MPH 540: HEALTH SERVICE QUESTIONS
Discuss the forces that affect health and wellbeing in the community where you are
located. Give an example of each force. Which of these forces do you think healthcare
managers can control and change the most to improve people's health? - Answers --
The four forces that determine the health of a population are heredity, medical services,
environment, and lifestyle.
- In Boulder Creek, heredity affects how likely people are to have a substance use
disorder. Since it is a rural community, medical services are limited, and those with
Medi-Cal might have to travel to another town to find a doctor that takes their insurance.
The environment presents things like wildfires that might affect health, particularly in the
late summer and early fall (dry season). The lifestyle here is not as sedentary as other
places, but many people smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use drugs. The lifestyle
also includes a lot of blue collar work that could be hazardous to health, like painting,
lacquering, and construction.
- The forces health care managers can control are substance use prevention for
teenagers, smoking cessation techniques, and opening clinics that take Medi-Cal.
External environment
- Why is the external environment so important to healthcare organizations? - Answers
-An HCO exists in, and is influenced by, the larger world. It depends on the people and
organizations in its environment.
Trends
- Discuss several future trends and issues presented in chapter 1. Which of these
trends and issues do you think will be the most challenging for HCOs? - Answers -
Future trends: people and orgs becoming more connected globally; US pop more
culturally diverse; e-communication possible anywhere anytime; healthcare spending
increasing faster than US economy; healthcare consumers becoming more
knowledgeable; tech creating new methods of diagnosis and treatment; HCOs held
accountable for performance; new medical schools opening; cancer survival rates
improving; number of uninsured increasing, healthcare reform expected to change this
trend; HCOs more eco-friendly; US spending on health higher than every other country,
with measures of health lower than many other countries; e-records replacing paper
records
Most challenging for HCOs: healthcare spending is growing faster than spending in
general economy, without improvement in measures of health, as compared to other
countries; also healthcare consumers are more knowledgeable
,Taylor
- How do you think his work has influenced present-day management of HCOs? -
Answers -Created scientific management, which uses standardization, specialization,
and scientific experiments to design jobs for efficiency and production. Today, jobs titles
are designed to be less repetitive and more specialized. Tools and workstations are
ergonomic to suit the body.
Mayo
- Why is his work important for present-day management of HCOs? - Answers -
Introduced human relations approach based on psychology and sociology, in which
people's feelings and behaviors in the group setting are taken into consideration.
Bureaucracy
What are the advantages and disadvantages? - Answers -Advantages: more efficient,
stable, and predictable
Disadvantages: less personal; creativity and personal feelings stifled; less flexible and
innovative
Mintzberg's ten managerial roles
- Which would come easily to you?
- Which of these roles would not come naturally to you and would require extra effort
and practice? - Answers -Easy
- leader (creating vision and motivating others to work toward it)
- entrepreneur (changing and adapting an organization)
- monitor (gathering and using info to know what is happening)
Not
- disturbance handler (taking care of problems and unexpected events)
- resource allocator (distributing resources)
- negotiator (working with others to reach agreements/settle disputes)
Strategic planning
- Referring to Exhibit 3.1, discuss the steps to engage in strategic planning. - Answers -
- First, a manager asks, "Where are we now?" She makes an organizational review of
the org's mission, philosophy, and culture. This includes an internal assessment of its
distinctive characteristics and an external assessment of the market structure and
dynamics. After the external assessment, she can evaluate the org's competitive
position, determining advantages and disadvantages using SWOTs.
,- Second, she asks, "Where should we be going?" She looks at the organizational
direction and develop's its high-level direction. This includes alternative futures, as well
as its mission, vision, values, and key strategies. Next, in strategy formulation, she
establishes goals and objectives for critical issue areas.
- Third, she asks, "How do we get there?" In implementation planning, she identifies the
actions required. Her plan includes a schedule, priorities, and resources.
SWOTs
- List NMSU's SWOTs. - Answers -SWOT refers to Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats
NMSU has the strength of offering degrees online and providing education to a large
number of immigrants and minorities. Its weaknesses include being rural and not being
a huge name. It has the opportunity to become more well-known because it is winning
acclaim on different "top universities" lists. Its threats are loss of government funding for
various programs.
Open-system perspective
- How is it useful for managing HCOs? - Answers -HCOs must acquire resources, staff,
supplies, equipment, info, tech, and other inputs from environment. The HCO
transforms these into outputs by mixing, arranging, connecting, combining and
processing into services and products. Also, an HCO must give, sell, provide, and
deliver its outputs, products, and services to customers, clients, and people in the
environment outside of the HCO.
Coordination methods
- Explain which coordination methods are used to link your work with other people's
work. - Answers -Supervision: supervisor-subordinate relationship
Mutual adjustment: no supervisor-subordinate, so workers arrange work around one
another
Standardized work process: method of how to perform work, written in a procedure
manual
Standardized work output: contents of completed work that others know to expect
Standardized worker skills: specific training needed for a job that lets others know what
to expect
Organization
, - Discuss internal factors and external factors that influence how work is organized. -
Answers -External: if stable and predictable environment, mechanistic is best, which
emphasizes specialized rigidly defined tasks and a strict hierarchy; if changing
environment, organic is best, which emphasizes shared common tasks and loose
authority
Internal: size, goals, worker motivation, coordination
Departments
- How can managers coordinate work among different departments within an HCO? -
Answers -They can use organization structures, including functional, divisional, matrix,
parallel, and modular. Coordination of departments is arranged vertically and
horizontally.
Hierarchy
- In a hospital, how does the medical staff complicate the traditional organization
hierarchy? - Answers -Hospitals have both a bureaucratic structure designed by
managers and a medical staff structure led by physicians. The latter is organized into
specialized departments and divisions. The medical staff has authority and
responsibility over medical care in the hospital, and physicians expect autonomy from
the bureaucracy.
Groupthink
- How is it harmful?
- How can a group leader avoid groupthink? - Answers -Groupthink causes groups to
make decisions too quickly, without thought about diverse ideas, usually to maintain
harmony. Leaders can include diverse membership in groups, adding extra time and
training for group members to learn trust and communication.
Groups
- Explain the difference between task, maintenance, and personal roles - Answers -
Task roles help the group achieve its tasks. Maintenance roles help group members
maintain good feelings about the group and working with groups members. Personal
roles don't help the group, but help members fulfill personal needs.
Managers' Guidelines for Effective Meetings - Answers -- don't call a meeting unless its
needed
- send participants agenda
- orient new members before meeting
- arrange for someone to record minutes
- begin, stay, and end on time
- set tone and state ground rules
Discuss the forces that affect health and wellbeing in the community where you are
located. Give an example of each force. Which of these forces do you think healthcare
managers can control and change the most to improve people's health? - Answers --
The four forces that determine the health of a population are heredity, medical services,
environment, and lifestyle.
- In Boulder Creek, heredity affects how likely people are to have a substance use
disorder. Since it is a rural community, medical services are limited, and those with
Medi-Cal might have to travel to another town to find a doctor that takes their insurance.
The environment presents things like wildfires that might affect health, particularly in the
late summer and early fall (dry season). The lifestyle here is not as sedentary as other
places, but many people smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use drugs. The lifestyle
also includes a lot of blue collar work that could be hazardous to health, like painting,
lacquering, and construction.
- The forces health care managers can control are substance use prevention for
teenagers, smoking cessation techniques, and opening clinics that take Medi-Cal.
External environment
- Why is the external environment so important to healthcare organizations? - Answers
-An HCO exists in, and is influenced by, the larger world. It depends on the people and
organizations in its environment.
Trends
- Discuss several future trends and issues presented in chapter 1. Which of these
trends and issues do you think will be the most challenging for HCOs? - Answers -
Future trends: people and orgs becoming more connected globally; US pop more
culturally diverse; e-communication possible anywhere anytime; healthcare spending
increasing faster than US economy; healthcare consumers becoming more
knowledgeable; tech creating new methods of diagnosis and treatment; HCOs held
accountable for performance; new medical schools opening; cancer survival rates
improving; number of uninsured increasing, healthcare reform expected to change this
trend; HCOs more eco-friendly; US spending on health higher than every other country,
with measures of health lower than many other countries; e-records replacing paper
records
Most challenging for HCOs: healthcare spending is growing faster than spending in
general economy, without improvement in measures of health, as compared to other
countries; also healthcare consumers are more knowledgeable
,Taylor
- How do you think his work has influenced present-day management of HCOs? -
Answers -Created scientific management, which uses standardization, specialization,
and scientific experiments to design jobs for efficiency and production. Today, jobs titles
are designed to be less repetitive and more specialized. Tools and workstations are
ergonomic to suit the body.
Mayo
- Why is his work important for present-day management of HCOs? - Answers -
Introduced human relations approach based on psychology and sociology, in which
people's feelings and behaviors in the group setting are taken into consideration.
Bureaucracy
What are the advantages and disadvantages? - Answers -Advantages: more efficient,
stable, and predictable
Disadvantages: less personal; creativity and personal feelings stifled; less flexible and
innovative
Mintzberg's ten managerial roles
- Which would come easily to you?
- Which of these roles would not come naturally to you and would require extra effort
and practice? - Answers -Easy
- leader (creating vision and motivating others to work toward it)
- entrepreneur (changing and adapting an organization)
- monitor (gathering and using info to know what is happening)
Not
- disturbance handler (taking care of problems and unexpected events)
- resource allocator (distributing resources)
- negotiator (working with others to reach agreements/settle disputes)
Strategic planning
- Referring to Exhibit 3.1, discuss the steps to engage in strategic planning. - Answers -
- First, a manager asks, "Where are we now?" She makes an organizational review of
the org's mission, philosophy, and culture. This includes an internal assessment of its
distinctive characteristics and an external assessment of the market structure and
dynamics. After the external assessment, she can evaluate the org's competitive
position, determining advantages and disadvantages using SWOTs.
,- Second, she asks, "Where should we be going?" She looks at the organizational
direction and develop's its high-level direction. This includes alternative futures, as well
as its mission, vision, values, and key strategies. Next, in strategy formulation, she
establishes goals and objectives for critical issue areas.
- Third, she asks, "How do we get there?" In implementation planning, she identifies the
actions required. Her plan includes a schedule, priorities, and resources.
SWOTs
- List NMSU's SWOTs. - Answers -SWOT refers to Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats
NMSU has the strength of offering degrees online and providing education to a large
number of immigrants and minorities. Its weaknesses include being rural and not being
a huge name. It has the opportunity to become more well-known because it is winning
acclaim on different "top universities" lists. Its threats are loss of government funding for
various programs.
Open-system perspective
- How is it useful for managing HCOs? - Answers -HCOs must acquire resources, staff,
supplies, equipment, info, tech, and other inputs from environment. The HCO
transforms these into outputs by mixing, arranging, connecting, combining and
processing into services and products. Also, an HCO must give, sell, provide, and
deliver its outputs, products, and services to customers, clients, and people in the
environment outside of the HCO.
Coordination methods
- Explain which coordination methods are used to link your work with other people's
work. - Answers -Supervision: supervisor-subordinate relationship
Mutual adjustment: no supervisor-subordinate, so workers arrange work around one
another
Standardized work process: method of how to perform work, written in a procedure
manual
Standardized work output: contents of completed work that others know to expect
Standardized worker skills: specific training needed for a job that lets others know what
to expect
Organization
, - Discuss internal factors and external factors that influence how work is organized. -
Answers -External: if stable and predictable environment, mechanistic is best, which
emphasizes specialized rigidly defined tasks and a strict hierarchy; if changing
environment, organic is best, which emphasizes shared common tasks and loose
authority
Internal: size, goals, worker motivation, coordination
Departments
- How can managers coordinate work among different departments within an HCO? -
Answers -They can use organization structures, including functional, divisional, matrix,
parallel, and modular. Coordination of departments is arranged vertically and
horizontally.
Hierarchy
- In a hospital, how does the medical staff complicate the traditional organization
hierarchy? - Answers -Hospitals have both a bureaucratic structure designed by
managers and a medical staff structure led by physicians. The latter is organized into
specialized departments and divisions. The medical staff has authority and
responsibility over medical care in the hospital, and physicians expect autonomy from
the bureaucracy.
Groupthink
- How is it harmful?
- How can a group leader avoid groupthink? - Answers -Groupthink causes groups to
make decisions too quickly, without thought about diverse ideas, usually to maintain
harmony. Leaders can include diverse membership in groups, adding extra time and
training for group members to learn trust and communication.
Groups
- Explain the difference between task, maintenance, and personal roles - Answers -
Task roles help the group achieve its tasks. Maintenance roles help group members
maintain good feelings about the group and working with groups members. Personal
roles don't help the group, but help members fulfill personal needs.
Managers' Guidelines for Effective Meetings - Answers -- don't call a meeting unless its
needed
- send participants agenda
- orient new members before meeting
- arrange for someone to record minutes
- begin, stay, and end on time
- set tone and state ground rules
