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Minissota Foundation Hospital

The hospital director has become concerned with the increasing number of complaints about quality of care. At a staff meeting, those in attendance discussed the various issues raised in the complaints. Charlotte noted that different departments have different definitions of quality and most complaints relate to support services. Phil agreed and said support workers receive minimum wage, have high turnover, and low morale. They lack understanding of quality. Nancy suggested learning quality control techniques from her husband's candy company. At a follow up meeting, Mr. Ames emphasized defining quality and using control charts to better understand the problems before attempting solutions.

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Rowena Cahintong
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99 views1 page

Minissota Foundation Hospital

The hospital director has become concerned with the increasing number of complaints about quality of care. At a staff meeting, those in attendance discussed the various issues raised in the complaints. Charlotte noted that different departments have different definitions of quality and most complaints relate to support services. Phil agreed and said support workers receive minimum wage, have high turnover, and low morale. They lack understanding of quality. Nancy suggested learning quality control techniques from her husband's candy company. At a follow up meeting, Mr. Ames emphasized defining quality and using control charts to better understand the problems before attempting solutions.

Uploaded by

Rowena Cahintong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MINISSOTA FOUNDATION HOSPITAL

The Minissota Foundation Hospital provides convalescent care for patients with long term
illness as well as for patients who require extended periods of physical therapy. The average
length of stay at the hospital is four months. The hospital is supported through combination of
state and federal funding, medicare payments and private donations. Less than 10% of the
hospital’s revenue is derived from patients.

The hospital director, Mr. John (“Big Jack”) Pace, has become increasingly concerned
with the number of complaints the hospital is receiving on various aspects of its health care, and
had recently made this the main topic at the monthly staff meeting. In attendance at the
meeting were Alan Carter, chief physician; Nancy Ames, supervisor of nursing; Phil Rogers,
manager of support services; and Charlotte James, assistant director.

Mr. Pace began the meeting with a brief statement outlining some of the may complaints
he’d received, which ranged from cold meals to beds not being changed often enough. Some of
the complaints were even from the hospital employees themselves. Mr. Pace indicated that he
hoped that this wasn’t the start of a decline in the quality of health care. However, his main
concern was an upcoming inspection for re-accreditation by the state. In his words, “You know
how they can pick up on something like this and blow it all out of proportion.”

Charlotte James, who has been investigating the problem reported that she was having
difficulties because “doctors, nurses, dietitians and support people all have different definitions
of quality.” She also noted that most of the complaints seemed to relate to support services
rather than medical care, and Phil Rogers tended to agree with her, but he indicated that he had
not been able to “turn things around.” pointed out that support people (nurses’ aids, kitchen
workers, janitors, painters, etc.) were unskilled or semiskilled personnel who generally received
the minimum wage. He noted that turnover was high, morale was low, there were no
professional standards, and few workers viewed themselves as part of the “health care team.”
According to Phil, “most of my people are bored with their jobs, and they lack any positive
attitude toward quality. In fact, I’m not even sure they know what quality means!”

At this point, Nancy Ames mentioned that her husband was involved in quality control for
a local candy manufacturer, and she wondered if perhaps some of those techniques might be
useful. Although, she was not completely familiar with those techniques, she promised to ask
her husband to drop by to discuss the problems. Mr. Pace closed the meeting, tabling the
discussion until they could meet with Mr. Ames.

The meeting with Mr. Ames took place late the following week. At the meeting, Mr. Ames
stressed the importance of defining quality, illustrated the use of control charts and wondered if
some of the increase in complaints could be attributed to seasonal factors. He also suggested
that the hospital develop a short questionnaire for patients and staff, which might enable them
to, in his words, “get a better handle on the problems before wasting any time trying to solve
them.”

Question:

Assume that you have been called in as a consultant on this case, Your job is to identify
the main problem and to make recommendations for solving it.

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