Critical Thinking Case Study: "let It Pour: My First Assignment as Executive Assistant"

In surveying the current business climate as it pertains to Faith Community Hospital, it has come to the attention of senior staff that the efficient operation of this hospital is diminishing. This degradation in quality has been occurring over a period of years, and is at a juncture where action has to be taken to address and adjust to the situation present. The hospital is suffering in many areas, and these areas will be addressed as well, but at the forefront is the cohesiveness and commonality of goals and missions that is missing from the Faith community environment.

Through observation and investigation the situation will be lined out in the following manner: Findings (Strategic Overview)

Ð'* Organizational processes- there are entities that exist at the hospital, which do not align themselves with, the mission adopted by the hospital. The hospital will become a place that is no longer attractive to the community, which would be essentially abandoning its purpose and mission upon which it was originally established.

Ð'* Ethics issues-There are certain ethical situations appearing constantly in the hospital, many of the ethical decisions are being made on a basis that is unclear. The hospital draws its value lines at diverse junctures when it comes to applying ground rules for ethical decisions. With these rule not in place then the judgment is subject to the ethical values and assumptions of the history and discretion of the decision-maker.

Ð'* Communication systems-With a minimal amount of personnel aware of the mission of the hospital there remains to be an immense lack of cohesion among staff, in embracing and following the same set of values and directives set forth by the hospital. The uniform acceptance and application of the mission and value system put in place by the hospital will be an important factor in the improvement of the way the hospital will communicate. Embracing the same goals will assist in speaking apples to apples, avoiding conflict and non-unified efforts. Background The hospital is not doing well; at Faith there is a lack of controls and systems to regulate operations and decisions made here. To start at a directional point hospital staff does not embrace, follow, nor understand the mission in which the hospital stands. Personal beliefs of patients and staff are not in sync, causing situations in which outside agencies point fault on the operations of the hospital. Child protective services take children, and file charges against the hospital, based on the assumption of the hospital failing to provide services to children. DNR directives are being initiated without written orders and are in some cases not being followed at all. There are pharmacists that are conducting business in a manner that is unconventional in nature, accepting installments for fulfillment of uninsured prescriptions. In a similar manner hospital counselors are conducting unauthorized sessions free of charge. The hospitals patient count does not seem to increase; yet the cost per patient per day is steadily increasing. Operating cost does not vary with the fluctuating of patient population. Situation Analysis It is seemingly apparent that Hospital staff is not following the mission statement that the hospital goes by. In order for Faith to operate within parameters that would be tolerable to all parties involved, meaning staff, patients, community, government, then the staff that are responsible for implementing and ensuring that the mission of the hospital is upheld and put into action must embrace this mission. They must agree to uphold what the hospital stands for. Instead there are instances in which the mission statement is set aside and disregarded. Moreover it is overridden by personal conviction, beliefs and misinterpretation. This is a major contributor to the condition of the hospital right now and the lack of agreement in this area will lead down a road that presents the hospital as sub par at best. The staff at any organization is the heart and soul of its operation. In order for the organization to be organized it must support the structure upon which it is built, or it will fall apart. At Faith this is an issue, because without oneness and without everyone accepting the same end goal then it becomes disorganized and unstructured. The organization falls apart and thus the hospital and its patrons will be subject to the lack of cohesion that should have been in place, and patients will not receive the treatment deserved and the community will no longer be a supporting force as it has, nor will the community have confidence in the healthy operation of Faith.

Ethics is a delicate subject to address due to the variations in ethical beliefs. As the subject has been explored at Faith the question no longer becomes what is ethical and not, but how many of realize or understand the differences between ethics, laws, beliefs, oaths, etc. If they do understand how many accept the fact that we draw our value lines at diverse junctures when it comes to applying these ground rules? Many instances of have been noted that one party's ethical standings are not with another. Be that staff with patient, staff with government, patient with government, and the like. There are certain lines that Faith draws in the ethics model, and these lines are not at common places they might be accepted by general society. Nonetheless the lines are drawn and despite this there are staff taking a stand upon there own ethical beliefs, and applying them in situation in which they should not have. In essence this has been a violation of covenant between employee and employer, the employee is disagreeing to go in the direction and/or follow in the lines drawn by the employing entity. This consequently will cause severe turmoil between all parties involved internally and externally, patients, staff, and government alike. The ethical model that Faith is standing by is coming under fire by patrons and outside forces. We have patients who refuse medical services based on there own systems and values. There are staff persons that feel types of medical intervention would be a violation of their own belief system. Furthermore, there are government agencies taking custody of patients based on the premise that Faith failed to provide adequate medical treatment. The misalignment of the ethical model in so many areas factors in on a large scale as to the types of cohesion and togetherness