Change Management in Healthcare - Rapid Response Team

This study focuses on the implementation of a change project within Rapid Response Teams (RRT) in order to enhance their efficiency, performance, and responsiveness to emergency medical situations outside the intensive care unit.

Running head: CHANGE MENEGEMENT
Change Management in Healthcare
-Rapid Response Team
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction (Rapid response team)
Rapid Response teams (RRT), also called the Medical Emergency Team or MET is a
specialized team of healthcare workers and providers that responds to the early warning signs
of deterioration of health among hospitalized patients in the non-intensive care wards in order
to prevent the risks of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure (Jones et al., 2015). The RRT also
specialized to provide advanced life support and early resuscitation of the patient. The team
can be comprised of nurses, physicians, pharmacologist, cardiologist and respiratory
therapist. The aim of the team is to reduce the risks of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure
outside the intensive care wards of the hospital and thus minimize mortality rates in the
hospital (Braaten, 2015). The aim of a change project is to bring about an organizational
change strategically to utilize new opportunities for growth and development for the
organization and employees using innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and strategic
decision making (Heckmannet al., 2016).
The following study the implementation of a change project within Rapid Response
Teams (RRT) in order to enhance their efficiency, performance and responsiveness to
emergency medical situations outside the intensive care unit.
Context for change
-Setting where the change will take place
The setting for the study includes a hospital (clinical) setup
-Who will be affected?
The change process would affect mainly the nurses as well as the patients and
stakeholders. Improving the efficiency, performance and responsiveness of RRT would
improve the competency of the team to minimize the risks of fatality of the patients due to

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cardiac or respiratory failures and therefore would enhance the performance of the
organization and healthcare workers as well as protecting the health and wellbeing of the
patients. Improving the organizational performance can moreover would also impact the
leadership of the organization through improved productivity (Joneset al., 2015).
Review of literature (three peer reviewed journals on possible solutions)
Using continuous improvement strategies such as PDCA cycle: According to
Kryzanowski et al (2018), the performance of the team can be continually improved by using
the PDCA cycle. The cycle is a four step iterative process that involves planning, performing,
monitoring and improving. This provides a strategic approach through which the performance
of the team can be constantly evaluated and assessed and thereby improved. The author
pointed that PDCA cycle can be used effectively by the human resource management and
project management to bring about an improvement in the effectiveness and quality of the
process and thereby improve performance. This provides an adequate justification to use the
PDCA cycle in the given context.
Incentivizing change process of change: Shen et al. (2017) suggested that by incentivizing
the process of change program can increase involvement of the staff in the program and thus
help to ensure its effectiveness. The author further recommended that the process of
incentivizing can act as a positive reinforcement for engaging in the change project and
support better evaluation and improvement of the performance of the team. Moreover,
incentives can also foster better job satisfaction as well as employee loyalty. Thus, by
offering incentives, it is possible not only engage more staff in the program but also support
better success of program by motivating the members more effectively.
Appointing change agents: This strategy involves selection of a member/employee/staff from
the RRT to function as change agents, advocating the necessity for change and facilitating

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communication between the team and the management. According to Williamsson (2018),
good change agents can help to overcome resistance to change and therefore support more
effective implementation of the change program in the organization. The change agents can
also provide guidance to the people through a more personalized interaction and thus
convince the members to adapt to the program.
Draft implementation plan
-Summary of each article and how the evidence addresses the change topic
Article 1 by Kryzanowski et al. (2018)
PDCA cycle supports Continuous Improvement in the organization: In the article the
authors pointed out that through the cycle of Planning, Doing, Checking and Acting (PDCA),
continuous improvement of quality, efficiency, and performance of the employees can be
developed towards operational processes, service quality and safety, and compliance to
organizational and industrial protocols and regulations.
PDCA cycle supports better implementation of the change program: Kryzanowski et
al. (2018) also added that the PDCA framework allows organizational processes to be
planned, implemented, evaluated and adjusted continually to understand existing challenges
and issues in the process and thereby addressing and adjusting them to overcome the
problems and thus monitor and manage the process more effectively.
Article 2 by Shen et al. (2017)
Incentives support better participation of the employees: In this article, the authors
posit that through incentives, managers can gain better participation from the employees in
organizational activities and change management program. Better participation also helps to

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overcome resistance to change and therefore incentivizing can be a useful strategy for the
change program.
Incentives foster job satisfaction and employee loyalty: Shen et al. (2017) also added
that the incentives in the form of financial benefits or prospects of professional growth can
improve job satisfaction as well as employee loyalty and therefore is an important strategy to
retain employees. This can also help the change process by facilitating better relationship and
improved communication between the management/leadership and the staff.
Article 3 by Williamsson (2018)
Change Agents facilitates change communication: In this article, the author suggested
that electing an agent for change who would advocate for the change process can facilitate
communication between the staff and management. The agent can act as an interface or relay
between the staff and management by helping each side understand the concerns and
expectations of other and thus overcome communication barriers.
Change agents help to overcome resistance to change: Change agents can
furthermore help to overcome resistance to change by facilitating the implementation and
supporting effective communication for change. Moreover the change agents can also
motivate the people more personally and thus help them to accept and adapt to it.
-How the information can be used in research to carry out change
The information and knowledge gathered from the research can be used to implement
the change program in the organization in a more effective manner. The following strategies
can be recommended that can facilitate the change management process:
Ensure complete participation of the employees in the change process

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Studies by Gleason and Bohn (2017) shows that participation of the employees is a
necessary aspect for the success of any organizational program. Through effective
participation in change programs, the employees can be educated and trained more
effectively to adjust to the new process and also improve their own performance. Lam et al.
(2015) also added that through an effective participation, the impact of the change program
can be enhanced thereby facilitating change management.
Use standardized framework for the management (design, implementation, evaluation and
improvement) of the process
According to Kryzanowski et al. (2018), using a standardized framework to manage
the process of change can help to strategically design, implement, evaluate and improve the
program continuously as well as manage the smaller aspects of the program such as training
and evaluation protocols. Moreover a standardized approach also facilitates the process of
comparison and evaluation of the outcomes to the intended objectives and thus evaluates the
efficacy of the process (Heckmannet al., 2016).
Providing incentives to the participants for using the process in their professional practice
Shen et al. (2017) suggested that positive reinforces such as incentives provides the
employees a motivation in the form of financial gains, opportunity for career development
and professional growth. Such motivation can improve the participation rates of the
employees in organizational initiatives and thereby ensure better success rate of the initiatives
(Balbaleet al., 2015).
Overcoming resistance to change
According to Williamsson (2018), change agents can help to overcome resistance to
change through effective persuasion of the staff at a more personal level. Since change agents

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are selected from the team itself, communication about the chance process can be facilitated
as the change agents would have closer interactions with the team members (Lines et al.,
2015).
Conclusion:
Summary of topic: The study aimed to understand how a change project can be
implemented in the Rapid Response Team in a hospital in a way that can enhance their
performance in terms of reducing the number of fatalities due to respiratory and cardiac
failures outside critical care units.
Thesis: From the research it could be understood that using effective strategies, the
change management can be successfully implemented in the RRT.
Points stated: Three academic articles were selected from which understanding was
developed on strategies such a continuous improvement practices (PDCA cycle),
incentivizing involvement and appointing change agents that can be used so that the change
program can be implemented in the organization successfully.

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References:
Balbale, S. N., Turcios, S., & LaVela, S. L. (2015). Health care employee perceptions of
patient-centered care. Qualitative health research, 25(3), 417-425.
Braaten, J. S. (2015). CE: Original Research Hospital System Barriers to Rapid Response
Team Activation A Cognitive Work Analysis. AJN The American Journal of
Nursing, 115(2), 22-32.
Gleason, B., & Bohn, J. (2017). Essential characteristics of service business model innovation
in healthcare: A case-study approach. In Service Business Model Innovation in
Healthcare and Hospital Management (pp. 137-158). Springer, Cham.
Heckmann, N., Steger, T., & Dowling, M. (2016). Organizational capacity for change,
change experience, and change project performance. Journal of Business
Research, 69(2), 777-784.
Jones, D., Hicks, P., Currey, J., Holmes, J., Fennessy, G. J., Hillman, K., ... & Bhonagiri, D.
(2015). Findings of the first ANZICS conference on the role of intensive care in
Rapid Response Teams. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, 43(3).
Kryzanowski, J., Bloomquist, C. D., Dunn-Pierce, T., Murphy, L., Clarke, S., & Neudorf, C.
(2018). Quality improvement as a population health promotion opportunity to reorient
the healthcare system. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 110(1), 58-61.
Lam, M., O'Donnell, M., & Robertson, D. (2015). Achieving employee commitment for
continuous improvement initiatives. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 35(2), 201-215.

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Lines, B. C., Sullivan, K. T., Smithwick, J. B., & Mischung, J. (2015). Overcoming
resistance to change in engineering and construction: Change management factors for
owner organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1170-
1179.
Shen, G. C., Nguyen, H. T. H., Das, A., Sachingongu, N., Chansa, C., Qamruddin, J., &
Friedman, J. (2017). Incentives to change: effects of performance-based financing on
health workers in Zambia. Human resources for health, 15(1), 20.
Williamsson, A. (2018). Change agents and use of visual management tools in care process
redesign: Implications on working conditions for operative managers and healthcare
professionals (Doctoral dissertation, KTH Royal Institute of Technology).