing such laws and regulations which in effect have an additional workload on the working force (Kleinman, 2003). Attitudes of different patients are a problem to the working staff as one may encounter a patient who has difficulties with opening up hence it would pose a threat to communication which leads to effective healthcare services. Some patients may also be difficult to handle hence physicians are not in a position to deliver the services as desired. Medical costs in the last few years have gone so high with the number of uninsured people increasing (Menaker, 2009). This contributes too many unsettled hospital bills which is a predicament for healthcare centers as the physicians incomes are affected directly. This has also affected the access of patients to medical centers as they are scared of the aftermath of not affording the costs associated with treatment. Conflicting interests of the staff and management is also a major issue in healthcare service delivery and this is because there is lack of trust between the both parties. With such drawbacks then service and leadership is compromised which affects the health of a nation and not just individual patients. Solution There are several solutions to the above problems that my paper has explained. These solutions should be employed by the management, physicians and the government to assist in developing healthcare strategies. First, the management should establish a healthy and open relationship with the physicians to ensure that they trust each other with decisions and actions taken in any event. Second, the government should work on reducing the medical costs to provide quality affordable healthcare to all its citizens (McAlearney, 2006), and also mediate with insurance companies to ensure that each individual has a health cover. This will reduce the amounts of unsettled bills and ensure that the physicians’ incomes are not delayed or cut. Reducing the costs of accessing medical centers ensures a free world and good treatment as people are not threatened by the consequences of treatment like costs. Third, laws and regulations should be administered during the beginning of practice and not in the course of work, this aspect will ensure that the workforce is not demoralized by having to work with too many regulations (Kleinman, 2003), some of which are not possible to stick to. Enhancing cultural diversity will assist in the improvement of services to people who are of different cultural affiliations. This not only promotes great leadership but also ensures a rich cultural heritage of the people. Control of inventions and innovations by the Nursing board on developments in healthcare ensures that contradictions in decision making are reduced and that the workforce is focused on the already acquired skills rather than focusing on the new inventions which may be as a result of the changing technological times hence misleading he healthcare providers. The government should also participate in taking care of the aging people and the disabled in special centers to avoid congesting hospitals. This reduces the number of people accessing hospitals and the lesser the number the higher the quality of services Conclusion I believe that the challenges facing health care centers are too tough and numerous for their leadership to be single handed so I recommend collective leadership. Working together of the health care providers and patients ensures high quality services which are meant to be the key goals of health care providers. Health care leadership strategies is not about the skills that one already knows it about practicing and learning new techniques to ensure providence of the highest quality services confidently. Healthcare being among the most important service providing companies in the United States (Menaker, 2009) affects each individual and the nation at large, should be prioritized to avoid unnecessary loss of lives or strength of individuals who may be useful to the nation. My paper has discussed various challenges in leadership and provided sample solutions and this should be followed carefully by all healthcare officers to promote services. References Kleinman, C. S. (2003). Leadership: a key strategy in Staff Nurse Retention. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 35(3), 128-132. Friedman, E., (2001), The Healthcare Executive as a Single Process. Special issue: The Future of education and practice in Health Management and Policy. Journal of Health Administration education, 19(4), 68-80. Manojlovich, M. (2005). Promoting Nurses Self‐efficacy: A Leadership Strategy to Improve Practice. Journal of Nursing Administration, 35(5), 271-278. McAlearney, A. S. (2006). Leadership Development in Healthcare: a qualitative Study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 967-982. Menaker, R., (2009). Leadership Strategies in Healthcare. The Journal of Medical Practice Management, 24(6), 339-343. Read More