Numerous factors, such as increased demand for healthcare services, emerging technologies, and complex and ever-changing policies, have created a rapidly evolving environment in healthcare. Such an environment requires organizations to undertake change initiatives to remain competitive. As a healthcare administrator, you will be expected to initiate, manage, and sustain change within your organization.
You are a change manager at a large, urban hospital. The hospital recently acquired a 25-physician multispecialty practice. The goal of this acquisition was to improve preadmission and postdischarge primary care for patients. The acquisition was also intended to better meet the population health needs, which require the hospital to be increasingly measured and reimbursed. The practice was previously owned by the 10 physicians who started the practice over 25 years ago. Because of its origins, the practice has a very hierarchical culture that is reflected in its organizational structure. Owner physicians are at the top of the hierarchy, followed by employed physicians, then other clinical staff (nurses, medical assistants), and finally nonclinical front-office staff. You have been tasked with implementing a new team-based model of care delivery that more fully engages all members of the practice and puts patients at the center or top of the hierarchy.
