Effectiveness of Change Management Strategies in Healthcare Settings

The provided content is a collection of academic articles, books, and online resources that focus on practice development in nursing and healthcare. The texts explore various themes such as person-centered care, health communication, change management, and organizational development. The articles discuss the importance of user involvement, health behavior change, and social media use in healthcare. Additionally, there are case studies and templates provided to support practice development. Overall, the content aims to inform and improve healthcare practices.

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INTRODUCTION
Changes plays major role in transforming organization present state into desired one. For the
success of any health and social care organization changes is the most critical factor. This is done
so that organization can provide effective services to the customers (Tates, Antheunis and
Nieboer, 2013). Here, in the present report facilitating change is discussed with respect to Royal
United Hospital NHS Bath Trust. Royal United Hospital NHS Bath Trust is acute hospital that is
situated in the Weston suburb of Bath. The hospital offers health care services to population
around Bath and nearby villages. The trust has staff of around 4800 people who are engaged in
providing outpatient and diagnostic services to the local community. The aim of the hospital is to
offer high quality care to the people.
The present study entails to understand the factors that drive change in health and social
care services. Further it covers the evaluation of recent changes in health and social care
services. Lastly the report creates brief understanding regarding the principles of change
management.
1.1
There are several key factors that drive changes in health and social care. These include
PEST as well as SWOT analysis. They are internal and external factors that affect the
performance of the organization like Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust (RUH) to a greater
extent. With the assistance of SWOT analysis organization can determine its strengths,
weakness, opportunity and threats (Grol and et.al, 2013). They are referred to events, factors,
people, systems and structures and conditions inside the business. Internal environment affects
the activities of business, employee behavior as well as attitudes. These factors can be related to
change in leadership or amendments in the strategy of the organization. The strengths of the care
home are that it provides best support to individual so that they can get well soon. Performance
can be improved through undertaking varied activities so that best services can be provided to
individual. Opportunities are organization should develop its rules and regulations so that best
care can be given to patients. Weaknesses are that there are various care workers that need
specialized training in order to treat the patients well. The threats are that if patients are not
feeling well at the care home then there family members will not be satisfied from the services of
the care home.
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PEST analysis includes political, economic, social and technological factors that compel
Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust to bring changes within its policies and legislation.
Political factors include the legislation and the policies of the regulatory body that needs to be
followed by the firm in order to achieve its desired outcomes (King and et.al, 2014). This is
because it has greater influence on the structure of business, deliverance of quality services as
well as practices within organization. For instance if the government has formulated policies that
reflects charging overseas then Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust has to follow such, and
needs to charge fees in treating overseas patients. Another factor is economic that has huge
impact on the operations of the business (Gili and et.al, 2013). This is comprised of factors like
government funding, disposal income, cost of labor, poverty, inflation, recession etc. The
economic growth and decline greatly affects the performance of the health and social care
organization. Because of recession in the economy the ability of the people to make payment of
huge amount in order to avail health care services declines (Wain, 2009). This affects the
operations of Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust as they need to offer quality services at
lower prices. These factors have ability to bring changes within the health care organization.
There is existence of social factors such as culture, demographics, attitude at work and
discrimination that has huge impact of the activities carried out by health care firm like Royal
United Hospital Bath NHS Trust. In some cultures there might be restriction for intake of certain
kind of material. This can be a major issue for the business that compels it to bring changes.
Further the workers needs to train so as to offer quality services to the different patients in an
effective manner (Banaszak-Holl and et.al, 2013). Change in the needs of the customers compels
Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust to bring changes in its services. Technological factor
plays key role in affecting the performance of the health and social care firm in a significant
manner. With the emergence of new technology for disabled people their lives have become
more independent. Thus this assists in providing less supervision by health care firm.
1.2
The challenges that key factors of change can bring to health and social care services can
be assessed as such. The key factor such as high demand of patients, in order to meet this,
changes are required within Royal United Hospital. However while implementing such the
organization faces major challenges with respect to service users, organization and staff (Miller,
Whoriskey and Cook, 2008). In meeting the requirement of high demand of customers, staff
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faces major challenge while managing the patient’s discharge and admission. Along with this
with the increase in demand service users have to wait for longer period of time. Thus this is
considered as major challenge to hospital to manage this in an effective manner. With the
existence of this factor, Royal United Hospital has to consider various measures in order to
enhance the satisfaction level of customers. There are numerous challenges faced by the hospital
such as high requirements of patients. Therefore, in order to meet such demands it is essential for
business to bring key changes in firm and for that they need to adopt varied strategies. Some of
the changes are required by care home so that they can meet the requirements of service users.
Also, there is challenge of availability of limited resources.
Another key factor is introduction of the new technology in health and social care
organization. This includes implementation of robotic technology while carrying out surgery
within the Royal United Hospital. The major challenge faced in this factor is related to creation
of in-depth understanding within the employees to perform robotic surgery. Moreover it becomes
difficult for the management of Royal United Hospital to provide training to the employees so
that they can effectively implement the technology within the organization. The major challenge
faced is in making service providers understand the benefit of adopting new technology within
the hospital (Røsvik and et.al, 2013). In order to makes employees satisfy with the introduction
of new technology into premises the management faces various difficulties.
The key factor such as emergence of new disease strive Royal United Hospital to implement
changes within the organization so as to deal with it in effective manner. The major challenge
faced by the business is in hiring and recruiting the qualified professional that can easily handle
newer diseases type with greater efficiency (Rhodes and et.al, 2014). Moreover the hospital and
the professionals face major difficulty in handling the patients suffering from such new diseases.
In order to deal with it the hospital has to provide adequate training to employee which is another
challenge before Royal United Hospital.
The major challenges that key factors of change bring to health and social care services in
relation to limited resources. There can be various changes faced by health and social care
organization to cost of hiring staff, cost of equipments and funds involved in training the
personnel (Naylor and Appleby, 2013). The factors such as recession, inflation and cut down in
government spending can be a major challenge in implementing mentioned changes within the
organization. Another issue is in resistance from staff. In certain situation the employee face
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difficulty in adopting changes as they are used to perform the task in existing manner. Further
Royal United Hospital is pressurized by legal authority to meet the appropriate standards. This is
comprised of various new laws that CQC mount on the trust to deliver.
2.1
The strategy and criteria that are being devised for the purpose measuring recent changes
in health and social care organization like Royal United Hospital is as such. Through
organizational environment analysis criteria with the respect to changes can be determined by the
organization (Bond and Syson, 2010). In accordance with the provided case in order to measure
the changes that took place recently within the management of Royal United Hospital following
criteria can be utilized. This is related to decrease in the waiting time of the patients and increase
in customer satisfaction level. Through this criterion the problem regarding high demand for
health care services can be resolved. Further this criterion will enable Royal United Hospital to
measure the service delivery process. There are various strategies that can be used by firm such
as interview, survey, feedback, rating scale etc so that they can measure the responses of services
users and thus evaluate that in order to bring required changes. For instance, it is essential for
care home to take responses in the form of feedback so that services can be improved of patients
and they can attain satisfaction.
In the interview technique users of the heath care service can be asked personally
regarding the impact of changes on the services offered to the patients. This would assist the
hospital in gaining knowledge regarding the alterations that are still required within the Royal
United Hospital. Another technique is survey under which structured questionnaire is developed
and then such is provided to the service users and employees regarding the changes that are
required within the organization (Teno and et.al, 2013). With this hospital management can gain
insight to the responses of the service users and employees in an effective manner. After
implementation of the required changes the Royal United Hospital can offer feedback form to the
users and employees and can know the impact of changes on the service delivery process and
management within the hospital. Another major technique that can be used is rating scale under
which rates can be provided on the basis of different set criteria. This helps the management in
knowing the state of services. Later changes can be bought in accordance with the outcomes
from the technique. The strategies that have been devised involves regular inspection of the
changes so that performance within health care firm can be enhanced. Along with this
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organizations system of quality assurance can be organized in order to measure the performance
of various staff members. Further the quality of work can be increased in an effective manner.
The strategy of self evaluation can also be used with the aim to measure own performance by
making comparison with past experience and present alterations.
The criteria for measuring recent changes involves improvement in the
recruitment and skilled staff. Further it involves meeting national objectives as per the laws and
regulations.
2.2
The impact of the recent changes on health and social care services is measured in the following
manner against the set criteria. It has been identified that customer satisfaction level has
increased to greater extent with the implementation of changes. Further this has impact on
satisfaction of the employees that are working in the premises. Moreover, there are various
changes such as response time, waiting time, customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction etc all these
criteria should be achieved by business in order to measure the changes in business and attain
goals. Through adopting such criteria in care home and thus fulfilling the needs of individual it
helps business to satisfy both employees and clients. For instance, if the service users will be
satisfied from the services used it will ultimately helps the business in measuring the changes so
that waiting time of patients can be reduced.
It has been indentified that which the arrangement of training sessions the improvement
has been made in the skills and capabilities of the doctors to implement new technology such as
robotic surgery. Moreover with this effectiveness has been ensured in the service delivery
process (Grol and et.al, 2013). With the presence of such aspect the employees of Royal United
Hospital have developed the capability to deal with different kinds of operations in an effective
manner. Thus it can be analyzed that recent changes have positively influences health and social
care services. Moreover it has improved the work performance of the employees. With the
effectiveness in the research and development it has been determined that operations within the
organization has improved at greater extent. There is a greater impact of the interview and survey
on the working of the business. There is greater need for department where the needs of the
patients can be planned in effective manner (Fernandes and Welch, 2010). A person will be
given charge of maintaining the documents of the patients. Thus this within service users can be
offered with quality care that can assist providing them satisfaction.
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2.3
The overall impact of recent changes on health and social care organization like Royal
United Hospital can be evaluated as such. With the assistance of these changes enhancement in
the profitability as well sales have been identified. This is due to changes made in the existing
services offered by the company (Manley, McCormack and Titchen, 2013). This has further
resulted in enhancing the satisfaction level of the patients. The changes in Royal United Hospital
can assist in offering quality services to the patients. This is helpful in attracting huge customer
base. Further it would help organization to make money in long run course of time. The customer
is able to gain services as per their need which enhances their level of satisfaction. With the
enhancement in the skills and knowledge of the doctors to deal with the new technology the
efficiency of the delivery services has improved with greater extend. As per the case scenario,
with the introduction of robotic surgery technology the effectiveness of the health care services
that are being delivered has greatly improved. This leads to enhancement in the satisfaction level
of customers and also motivates them to make use of service in future. But this has negative
impact on the motivation level of the employees who have not build the capability to enhance
their skills in order to deal with this newly introduced technology. It is essential for care home to
assess the requirements so that it can help clients in providing better services and thus enhance
the results. Furthermore, also introducing robotic surgery technology helps in motivating the
service providers so that they can render best services to patients.
In accordance with the case the company has developed its reputation in market by
introducing such type of technology. This has further assisted it in getting an edge over its
competitors. Further has resulted in enhancing organization’s profit to a greater extend (winter
and Munn-Giddings, 2013). However in addition to the positive impacts there are certain
negative effects of changes that took place in the organization. The morale of employees has
been affected adversely especially of those who were incapable of implementing the required
changes within the organization. This has creates feeling of dissatisfaction among them. The
turnover rate of employees has also increases with this. Thus it has been determined that recent
changes have affected Royal United Hospital in both positive as well negative ways. There is
greater impact of changes in health care organization on Royal United Hospital. With this
patients are offered quality services and the employees are involved in the process of decision
making. Through training the efficiency of the staff is increased that has resulted in offering high
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quality of services to the patients. Further they are able to use new technologies in the hospital
that can facilitate in offering appropriate treatment. The recent changes has increased reputation
of firm as the service users wants to get admission in Royal United Hospital as there is existence
of skilled staff that provides quality treatment by making use high tech surgical equipments.
2.4
Certain service responses have been proposed by Royal United Hospital with respect to
changes prevailing in the organization. By bringing changes in the organization structure and
policies the waiting time of the customers can be improved. Thus with this the doctor will be
able to provide timely treatment to the patients (Pbert, 2013). Moreover with the existence in the
new technology the improvement has been brought in the service quality that is being delivered
to customers. The quality in treatment provided to the customers has also greatly increased
satisfaction level among them.
By enabling such type of approaches Royal United Hospital can enhance the efficiency of
the operations theaters (Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust, 2014). With the proposed
changes the satisfaction among the customers will enhance. This results in enhancement in sales
and profits of the hospital. Service response due to existence of recent changes can be seen in the
form of increasing demand for the services (Smith and Santy, 2014). Thus it can be reflected that
positive response in relation to changes can be seen within health and social care organization
like Royal United Hospital. From the case provided it has been determined that several problems
are being faced by patients at Royal United Hospital. The dietary needs of the service users are
not fulfilled. This results in poorer health outcome. The patients were found to be at nutritional
risk. Thus it is determined that proper dietary schedules needs to be produced by the health care
so that suitable nutritional value can be given to the patients. Further the record keeping of fluid
is not maintained. Thus in order to resolve such issue it is important to offer training to the
professionals so that they deliver quality care. Further it has been determined that there is lack of
senior staff that can monitor the day to day operations of the business. In such situation the
health care organization can bring changes in its structure so that appropriate services can be
delivered to the service users. However, it is essential for care users to follow proper dietary
needs in order to fulfill the aims and objectives. Also, it is crucial for business to resolve the
problem so that nutritional value can be suggested to clients and they can enhance their health.
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3.1
Change management is the approach through which both organization and individual can
deal with the change systematically. There are certain key principles to this which are
enumerated below: Reducing resistance: Changes are always resisted in the organization. The changes such
as introduction of new technology as well as alteration in structure of hospital in order to
reduce waiting time are resisted by employees (10 Principles of Change Management,
2014). Such changes can be managed within Royal United Hospital when benefits of
changes are communicated to the employees. Moreover motivated has to be provided so
that employees can readily accept to execute them.
 Involving and communicating each level within the organization: While implementing
any change it is required that organization needs to involve and communicate it to each
level (Schiavo, 2013). By complying with the same changed can be easily managed
within Royal United Hospital. When employees are involved in decision making then
they feel motivated to execute it in effective manner.
 Arranging training sessions: The management of changes can be effectively carried when
training sessions are organized within organization more frequently. For the purpose of
implementing robotic surgery technology it is essential for Royal United Hospital to
arrange training so that it can be executed in appropriate manner (Change management,
2014). Moreover through this morale of the service provider can be enhanced.
 Creating ownership: Changes can be managed in effective manner when ownership
related to change is created. In order to ensure that reduction in resistance to changes the
accountability of the employees can be established. This will make them responsible.
Through Kurt Lewin Model of change Royal United Hospital can implement identified
changes. The model is comprised of three phase. With its assistance different types of changes
can be put into practice within hospital.
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 Unfreeze: As per the given case study the problem identified is in relation to waiting time
standard. In order to introduce changes with respect to technology as well as reduction in
waiting time standards. Unfreezing can be done. Under this phase the manager needs to
makes employees understand the benefits of the propose changes. Thus by doing so
changes can be implemented in an effective manner.
 Change: At this step, the need for changes is being analyzed by the service provider of
Royal United Hospital (Wolf, Hanson and Moir, 2011). Here the attitude and behavior of
the employees is affected. Further the change is actually being executed as this phase. In
order to reduce the waiting time the employees needs to be offered with proper training.
Further the procedure at the health care organization needs to be simplified so that
waiting time can be reduced.
 Refreeze: In this step the change is being accepted by the employees and it is ensured that
it is has become permanent for Royal United Hospital. In refreezing the change proposed
has to be implemented so that with respect to waiting time.
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3.2
The steps in which the changes in health and social care organization like Royal United
Hospital can be carried out in the planned manner is enumerated below: Recognizing the need for change: It is determined that need of change in arising within
Royal United Hospital. This is due to increase in waiting time of the patients. Moreover it
has been analyzed that the hospital lacks ability to implement new technology (Teno and
et.al, 2013). This is thereby creating impact on the deliverance of the quality services to a
greater extend.
 Development of goals for change: Under this step the goals related to changes are being
framed by the manager so as to ensure implementation of the required variation within
the business (Miller, Whoriskey and Cook, 2008). For instance reduction in waiting time
can be ensured with the development of new technology as well as changes in the
structure of the organization.
 Selecting the agent for change: The role of change agent is very crucial. This is because
they facilitate the organization in influencing the behavior the employees who are
resisting changes. The person belonging to top level can be designated as change agent
for Royal United Hospital who can effectively address employees regarding the benefits
attached with changes that has been proposed.
 Developing and implementing plan: After identifying the agent for change the plan is
developed by him. Likewise for the purpose of implementing the new technology of
robotic survey the plan regarding the training needs to be developed and implemented so
that change can effectively come into practice of employees (Bond and Syson, 2010). By
fulfilling this variations can be effectively carried out with health and social care
organization.
The changes can be effectively planned within the organization by carrying out several
activities such as stakeholder analysis. With this the needs of several groups can be determined
and proposed change can be implemented within the health care firm. Further with the assistance
of consultation the requirement of the different stakeholders can be analyzed in an effective
manner (Pbert, 2013). The staff development needs can be analyzed effectively in order to
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implement the proposed changes within Royal United Hospital. There are different stakeholders
such as local community that needs to fulfill the patient needs at the time of planning the change
in business and thus attain desired goals.
3.3
With the assistance of the criteria that are being specified the recent changes within Royal
United Hospital can be monitored and measured effectively. For instance by contrasting the
waiting time of customers before and after the execution of changes the improvement in the
management with the respect to services can be identified. From the monitoring that is being
carried out it is analyzed that no improvements have been recorded in the waiting time of
customers (Marcinko and Hetico, 2012). Thus it can be seen that proposed changes with respect
to waiting time have proven to be inefficient. Moreover by analyzing the skills of the service
provide the effectiveness of the training session can be monitored (Positive Effects of Change in
a Company, 2014). Further it can be examined that employees knowledge have enhanced with
such plan to greater extend. Thus the execution of the new technology has resulted in increasing
the satisfaction level of the customers. By measuring the satisfaction level of customers and
efficiency of the business the effectiveness of changes are be monitored. Through cost benefit
analysis the changes can be effectively monitored within the Royal United Hospital. In order to
monitor the performance of the implemented changes the technique of feedback, interview and
questionnaire can be used. This helps in determining the flaws in the actual performance (Bond
and Syson, 2010). Thus later changes can be made that can bring effectiveness in the working of
the firm. For instance, in order implement the proposed changes it is essential for business to
adopt effective technology so that needs can be fulfilled. Feedback technique can be used in
determining the responses of the service users and employees are the implementation of potential
changes within the organization. In addition to this with the assistance of interview the responses
of the users can be known personally. This acts as an aid in determining the satisfaction level of
the patients and employees. Along with this questionnaire technique can be used to carry out
survey in which particular questions are being determined and asked to patients and employees
through survey. This assists in gaining knowledge regarding the responses of the respondents
regarding the services of the hospital. Thus review of the actual performance can be made with
the use of these techniques. The ways of monitoring can be questionnaire, group forums and well
as analysis of data. With the assistance of survey the management can gain insight to the level of
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improvement that have emerged as a result of changes in the organization. In addition to this by
conducting group forums employees of the business can be indulged to make their own reviews
regarding the existing situation. Moreover by comparing actual and expected performance
analysis can be made regarding the success of the changes bought in the firm.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the study that there are various factors that strives the health and
social care organization like Royal United Hospital to implement changes. Further in order to
ensure this, changes have been made in the organization which has proved to be efficient to some
extent. There are certain key principles such as reducing resistance and creating ownership etc
that act as an aid for Royal United Hospital to manage changes. In addition to this the model of
Kurt Lewin is effective in implementing the changes within the organization. It has been inferred
from the study that it is essential to monitor propose variation after implementing them so that
deviation can be analyzed and further improvement can be made.
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