Outsourcing of hospital services (Coursework Sample)

Outsourcing of Hospital Services
Name
Institution
A contrast of the Deaconess Clinic with the Seven Deadly Sins of outsourcing
The Deaconess Clinic should not outsource the housekeeping operation. This is because housekeeping is close to the core business of the hospital. According to this article, activities that are too close to the core business should not be outsourced. However, the hospital went ahead and outsourced it. Housekeeping operation is very important in any hospital setting because it ensures that the hospital is kept clean at all times and the possibility of the spread of infectious diseases is kept at minimum (Kunders, 2004). By outsourcing the housekeeping operation the hospital endangered both the life of the patients and the staff since the staff was not efficient in service provision. Also, the hospital went against the business principle of committing to providing quality services to its clients by endangering their lives.
Selecting a right vendor for outsourcing is important. Otherwise, the activity should not be outsourced. Selecting the wrong vendor may have led to the problem in the outsourcing of the housekeeping operation. In his article, Barthelemy stresses on the importance of selecting a good vendor as it is crucial for the success of outsourcing. The hospital may have put too much focus on cutting down costs and selected a poor vendor. The vendor may have not been specialized in housekeeping operation in a hospital setting and thus failed to connect and understand the needs of the housekeeping employees. In the process, the hospital failed to uphold the business principle of committing to the needs of employees as well. By selecting a poor vendor, the hospital also exposed them to a bad business atmosphere where they felt their freedom was under threat (Burrow, Kleindl & Everard, 2008).
If the written contract with the vendor is not good then outsourcing the activity should be out of the question. According to this article, writing a poor contract is one of the deadly sins of outsourcing. The idea of outsourcing the housekeeping operation to cut down costs may have made the hospital to rush to enter into a contract with the vendor. This may have led to writing of a poor contract. This may have eventually led to the delivery of poor services to the employees which was a disincentive to them leading to the problem in their turnover. In addition, the hospital failed to honor the business principle of committing to its business partners by failing to draft a good contract hence acting unfairly.
Personnel issues should not be overlooked while outsourcing. Barthelemy states that managing personnel issues efficiently is important since employees may view outsourcing as an underestimation of their skills. The hospital should not have outsourced the operation since it may have overlooked the personnel issues as it may have failed to motivate them and reassure them of their job security. As a result, a majority of them felt that their skills were underestimated and had divided loyalty making them feel isolated from the hospital. The decision of outsourcing may have failed to include views of the employees thus breaching the business principle that respects the staff freedom to choose who to associate with.
According to the article, the fifth deadly sin is losing total control over the outsourced activity. It is essential to retain a small group of managers to handle the vendor when an activity is outsourced (Barthelemy, 2003). Failure to do this leads to loss of control of the activity. The clinic should not outsource housekeeping operation since it may have failed to actively participate in managing the activity. As a result, the vendor took overall control over the housekeeping operation. Abandonment of the housekeeping employees by the clinic may have made them feel even more isolated from the hospital leading to the turnover problems. A business is also committed to its shareholders and this commitment is reflected on good corporate governance. Abandonment of the entire housekeeping operation to the vendor is a failure to this commitment.
The hidden costs of outsourcing should not be out looked as doing so would be a deadly sin. This is according to Barthelemy. The failure in housekeeping operation can be attributed to overlooking the hidden costs like contracting costs, vendor search and vendor management costs as this can threaten the viability of outsourcing efforts. Overlooking the hidden costs also breached the business principle of using an organization’s assets and resources properly and in a responsible way. Overlooking the said hidden costs can be termed as carelessness on the part of the hospital.
Tentative solution to the problem and how to implement a solution
In order to correct the situation, the first action is to accumulate the necessary expertise for outsourcing. The expertise will ensure that the seven deadly sins of outsourcing are avoided and hence prevent a repeat of problems that come with outsourcing. For instance, the experts will ensure that the clinic does not outsource activities that are too close to the core business; instead, the ...