Health Services Organizations: System Theory - Essay Sample

System theory is a representation of a system that comprises of many parts which work together to achieve particular objectives. In any healthcare organization, there are several departments that work to achieve the objectives of the facility. The system, is therefore, said to be open if it contains an inflow and outflow of resources (Scott, & Davis, 2015). For the system to be effective there is need for interactions, communication and interdepartmental cooperation during operations. The system theory is mostly applicable in hierarchical nature environments due to the availability of subsystems in the hierarchies which ensure continuous success when they work with maximum coordination and uphold integration among them.

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An open system comprises of five main concepts: the input which represents the energy inflow into the system from external sources such as people, materials and resources, throughput which indicates the transformation of the energies already in the system through reorganizing the inputs, the output which conceptualizes the exportation of products to an external environment, systems as cycles of events which refers to the process through which the system is renewed by exchanging and transforming energy hence generating a repeated series of events and finally the negative feedback which is a corrective measure used to adjust the energy inflow and expenditure after analyzing the internal information on the system performance (Marlaw, 2015). The above mentioned concepts have various applications in any health organization. For example, throughput is the service offered in hospitals such as the nurse interventions, output include services such as patient volumes, the system as cycles of events can be generated by either the system outputs such as revenues or the system activities such as achieving accreditation criteria and the negative feedback is used by health organizations to achieve its goals using performance indicators.

The Intermountain Healthcare which is a non-profit organization located in the Intermountain west provides healthcare services in Idaho and Utah and was founded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The organization owns 23 hospitals, 75 clinics and health insurance plans for their patients, companies and institutions hence serving more than 500,000 patients in Utah with 22,000 employees (Marlaw, 2013). The organizations main challenge is the issue of the payment of property tax considering it is a charitable organization (Scott & Davis, 2015). The organization has previously faced a lawsuit concerning the matter due to their continuous increase in business orientation and healthcare operations. The Utah county court, however did not consider them as a charitable organization and thus were subject to the payment of property tax.

Despite the ruling, the International Healthcare hospitals do not pay taxes because they were able to prove individually that they are a charitable institution by offering numerous gifs to the community (Hutch & Cunliffe, 2013). The public, however, was not pleased by the decision. The organization is therefore, facing a problem under the department of cash and deposits. This problem falls under the concept of systems as cycles of events which is the process of transforming energy with the intention of renewing the system which is generated by output services such as revenues.

The Intermountain Healthcare Hospitals need to find a way of changing the public opinion on the image of the Hospitals to improve performance. If the organization is to be recognized as a charitable institution, the employees need to work together to bring out the image of a charitable institution (Cummings & Worley, 2014). This may be achieved by increasing the number of charitable projects they take part in and organizing more of such functions. Reducing the cost of healthcare services in the hospitals and clinics can also help in clearing their image. The hospitals also need to identify crucial cases in the area especially from those who cannot afford the healthcare facility bills and offer free services to such cases. To achieve a positive outcome to the problem, the organization needs to formulate more compassionate goals with the intention of helping more people who are in need (Scott &Davis, 2015). Their goal should be coming up with ways to eradicate diseases that mainly affect the unable people in the society.

To achieve the objectives and goals, the officials of the organization should set standard procedures to follow during the process. Setting aside a group of qualified personnel to go into the interiors of the locations of the hospitals to find out the diseases common in the area and how to eradicate them should be the first step to help in achieving the objectives (Praetorius & Becker, 2016). The organizations should also introduce policies indicating situations where one can be treated without insurance cards since the current policies limit treatment without insurance or cash payment up to a certain amount. This discourages people who cannot afford such payments from going to these hospitals which are supposed to religious and charitable.

The organizations system and subsystem should work together to achieve the expected outcomes. The Intermountain Healthcare facilities have many qualified doctors and nurses and also non-staff employees who make sure the facilities are well-organized and clean to ensure hygiene (Marlaw, 2015). Making the conditions of service more charitable will, therefore, improve the organizations image. Having an efficient professional standard will be attained by following the organization suprasystem model which is a guidance system for all members in the organization, defining the work to be done by each subsystem and their relation to each other (Praetorius & Becker, 2016). Professionalism of the employees lies under the maintenance subsystem which involves formalizing activities and a guidance system on how members are supposed to socialize with each other and also with the patients to ensure a good output.

Every subsystem in the suprasystem has its own contribution to the general accomplishments in the organization. Other examples of subsystems include: the management subsystem which is in charge of coordinating and integrating the system functions, the supportive subsystem which is in charge of importing inputs such as materials and the energies required, production subsystem transforms the energy imported and finally the adaptive subsystem which monitors and responds to external forces such as negative feedbacks (Scott & Davis, 2015). All the employees under these subsystems are required to apply maximum coordination and professionalism during service to achieve maximum benefits.

The Intermountain Healthcare facilities mission is to provide quality care to those with a medical need, regardless of ability to pay. Providing excellent health services including health plans to the patients with utmost integrity to enhance their reputation and trust from the customers (Praetorius & Becker, 2016). They also intend to hire the best qualified personnel in the organization to provide high quality, accessible and cost-effective services to reduce the bridge between the community needs and medical resources as part of their mission (Hutch & Cunliffe, 2013). The above proposed resolutions will effectively help the organization to uphold its mission and values which is specifically attending to the underprivileged in the society and achieving maximum fairness when serving the patients regardless of the financial background. The objectives will improve the current money-oriented practices in the hospitals and restore the previous values since the hospitals were built with the intention of helping the less fortunate in the society.

References

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2013). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.

Marlow, N. M. (2015). Course Syllabus HSA 7116: Health Services Organization Research Spring 2015.

Praetorius, T., & Becker, M. C. (2016). How to achieve care coordination inside health care organizations: Insights from organization theory on coordination in theory and in action. International Journal of Care Coordination, 2053434516634115.

Scott, W. R., & Davis, G. F. (2015). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open systems perspectives. Routledge.