Reference no: EM132260955
Case Study Background information:
Whitlam Memorial Hospital (WMH), a 130 bed community hospital situated in the outer suburbs of Sydney, has provided general acute medical, surgical, obstetric and emergency services to the local community.
Over the last 10 years, the population of the area has increased significantly to include a much larger proportion of young families and a significant number of retirement villages.
The hospital has reviewed the needs of this growing community and is changing its range of services in response to that review.
To deal with these changes the WMH has the budget to redevelop the hospital facilities and restructure the organisation to provide a focus on the health needs of the growing population and to provide a number of specialty services including cancer, paediatric, cardiovascular, renal services, trauma services, aged care and community services. The bed numbers will increase to 250, with an increase in the capacity for community based clinics in the specialties.
The Vision statement of the hospital is to Provide health experiences that are able to respond to the changing needs of the community.
The stated mission of the restructured hospital is to provide highest quality, specialist health care in partnership with patients, carers, the community at large and other health care providers.
The overall strategic goals of the new organisation are to develop high performing, multidisciplinary teams within the specialist services in order to provide high quality, patient-centred care that is effective, efficient and able to respond to the changing health needs of the population.
The existing hospital has a traditional, functional (bureaucratic) organisational structure but the management team is currently reviewing alternative organisational structures which might better suit the changing internal and external environments of the organisation and have the potential to improve communication and collaboration across teams and accountability for resource utilisation, quality of care and patient outcomes.
Instructions: After reading the case study above and using the course materials and essential readings, develop a short (1500 word), critical essay-style discussion paper that discusses the strengths and limtations of the current organisational structure in relation to the vision, mission and goals of the WMH. Students are required to identify an organisational structure that might better support the vision, mission and goals of the WMH, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of this new organisational structure and why it might be a better fit for this hospital.