Business Process Re-Engineering in Healthcare Management (Essay Sample)

DIRECTING CASE
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DIRECTING CASE
Business process re-engineering in healthcare management is a case study that was conducted by Massimo Bertolini, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Filippo Emanuele Cirapica and Giancarlo Giacchetta (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciara pica, 2011). The purpose for the study was to improve the efficiency of the surgical ward in a hospital. In this essay I will briefly summarize the article and answer the questions that are related to the case assignment.
The case study was based on a surgical ward whereby operations take place. In the surgical wards the operations are scheduled to take place while others are undertaken without a schedule. This requires the scheduled and unscheduled operations to coexist and this will require proper management to use this resource. The current state and design of the future system of the surgical ward have been analyzed and defined using event-driven process chains (EPC) methodology, the entity-relationship model and discrete event simulation. A what-if analysis was developed which simulates different scenarios and assesses their performance through the modelling processes, activities and sub-activities that take up a resources used in the ward. In the case study they discovered that using the Delphi methodology it was possible to identify the number of operation sessions, the availability of specific instruments used in surgery and the preparation of operating rooms for every operation. The most efficient management choices were now understood from the use of discrete event simulation.
Directing is one of the major responsibility of management. Directing involves the process of instructing, guiding and overseeing the performance of the employees to achieve the objectives set. Directing is the core management process since without it staffing, planning and organizing will not be effective. Directing is important in the following ways as it initiates action , integrates efforts , a means of motivating workers , provides stability ,efficient utilization of resources and coping up with changes. Directing initiates action when the management lays down the steps and procedures to their subordinates how the work will be done (Houy, Fettke, Loos, 2010) . Directing integrates the efforts of individual workers towards accomplishing the goals of the firm through effective communication and leadership. Directing the workers of the organization is a way of motivating them to provide better standards in the workplace. This is done by providing incentives that makes the performance of the workers grows. Directing of resources used in the company by ensuring minimum wastage, no redundancy of work done and overlapping of performance ensures that the resources are used efficiently (Drucker, 1992). Human beings are resistant to change and therefore it requires the management through effective communication to persuade them to embrace change by directing them. This is done by making them adapt to change through a slow transition process.
Based on the information in the article I would use directing to improve the state of the surgical ward. This I would do by using process performance management. The process performance management is a technique used to gauge the performance of something. In the surgical ward this would apply in assessing the performance of the staff and the performance of the resources used such as the surgical equipment. In the actual article they u...