The Future Challenges in Health Care Management (Essay #2) (Essay Sample)

FUTURE CHALLENGES IN HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT
Samuel Nganga
Test Paper: Essay Writing
September 28, 2014
The health care industry entails organizations, which specialize in provision of products and services that cater for the needs of patients. These needs include emotional, physical, psychological, physiological and futuristic ones such as health risk-based insurance needs. This creates a complexity in its management practices. Accurately predicting its future management is, therefore, extremely impossible. However, under consideration of past and current trends, it is possible to show future management challenges. In this regard, an in-depth analysis past and current affective factors is carried out, in trying to offer solutions for future management challenges in the health care industry.
To begin with, understanding new high-potential employees is a critical management requirement, since they are different from those of the past. Their expectations on leadership are focused more on personal interest than organizational commitment. Given that they do not express interest in continued cooperation in one organization, they want liberty and thus, entrepreneurship. A recent report from studies carried out in Harvard Business School indicated that more than half of all students in the institution “express entrepreneurial interest after completion of studies”. Attracting and retaining these employees is a future challenge. However, with the above understanding, it is significant that future managers put in place management mechanisms, which will offer possibilities of collective participation of the employees and organizations such as partnership, to enable long-term success of the organizations.
The future impact of information technology is another management challenge. In the past, there was little integration of information technology into the health care sector. Many organizations operated without networked and incorporated systems. This trend is still under practice. Therefore, technological knowledge within the health care industry remains limited. However, electronic records and integrated networks are highly significant in cost-reductions. In order to handle this challenge effectively in the future, managers will have to be extremely conversant with technology in order to avoid implementation of ineffective and cost prohibitive systems, which might end up shutting down their organizations. This implies in-depth technology education requirements for managers, apart from health care education.
Customer organization at all levels of ‘the value-chain’ in the health care sector is a worrying trend. Medical experts have formed alliances for interest negotiation and competition. Small and medium pharmacies have regrouped in attempts for achieving purchasing cooperatives. Hospitals, which cannot afford specialized equipment, are now collaborating with those, which can afford, in attempts of spreading the costs of new technology. Small businesses too are forming alliances in attempts of overcoming competition with large ones. All these factors are indicators of a future management challenge. Successful organizations will have to consider them, device-partnering relationships in the sector to stay relevant and victorious. This will only be possible through future effective management.
Lastly, the direction of health care product and service provisions is experiencing rigorous debates. The introduction of venture capitalism into the industry is raising concern on the quality of services provided as these organizations put more emphasis on financial gains than consumer wellbeing. This is an indication of management and focus shift. Future managers must make sure that effective mechanisms are in place to ensure high quality, consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty. These are vital in organization success, and thus, business relevance and sustenance.
From the discussion, it is clear that future management in the health care sector is full of challenges. Changing trends in high-potential employees, impact of information technology, customer re-o...