Mismanagement at Respiratory Hospital Departments

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Science has offered humanity an opportunity to advance in a variety of ways, including medicine and healthcare. With the advancement of technology and equipment, as well as with the invention of innovative treatment methods, it seems that people should have fewer problems with their health than ever. However, the current situation in the sphere of healthcare is far from being perfect. There are several major causes of problems in the field of medicine such as an insufficient amount of resources, medical errors, or understaffing. The reason that inspired the present research paper is the inconsistency between the functions performed by managerial staff and their professional skills. It is frequently a case that a manager of a department does not realize what a particular team of nurses or doctors is doing. Managers have many vital skills, but when it comes to practice, it becomes apparent that work in healthcare settings demands more than merely managerial experience. A particular focus of the current research is nursing management issues in the departments of respiratory therapy. The burden of respiratory diseases is felt rather seriously all over the world nowadays. Over 7 billion people were reported to have some kind of respiratory disease in 2015 (López-Campos, Tan & Soriano 2016). The number of those affected by long-term breathing problems continues growing, and it is necessary to pay more attention to how respiratory therapy departments fulfill their professional duties.

Choosing a research topic is not an easy task since it requires much analysis and presupposes the establishment and explanation of research basics (Collis & Hussey 2013). However, the considerable amount of research work performed so far makes it possible to outline the topic that will be the focus of research. The topic is “The analysis of challenges posed by mismanagement at respiratory hospital departments.” The hypothesis is that hiring managers who have specialized medical education to govern respiratory departments at hospitals will lead to fewer medical errors, better patient outcomes, and higher customer satisfaction.

The main research questions are as follows:

how exactly does mismanagement at respiratory departments negatively impact patient outcomes?
to what extent is it possible to avoid medical errors by rearranging the management teams at hospital departments?
how can managers’ knowing the role of clinicians improve the quality of care provided at respiratory departments at hospitals?
how do respiratory department employees view the problem? Do they find it necessary to replace managers with specialists in the sphere of respiratory disease?

The motivation for the research is closely associated with my future profession. As a manager to be, I have to realize the pitfalls existing in the structure of hospital management and come up with ways of overcoming the difficulties. It seems logical that people who are qualified to do some healthcare workers should be able to make the most significant decisions when it comes to patient safety and quality of treatment. This holds for any hospital department, but the respiratory unit is the focus of the current research. Being a good manager means being able to arrange work and make sure that everything is under control. However, it is not possible to apply this definition to every sphere of people’s activity. When receiving their education, managers are taught some basic things that may be useful at some factory or an organization dealing with the production process.

Meanwhile, the hospital environment is quite different from the majority of other environments in that it deals with people’s lives and not merely with come objects or products. What is acceptable in any other organization is not tolerable in a hospital. Therefore, there is a need to minimize the risk of failures that occur due to mismanagement. With that aim, the current research is proposed. It aims at revealing the views of respiratory department employees on their managers’ skills. The current study does not plan to undermine the professionalism of managers, but it will establish the most convenient ways out of the current situation in the field of healthcare. The major argument is that people who are skilled in treating patients and look after them should be the ones to govern the process of work at hospital departments. This opinion is supported by current literature research. Scholars investigate management issues at hospitals and conclude that there is a need to make serious changes (Ghanem et al. 2015; Kirkpatrick et al. 2013; Parand et al. 2014; Rozenblum et al. 2013). Such attention testifies the significance of the chosen research topic.

Scholars pay much attention to the problems of hospital management. In the current situation when the demand for best practices and outcomes is increasing, the question of highly-skilled nursing managers arises as one of the acutest issues. The cases when people who are in charge of respiratory therapy departments do not realize the functions of the clinicians they manage are not rare. Meanwhile, it is necessary to arrange work at all levels with the highest degree of professionalism if the best results are expected. Mismanagement may lead to malpractices or medical errors, which may bring detrimental outcomes. According to Frese and Keith (2015), nearly 100,000 deaths were reported in the US in 2000 as a result of ineffective management and medical errors. Such a huge mortality rate due to unprofessional treatment requires thorough consideration and revision of current management approaches. Apart from mortality, mismanagement also leads to excessive expenditures and frequent readmissions. This problem is highlighted in a research study by Ghanem et al. (2015). According to the authors, medical staff including nurses and doctors tend to think ahead and predict critical situations to save their patients’ lives (Ghanem et al. 2015).

However, if a manager is not competent in some medical issues, he or she does not do any good for the department. The more aware the managers are of the issues with which their departments work, the more benefits will patients notice. The problem of the gap existing between hospital managers and clinicians is researched in a study by Rozenblum et al. (2015). The authors emphasize that hospital managers admit the desire to reach a high level of customer satisfaction, but they do not know how to achieve it (Rozenblum et al. 2015). Therefore, it is suggested that managers should cooperate with their employees and include them in the process of decision making since the clinicians know the peculiarities of their work much better than managers do. Rozenblum et al. (2015) conclude that only creating a well-structured plan for reaching patient satisfaction will promote the achievement of the best outcomes, and only clinicians can answer the principal questions in the process of preparing such a plan. Another important study of hospital managers’ role in reaching patient satisfaction was performed by Parand et al. (2014).

In their review, authors analyze literature focused on managerial activities. The scholars emphasize the significance of managers’ functions in guaranteeing safety to patients and arranging high-quality services (Parand et al. 2014). The review by Parand et al. (2014) suggests data that is valuable about the current research. In particular, scholars mention that having managerial experience and expertise is not sufficient to arrange the best quality and safety at a hospital. Parand et al. (2014) remark that even when managers know some conditions that might improve patient satisfaction, they are not always aware of the ways of implementing these conditions. Therefore, it may be concluded that managers’ close collaboration with the medical staff is a highly beneficial issue. Moreover, if hospitals choose managers with relevant professional medical experience, they will increase their chances to succeed in satisfying customers and providing the necessary safety measures. Another research focused on the need for changes in hospital management was performed by Kirkpatrick et al. (2013).

In their study, the authors discuss the urgency of reforms in hospital management and suggest that doctors and nurses should make the most important decisions concerning patient safety and treatment. Thus, Kirkpatrick et al. (2013) emphasize that the best patient outcomes can only be reached when the major role in the decision-making process belongs to professional medical workers rather than people with managerial skills but with no experience in treatment. The reviewed literature makes it possible to conclude that the issue of hospital management has become rather acute in modern practice. Scholars and practitioners admit that there are problems in the decision-making process when it is based only on managers’ decisions. Moreover, if a manager does not have any relevant experience in the sphere he controls, it may lead to adverse outcomes for patients. Since the cases of respiratory diseases are frequent and since there is a high level of medical errors due to mismanagement, it is necessary to make changes in hospital management systems that will increase patient satisfaction and decrease mortality and readmission rates.

The study’s feasibility is one of the major problems that a researcher may face during his or her work. The availability of data is the most important aspect that should be taken into consideration (Collis & Hussey 2013). Frequently, researchers fail to think ahead and assume that gathering the necessary information will present no difficulty. However, it is unacceptable to use such an approach. The current study requires the use of questionnaires to obtain answers from two groups of stakeholders: respiratory department employees and patients. To collect the information from the participants, surveys will be conducted in the department of the hospital in which the researcher is currently employed. It is expected that all the stakeholders will agree to participate in the study. However, there may occur a situation when prospective candidates refuse to collaborate with the researcher. In such a case, it is necessary to keep in mind that barriers to collecting data cannot impede the progress of research is they are taken into consideration from the very start (Collis & Hussey 2013). The current research has a reserve plan for data collection. If there are not enough persons willing to answer the survey questions at the hospital, the questionnaire will be distributed to respiratory therapists across the world who are members of Facebook respiratory therapy groups. Such a kind of collecting data is less effective than talking to people face-to-face, but it is still regarded as a highly productive method.

Reference List

Collis, J & Hussey, R 2013, Business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students, 4th edn, Palgrave-MacMillan, London.

Frese, M & Keith, N 2015, ‘Action errors, error management, and learning in organizations’, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 661-687.

Ghanem, M, Schnoor, J, Heyde, C-E, Kuwatsch, S, Bohn, M & Josten, C 2015, ‘Management strategies in hospitals: scenario planning’, GMS Interdisciplinary Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery DGPW, vol. 4, no. 6, Web.

Kirkpatrick, I, Bullinger, B, Lega, F & Dent, M 2013, ‘The translation of hospital management models in European health systems: a framework for comparison’, British Journal of Management, vol. 24, no. S1, pp. S48-S61.

López-Campos, JL, Tan, W & Soriano, JB 2016, ‘Global burden of COPD’, Respirology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 14-23.

Parand, A, Dopson, D, Renz, A & Vincent, C 2014, ‘The role of hospital managers in quality and patient safety: a systematic review’, BMJ Open, vol. 4, no. 9, pp. 1-15.

Rozenblum, R, Lisby, M, Hockey, PM, Levtzion-Korach, O, Salzberg, CA, Efrati, N, Lipsitz, S & Bates, DW 2013, ‘The patient satisfaction chasm: the gap between hospital management and frontline clinicians’, BMJ Quality & Safety, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 242-250.

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Mismanagement at Respiratory Hospital Departments

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