Healthcare -- Legal Issues Medical Term Paper

1993). Within medical settings in particular, physicians and supervisors are often too over-burdened with their myriad formal responsibilities to take note of minor irregularities in protocols and procedures. Because coworkers are often in the best possible situation to notice inadequacies, it is important for all levels of employees to be equally involved in the overall CQI process.

Optimal implementation of an effective CQI process also requires a culture of openness to suggestion and confidentiality with respect to reporting more serious issues such as those that result from negligence or willful misconduct on the part of co-workers.

11. The textbook states that "an organization's most vital component in costly resource is its staff." With this being the case, the human resource function plays a very important role. Should the human resource function be part of the senior management team?

In terms of policy implementation and organizational philosophy, the human resources function does require a liaison on the senior management team. However, on an operational level, the senior management team need not necessarily be directly involved in the day-to-day human resource functions. The senior management team decides policy and may communicate human resource concerns to the human resource directors, one of whom may indeed be appropriately included on the senior management team, but the main role of the entire human resources department is to apply human resource policies decided by senior management at the operational level.

12. The "journey to excellence" must begin with a healthcare leadership. Since all leadership must be involved, how would you deal with a member of leadership that does not support the initiative? Explain your rationale.

Dealing with a member of the leadership team who does not support the initiative would probably incorporate an assessment of that individual's contribution to the overall success of the organization. While it would obviously be preferable for all members of the leadership team to be equally involved in and committed to the "journey to excellence" philosophy, that may not always be realistic.

Medicine is a discipline in which success is often determined by academic aptitude and technical competence. Ideally, everyone blessed with the intellectual aptitude to succeed in medicine would also be equally gifted with personal charisma and charm (Russell-Walling 2005). However, in the real world, this is not necessarily always the case.

Luckily, the interpersonal skills required to implement the journey to excellence matter much more in the case of team leaders and supervisors than in members of the senior leadership team who generally delegate direct report responsibilities to their immediate supervisees. Naturally, it is far preferable for all members of the leadership team to adopt the commitment to excellence enthusiastically, but the nature of the medical industry is such that experience and technical competence simply outweigh certain other considerations more than is the case within less demanding industries.

References

Horine, P.D., Pohiala, E.D., Luecke, R.W. (1993) Healthcare Financial Managers and CQI: Implementing Continuous Quality Improvement; Healthcare Financial Management.

Humphry, D. (1991) Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying. Secaucus: Carol Publishing

Russell-Walling, E. (2005) Fifty…