Medicine case study sample

Bad Image Radiology Department

Step I: Summary of the case

Notably, many hospitals find themselves in the middle of court cases and trials with very little knowledge of the events that led to the scenario. This case is a good example. It presents the origin of the problem, the personnel that were involved and the events that led to the problems presented. It is about MacMillan hospital and the problems that generated from the department of medical imaging. The department had contracted its services to Good View Company and the major shareholder was Goodview (Darr, 2001, p. 322). He started neglecting his work and this led to the death of a housekeeper whose mammogram was read poorly. In addition, the hospital had started being viewed with bad image by the neighboring medical neighborhood. This led to terminating of contract by the hospital and a series of trials that affected the hospital immensely. My recommendation would be to change the original staff especially those that neglected the problem when it originated.

Step II: Essential elements of the information

This case study revolves around several individuals in the administration. The first is Harold Goodview, the chief of medical imaging initially known as radiology department. He is the owner of Good Views and among the permanent employees of the company. The second individual involved is Gregory Halton, the vice president of clinical services (VP/CS). Jack Gargon is MacMillan’s chief executive and has been responsible for the running of the hospital for fifteen years. Other personnel mentioned in the case are Sally Lebeau, the chief radiographic technologist (Darr, 2001, p. 324). Drs. Banda and Leipzig are the other permanent employees of the department but Dr. Banda later quits due to poor management. The case study focuses on the challenges presented by the medical imaging department due to poor leadership of Goodview and neglecting his work. He is very greedy with money and this behavior leads to poor functioning of the department. Patients like Amelia Tendo are affected by the actions of good view. The disagreements between Goodview and the administration of the company last for almost six months where business, reputation, and lives are affected.

Step III: Issues presented in the case

MacMillan hospital finds itself in the middle of management and performance wrangles. All this problems however originate from the department of medical imaging and Harold Goodview specifically. As Dr. Labeau puts them, first is the decreasing number of radiologist despite the increasing volume of work. In addition, the radiologist turnover causes disruption in the departments work. All this problems can be traced back to Goodview’s obsession with money (Darr, 2001, p. 330). Second, it is the ignorance of Goodview to Halton. He ignores the administrative power of Halton and goes ahead to fix a cable connection to monitor the stock market. When this matters are brought into attention, Jack Gargon does very little to resolve this growing concern. The problems sour up to a point where one of the permanent employees resigns and the other has to take mild tranquilizers to keep the stress at a manageable level. The problem comes to the attention of the board and Buchanan, the chair of the department advices Gargon to device ways to terminate the contract between the hospital and Good View LLB. This escalates to a temporary restraining order against the hospitals and trials. Neglect on the part of Goodview cost the housekeeper her life due to poor reading of a mammogram and her estate leads the hospital and Goodview to a second trial.

Step IV: Magnitude and significance of each problem

The decreasing number of radiologist has a huge impact on the quality of work by other radiologist in the department. Goodview’s bad attitude has influenced the poor customer turnout in the department. Such an instance arose when his internet connection was cut and he started using profanity. Such scandals are responsible for giving a bad image of the company. In addition, due to the neglect of Gargon in response to Goodview’s neglect of hierarchy of power causes the disagreements in the first place. Halton, could have been able to manage Goodview’s behavior and avoided the bad hospital fund management. When Goodview starts neglecting his work, hospitals start sending their patients to other independent radiology institutions. This is due to the unreliable results produced by the hospital. Such behavior will cost the hospital its profits and reliability due to the bad services offered in the institution. In conclusion, all this events result to poor moral of the staff. As a result, work produced is of poor quality resulting to bad image for the department and the hospital as well. If this case went unchecked, the company’s reputation and profit margins would have sunk to unmanageable levels.

Step V: Priority of problems

If analysis took place, the magnitude of the problems in the hospital would be of different magnitudes. Their importance and impacts would differ and therefore presenting their magnitude. The problem with the least magnitude would be the administration hierarchy. This problem of addressed would take such a short time to solve and with minimal changes. The next would be employee turnover. It could easily be solved since the employing agents have adequate willing radiologist if the pay would be right. All the hospital needs to do is to order a pay rise for the new contracting company. Next in the hierarchy of importance attitude of employees since all they need is minimal motivation and management that cares. Following, would be the change of management in the medical imaging department. This is actually the main cause of all problems that faced the hospital. Had management of the radiology department be discerning all this complications would have been non-existent. Finally, the highest in the ladder is the death of the housekeeper (Darr, 2001, p. 343). Negligence and poor dedication of Goodview caused the early death of a staff member. Loss of life is a very serious problem to a hospital and can lead to its closure.

Step VI: Alternative cause of action

The death of Amelia Tendo was because of neglect of Goodview. After his internet, connection was cut and his stock started failing, he developed an attitude where he dint pay much attention to x-rays and gave wrong diagnosis, leading to the death of the housekeeper. This problem would have been easily prevented and actually saved a life. If Goodview had been more attentive with his work, he might have spotted the cancer earlier enough and the woman would have had a fighting chance to live a longer life. The problem would be prevented in the future by first cutting off Goodview from the medical imaging department. Then, by having two technologists, give diagnosis on every x-ray would give every patient a second opinion and avoided mistakes in diagnosis as well.

Poor management is what had led the hospital into lawsuits and bad image. Such as was the case was preventable from the start. All that was needed was constant scrutiny of every contracted group and their quality of work. Halton had tried this but Goodview had undermined his authority and Gargon did nothing to help the situation. To solve this problem, I would advise the hospital in the contractual agreements to put a clause that would specify that the personnel had to ensure that they gave services of the highest quality. It could also state that lawsuits against the hospital could all be directed to the concerned contracted company.

Step VII: Positive and negative consequences of proposed alternatives

As proposed earlier, two technologists would be required to view each mammogram. This upgrade would be an expensive affair that would hurt the pockets of the patients as well as the profits of the hospital. Such would be a resultant because a large number of staff would be required to meet the additional workload. Patients would be required to produce more money to meet the quality and reduced profits of the contracting company and the hospital. The advantage of such an affair would be quality medical imaging services. In the end, more patients would be referred to MacMillan hospital and revive the image of the company.

The second proposed action is the revision of contracts. The additional clauses would act as assurance that the managers of the contracted companies would keep producing positive work. The hospital would also be free of any lawsuits generating from the actions of the contracted medical personnel. On the other hand, this move would affect the working atmosphere of medical personnel and it would take a lot of time to convince them that so long as the handled their responsibilities well, very few problems would be expected.

Step VIII: Course of action

The solution of this case would be geared towards redeeming the image of the department. This would hurt and benefit some individuals but the most important parties are the hospital and the patients. The best solution of the problem was terminating the contract of Good View just as the hospital did. Management and hospital administration also needed some revolution and upgrade. Behavior presented by Jack of neglect and accommodating bad working staff like Goodview was a sign of weakness and he needed to leave management. The courage portrayed by Halton when dealing with senior management was admirable together with his resilience to produce quality services in the hospital. He was a good candidate for a promotion. The general staff could also act as watchdogs of the administration and encouraged to report any undedicated leaders as well as subordinates. Such action would keep management informed of poor performing staff and deal with them before severe damage took place.

Step IX: Difficulties of recommendations

Whenever, new actions take place in an institution, there is the anticipated positive feedback and the unpopular negative complication. In a scenario where the presented recommendations were implemented, there are anticipated difficulties that would be expected. The first is the distaste by old staff to management for firing Jack. At his position, he had worked for twenty-seven years in the hospital and had created friends amongst other employee (Darr, 2001, p. 324). This would result to other management problems like boycotts and poor morale but such would last for a short time. The administration should however be prepared to deal with this boycotts and the patience to wait for them to pass. The promotion of Halton could present similar problems due to the distaste employees have of him due to the strict leadership. However, these recommendations should be implemented since they present more advantages to disadvantages.

Step X: Monitoring performance of recommended action

The success of a company and in this case the hospital would be dependent on the ability of the recommendations to be implemented successfully. In some occasions, management might start the implementation process but fail to complete it due to neglect and relaxation. However, to ensure such an activity does not take place, the hospital board would be advised to inquire for a weekly report on the implementation process from management administration. Inclusive could be the trending topic in each department and the challenges or positive activities taking place. With such reports, the hospital board could always be on toes and resolve issues before they escalate and every single staff including the superiors would be held accountable for every single deed done or neglected.

References

Darr, K. (2001) The Bad Image: Radiology Department. (231-244). The George
Washington University, Washington, D. C.