Implementing Change Management in Healthcare Organizations Assignment Sample

Introduction of Facilitating Change In Health And Social Care(Unit 5.17) Assignment

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This assignment aims to focus on the term “Change management” in respect of health and social care setup. Being employed in a health and social care organisation like (), I have been asked by the Senior Management Group to carry out an in-depth review of the current practice and provision. The purpose of this review will be to identify the areas that need urgent changes in the organisation and propose strategies to the organisation regarding the easy transition of service provision through changes. So the objectives of this assignment are as follows:

1. To identify and clarify the factors that can accelerate changes in health and social care services.
2. To evaluate the recent changes in the health and social service setup of the selected organisation.
3. To understand the principle of change management.

To meet these objectives, the case scenario of Royal United Hospital, Bath (United Kingdom) has to be taken into consideration.

According to the definition given by Kotler (1999), “Change management is an array of techniques, processes and principles, and perceptions embedded with human aspect to execute change initiatives within an organisational setup”. In this assignment, the focus will be given to how Royal United Hospital can introduce changes and implement it to offer the best service provision to patients with need.

Task 1

1.1 Key factors to drive the need for changes in health and social care services

According to (Dalle Grave et al., 2013), change can be defined as transforming an organisational current set-up and running it to a more desirable one. According to Dalle Grave et al., (2013), change is the response to threats and opportunities that arise from the external environment. Similarly, Philip et al., (2014) has defined change as the organisational business response to economic factors as well as to the managerial perception, choice and action. Therefore, from these two definitions, the driving factors of changes in health and social care can be divided into two categories:

1. Internal factor of changes
2. External factors of changes

Internal factors of change : In any organisational setup, internal factors of change refer to those factors whose origin can be traced from managerial action, perception, and choice

• Therefore, Internal factors of change are:

1. Customer satisfaction level
2. Organisational weakness
3. Organisational strengths

• Internal drivers of change can be strongly linked with: the following

1. Management philosophy
2. Organisational culture and structure
3. Power distribution within the workplace

Internal factors promote the quality of care, which includes organisational structure, and culture, employee competence, infrastructure, leadership management, and working and care approach. The organisational structure is linked with the system of directing the activities to meet the firm’s objective. The internal factors can impact the customer satisfaction level and organisational performance as structure, culture and workplace environment are direct determinants of decision making process in care delivery (Philip et al., 2014)

On the other hand, External factors to change are:

1. political scenario
2. economics of the society
3. social scenario
4. technological innovation
5. legislation

The external factors include socio-cultural, economic, legal and technological elements. The healthcare facility should be aware of the developments in healthcare technology. This guarantees that it maintains its competitiveness and that the workforce has skills compatible with these technologies. For instance, the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence is growing. In order to ensure that big data is integrated to give successful services, factors like data analytics are crucial (Dalle Grave et al., 2013). The social and cultural aspects of society are represented by things like preferences and variety under this heading. The medical personnel should be ready to provide care that is culturally competent. The introduction of new technology, the changing scenario of politics and the economies of a society where the healthcare organisation is operating can induce the need to change the pre-existing business setup. For example, introducing robotic services for patients in an emergency can induce changes in hospitals. In such a scenario, healthcare professionals and medics must be forced to learn new skills and develop knowledge in their line of work to work with new technology. Other factors that induce the need for changes are economic and socio-political aspects.

• Governmental legislation in the UK is used to emerge continuously with the aim of providing the best health care and support to the people. For example, the amendment of the Health Safety at Work Act, 1974, and Health and Social Care Act, 2008, induce the implementation of changes in pre-existing working policies and standards in the healthcare sector. Therefore, it can be stated that, the environment in which health and social care organisation operate is undergoing fast change as a result of, among other things,:
• Technical development, changes in legislation brought on by political activity, economic change, and social change.
• Healthcare organisations are impacted by all of these, which compels them to periodically assess their plans, procedures, systems, and objectives.

1.2 Identify the factors that drive changes in an area of health and social care setup.

To identify the internal and external factors of changes in a selected health and social care organisation, it should be essential to carry out continuous monitoring of the environment within and outside (Øye et al., 2016). Considering the case scenario of RUH bath, it can be seen that the organisation is failing to meet the quality standard set by the CQC or Care Quality Commission and NHS.

Strengths and Weaknesses of RUH

According to the critical evaluation of the CQC report on RUH, it clearly shows that the organisation is currently facing challenges in the following areas:

1. Lack of proper management
2. Lack of financial resources
3. Lack of implementation of new technology and equipment
4. Shortage of staff with key skill
5. Lack of leadership
6. Lack of training and development for the employees
7. Noncompliance with different legislations and regulatory bodies of the UK government based on health and social care service

Task 2: Report

Introduction

This report aims to devise a strategy and set up criteria to measure the current changes in the health and social care services of RUH. Additionally, in this report, the focus will also be given to the impact of the changes on the service provision of the healthcare organisation. And lastly, in this report, a proposal about the appropriate service responses to the current changes will be included with respect to the service and provisions of RUH.

2.1 Strategy and criteria to measure the current changes in health and social care

Implementing changes within a pre-existing service scenario is a time-consuming and costly process. This process is also not easy as many hidden factors coexist, which in turn can potentially restrict the implementation process of change management in real-time. Therefore, it is essential to monitor or measure the changes to determine whether the change is appropriate and effective for the selected workplace setup or not (Mackenzie and Jeggo, 2019).

Before devising the strategy to measure the current changes in RUH, it is essential to set up criteria based on which the measurement will be determined.

In health and Social Care organisations like RUH, the first criterion to measure change is whether the healthcare sector is meeting the national healthcare standard or not. The standard of the NHS for healthcare organisations in the UK is based on five principles:

1. Dignity and respect
2. Compassion
3. Be included
4. Responsive
5. Care and support and wellbeing

The second criterion will be the organisational culture, structure and work environment. The ambience of the hospital and the working environment where the nurses and healthcare professionals are working and providing services are decisive criteria for determining the changes (Van den Broucke, 2020). An in-depth analysis or survey can be an essential strategy to classify the standards of the services offered by RUH and the impact of changes. The enhanced use of feedback from both the service providers and service seekers can deliver enhanced knowledge about the current change in the organisation.

The panel study, simple explanation, judgment, and prediction are the critical components of the survey. Therefore, the survey will be the best strategy to measure the recent changes in RUH baths. According to Nyblade et al., (2019), the Quantitative approach or strategy includes divergent and numeric data that helps to measure the extent of the changes. For RUH, bath, a quantitative approach can be used to measure the effectiveness of change management in terms of measuring the following criteria:

• Improvement of waiting time for the service users
• Waiting time for surgery and OPD
• Time is taken to respond to the customers
• Use of modern technology
• Responsive time
• Quality of the health care and support provided by the workers

For example, measuring the hours or minutes taken by the service seekers in waiting lines before and after the changes can provide a precise overview of the overall outcome of the change program (Mackenzie and Jeggo, 2019).

The benefit of this strategy of measuring changes in RUH is: that the entire approach is cost-effective, and the hierarchy can get divergent data from service users and stakeholders regarding the current service scenario of the organisation (Pollock et al., 2020).

PDCA or Plan-Do-Check-Act can also be considered another effective strategy to measure the appropriateness of the application of change management and its result.

2.1 Impact of current changes in health and social care service

Measuring the Impact of Current Changes in RUH, Bath can be carried out in a number of ways, including a survey, interview and assessment of the feedback.

According to Abrash Walton, et al., (2019), changes and emotion, perception and opinion are corelated with each other. Therefore, measuring the impact of current changes in a healthcare organisation can be carried out by analysing the experience, feeling or insight of the service seekers. The survey is the best tool to achieve this objective.

Enhanced assessment System in health and social care services include three formats: formative, summative and interim. With formative assessment, the hierarchy of a healthcare organisation can check or measure whether the new change or new adjustment in the strategy can be best-fit, while it comes to delivering the best healthcare service to the people with needs. The interim assessment is used to check the performance efficacy of the healthcare providers and organisational performance in accordance with the need of service seekers. Lastly, the summative assessment is used to review the performance of the organisation as a whole.

In the healthcare organisation (RUH), through surveys, both numeric and non-numerical data or information can be collected from service users and the staff associated with the hospital. Qualitative analysis of their opinion and feedback or comment can also be a way to measure the impact of changes in the current service facility (American Diabetes Association, (2021). In health care centres, both the experience of patients and the working experience of service providers are considered as important pillars to checking the quality of healthcare service, clinical outcomes and patient safety. Recording the patients’ perception towards the quality of care and health support they are receiving from the care providers is a way to determine the quality of care being delivered by care organisations or whether there is any need to change the service provision. Similarly, the working experience or job satisfaction level of the workers in any healthcare centre can also be recorded and analysed to check whether the organisational policy or work culture is on the right track or not. Without a proper and robust organisational culture and structure, it may not be possible for any healthcare organisation to meet the need of society and its people. This qualitative analysis can impact the current changes in health and social care.

Analysis and calculation of statistical information will be the best way to understand the actual impact of changes have had on RUH or Royal United Hospital. This can be done by assessing the quantifiable information by analysing the questionnaires used in the survey or by analysing the computer records. For example, the hospital has a manual and electronic record of the appointment time, the number of patient admissions on a particular date and time, and discharge time. By analysis and comparing this information before and after the implementation of changes can provide a clear outlook on the overall impact or outcome of the process (Russell-Rose and Shokraneh, 2019).

Additionally, by using the "enhanced assessment system," one can assess the feedback and comments of service users being posted on the website of the organisation regarding their experience at RUH. Assessing these comments and feedback before and after the implementation of changes can provide a clear understanding of the perception of service users towards the quality of services being offered by RUH.

2.2 Evaluation of the overall impact of recent changes in health and social care

Considering the case scenario of the Royal United Hospital of the UK, it can be seen that the warning notice by CQC has been dissolved (Ruzek et al., 2020). This can demonstrate the overall impact of change management on the service provision of RUH. In another way, it can be stated that there was overall improvisation in service provision and initiative to comply with the national standard of the health and social care sector.

According to Royal United Hospital’s quality report, the organisation has initiated changes in a number of sectors (Kirah, 2020). For example, implementing a more patient-focused management process, customer-centric leadership strategy, improvement in facilities and equipment, use of new technologies and resources, improvement of the overall safety of workplace and services, and increase effectiveness and safety to handle the equipment during surgery (Øye et al., 2016). Additionally, streamlining the data collection and management system in healthcare scenarios refers to the effectiveness of services being offered by RUH to its patients in accordance with requirements.

Despite all these improvements, RUH must focus on several areas when it comes to meeting the standard of NHS. For example, the hierarchy still has the necessity to look after the process of meeting the requirements of the patient at a busy time (Horrell et al., 2018). As per the CQC observation, the organisation has the necessity to look after the employee turnover rate and organise training and development programs for the employees in terms of developing their skills and competencies.

2.3 Proposal on appropriate service response regarding recent changes in health and social care services

The appropriate service responses that can be proposed to RUH to improve the impact of current changes are:

Training and development program: by investing in organising training and development programs for the workers and nurses, RUH can improve the skill and competencies of the employees in response to organisational needs (Dalle Grave et al., 2013).). Additionally, with training programs, the hierarchy can also enhance the morality and motivation of the workers to be committed to delivering the best healthcare services to the patient.

Technological advancement: new technology and its use can lead to better service outcomes. As Royal United Hospital is associated with delivering health care support and services to the people of the UK, the organisation should use new and updated technologies to deliver services to the users on time and in the right way (Philip et al., 2014).

Recruitment program: the organisation can invest and look after hiring and recruiting more skilled and competent nurses and health care professionals. This initiative or approach can help the organisation to better its service facilities and can make the working environment adaptable to changes.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable. In this assignment, the focus has been given to change management in health and social care setups. The change can cause positive and negative outcomes within an organisational setup. In this assignment, therefore, the focus has been given to strategies and approaches with which the impact of changes on the organisation can be measured appropriately. In this assignment, the case scenario of Royal United Hospital has been taken into consideration. The case scenario of RUH ensures that change is essential for any organisational setup.

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