Leadership and Management: Western Health Hospital Case Study Report

This report presents a case study analysis of Western Health Hospital, examining challenges such as crowded reception areas, inefficient patient check-in processes, and the need for improved outpatient services. The report outlines key facts, assumptions, and a decision tree to address these issues. It explores probability, net present value calculations, and expected values to support decision-making. The report recommends implementing a Patient Administration System (PAS) and Check-in Kiosks to streamline operations, reduce waiting times, and enhance patient satisfaction. The report also suggests the use of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and sensitivity analysis as decision-making techniques to improve the hospital's management strategies and overall efficiency. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of these recommendations in improving the hospital's brand image and meeting the evolving healthcare needs of the community.

Case study Report

Table of Contents.
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of the key facts and approach................................................................................1
Clear statement of assumption................................................................................................1
Decision tree of potential decision path.................................................................................2
Probability..............................................................................................................................3
Net present value calculation..................................................................................................4
Expected values......................................................................................................................4
Decision making technique....................................................................................................4
Recommendation....................................................................................................................5
Background information and data..........................................................................................7
QUESTION 2...................................................................................................................................8
Strength and limitation of the analysis in the context of Western Health Hospital...............8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................11

Executive summary
The report is based upon the case study of Western Health Hospital which operate
different hospitals In Australia such as Footscray Hospitals, sunshine Hospital and Williamstown
Hospitals. It provides different health care services to their patients such as emergency medicine,
intensive care and medical or surgical service to aged, adult and paediatric patient and newborn
bodies. The company has employs over the 5000 but now the company wants a solution to free
up crowded reception areas and waiting room which. As a result, this report provides the key
facts and statement of assumption with regard to this case study and provides different solution
in order to overcome the problem. Further, report will also analysis the strength and weaknesses
of the analysis in the context of Western Health Hospital.
QUESTION 1
Overview of the key facts and approach
Western Health Hospital is one of the prime health service provider in Australia and
provide different services to all age group people such as emergency medicine, intensive care
and medical and surgical services as well. Currently the firm has more than 5000 staff members
and its annual budget is around $550 million. The group consist of Footscray Hospitals, sunshine
Hospital and Williamstown Hospitals which operates in different part in Australia. It mainly
provides the service to Wester Region of Australia in which it has more than 8 lac people.
Though there are different challenges which the company faces such as crowd waiting so long in
reception area and waiting room, next is it did not have proper system to improve the patient
access to outpatient services. Further, the quoted hospital did not have proper check in process of
their patient and even it did not provide better services to their operational staff members.
In addition to this, through research it has been analysed that hospital need to improve the
quality of service and its patient arrival and check in process because it will lead to affect the
goodwill and brand image of the business.
Clear statement of assumption.
Western Health Hospital faces many problem but the major problem is not having
enough space as well as poor check-in process of their patient. It is so because as the population
grows, the needs and demand of the people also changes. But somehow Western Health Hospital
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is not able to meet the demand in better way, such that the quality of care. In Australia some top
hospitals had their quality scandals and among all, sudden avoidable death of seven babies in
Victoria's Bachus Marsh Hospital is quite famous and latest. But in the case of Western Health
Hospital, the main challenges or issue is with their patient check in process and as a result, they
have to wait for so long to consult with doctors. This clearly shows that the management of
hospital is not appropriate and this leads to affect the brand image of the company in negative
way (Western Health Hospital Case study, 2018),
In addition to this, Hospital have sufficient financial resources, but it faces problem of
crowded reception areas and waiting rooms because of not having proper check- in process and it
did not have enough space for their patients who can sit or wait. As a result, many of the patients
may faces serious issue with their health. It has been analysed that this also decreases the patient
satisfaction and affect the goodwill of the hospital as well. That is why, there is a need to develop
the effective strategy that helps to change the system and also resist change in order to make sure
that the hospital system is meet the care needs of the population in their future.
Decision tree of potential decision path
A decision tree is a support tool which uses a tree like model of decision of their possible
consequences and this also includes the chance event outcomes and resource cost. Therefore, this
is mainly used for operational research and in the same way, Western Health hospital also uses
this in order to improve the patient access to outpatient services. Such that this can be effective
used by iteratively and hierarchically observing the level of certainty of predicting whether
someone would be re-admitted or not. Therefore, this can be resolved by using effective
decision-making strategy. Such that using this, the company's manager are easily generated the
rules and also creates new variables features which has the power to predict the target variable.
For instance the decision tree for the Western Health Hospital is as mention:
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Probability
The probability of the issue is mainly relies in negative way in the context of a business
such that the issue leads to affect the satisfaction level and also decreases the level of patients in
hospitals. Therefore, the probability of this issue leads to create negative impact upon the
business. Further, the chances of sales also decline If the issue is not resolved early. On the other
side, If the firm uses Analytical Hierarchy process as a decision-making technique then it will
help a business to take better decision for the business.
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Solution for Customer complaint
Hire
employees
Communicate
With
manager Made
Committee
If any patient require
Extra care and needs. Make
Sure that patient are not
readmitted
Then transfer the patient
To other suitable department
It monitor whether the
assign duties are fulfilled
By the employees and
If not, then proper decision
Should be taken with the help
Of management

Net present value calculation
It is the method which is used to determine the existing value of all future cash flow
which is generated by the project and and including the initial capital budgeting as well. Even the
formula also varies from consistency of future cash flow and Western Health Hospital wants to
implement new technology into its working place and willing to invest $1000 and the
calculation of the NPV is as mention below:
Year Flow Present value `Computation
0 1000
1 1000 917.43 1000/(1.09)
2 3000 5504.58 3000/(1.09)*2
3 4500 12385.32 4500/(1.09)*3
4 5500 20183.48 5500/(1.09)*4
From the above, it has been analysed that NPV is positive therefore, the company will
easily make investment and reduce the problem as well.
Expected values
In order to reduce the issue and minimize the risk, there is a need to use expected values
or forecasting such that in first year, company may use some amount of its total profit and in
next year, it can use more proportion so that the chances of profit is also increased. And this
helps to reduce the problem. For example, Western Health Hospital should implement Check-in
Kiosk in first year, then it should use PAS method so that the company can achieve future goals.
Decision making technique
For taking better decision for the company, it has been analysed that Western Health
hospital may use Analytical Hierarchy process which is a mathematical tool of problem
solving and it is also popular among management personnel. It has been analysed that by taking
effective decision against the problem will help to reduce the problem up to some extent. This
method is mainly based upon the three key aspect such as:
 In its first part, it addresses the issue which need to be resolved.
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 In its second part, describe the alternative solution which needs to be resolved (Thanki,
Govindan and Thakkar, 2016).
 In third aspect, AHP is concerned with the key criteria which is used to evaluate the
alternative solution.
In the context of Western Health Hospital, this method can be used by the management in
order to solve the issue such that through this, it helps a decision maker to find the best suits to
their goal and then clearly understand the problem. The process can be used in the following
way:
 It first decomposes the decision problem into a hierarchy of more easily comprehensive
sub problem so that each problem can be analysed independently.
 In this way, a hierarchy is built in which the decision maker clearly evaluate different
element by comparing them all. Therefore, the management uses their effective
judgement to solve the problem (Singh and Nachtnebel, 2016).
 In next step, Analytical Hierarchy Process convert all evaluation into numerical values
and compare the problem. Through this, numerical weight will compare one another in a
consistent way to make it differ from other.
 In last step, for every decision alternative, all numerical priorities are calculated and this
helps to achieve the goals.
Apart from this, Western Health Hospital may also use Sensitivity Analysis as a decision
making technique in which it determines how different values of single independent variable
affect the dependent variable in order to provide the set of assumptions. That is why it is mostly
used by the manager of large firms in order to understand the uncertainties, pros and cons of
decision which is taken by the management for the welfare of the company (Iooss and Lemaître,
2015). This strategy is helpful to foretell the outcome of a decision and also aid in riskiness of a
strategy. Beside this, it also helps to find out different errors in model and by using this, Manager
of Western Health Hospital will also take informed and appropriate decision in order to solve the
problem of waiting so long in the reception area and waiting room.
Recommendation
In order to improve or reduce the challenges of Western Health Hospital, it is
recommended that the firm should use Patient Administration system that helps to reduce the
paper- work specially in healthcare organization. This PAS record the patient's demographics
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which includes all the detail of patient and this system also provide more clinically and
operationally functionality to the hospitals (Macias and et.al., 2018). This system also helps in
appointment booking and manage the crowd of the patient in the reception area, it also records
the patient activity. Therefore, this helps to reduce the cost of human resource management and
it helps to reduce the problem of Western Health Hospital.
Beside this, it is also recommended to the firm to install Check-in Kiosks system in
Western Health Field. This system increases patient satisfaction and also deliver the quality
improvement in the hospitals, further it helps to reduce the check- in queues for patient, staff
members are also become free, they can do other work as well and then contribute their best
efforts for providing the best hospital environment. Check-in Kiosks system is flexible and also
allow their patient to scan their barcode in the appointment letter (Brown, Veach and DeFreece,
2016). Therefore, most of the hospitals and emergency department the system is established
which also help to improve the operational efficiency. This system provides fast and convenient
way to the patient to check themselves in the register and reduce the long waiting lines. This
system in easy to operate and implement as compared to other electronic medical record because
this requires small investment and provides different benefits to their customers as well as
employees.
Furthermore, Check-in Kiosks system also includes ticketing functionality and eight
media screen which is also controlled by the hospital staff and used to convey the message to
their patient regarding waiting so long for appointments and provide call functionality directly to
the patient in case of emergency (Wong, 2018). On the other side, it is also recommended to
Western Health Hospitals to establishing the wait time benchmark whose man aim is to reduce
the cutting time for medical services. This system assist a business in different ways such that it
make available to human resource for the firm and also makes coordination with a system,
provide availability of equipment as well as advance technology that helps to reduce the time of
long waiting of the patient.
Therefore, through these ways, the chances of problem is also reduced and Western
Health Hospital can also develop the patient engagement software which is a survey that they
help to determine whether patient are satisfied with the quality of services which are provided by
the hospitals. Thus, by maintaining an efficient and resistance-less Check-in experience provides
good experience to the patients and the system is also integrates smoothly with existing process
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and also helps to make better engagement with the patient so that it will help to cross-check the
demographics information as well (Borgonovo and Plischke, 2016).
Background information and data
Western Health hospital provides different services to their customers and it is a private
acute surgical and medical hospital which have four branches and now having a brand image in
market, the company faces issue of crowded and long queues in waiting room. But the company
has strong financial resources which are shown in the annual report of its group. Further, it has
been analysed that in order to overcome the problem, company also uses different advance
technology into its working place so that it will help to sustain the brand image at world level
(Annual Report of Western Health Hospital, 2018). As per the annual report the company's goals
and strategies are always helped to reduce the statewide risk and build the healthy
neighbourhood to stay their patients healthy.
In addition to this, currently the company also work in prevention of violence against
women, community participation, health literacy. Western Health Hospital also provide free
vaccination programs that help to creates awareness in the country. This strategy also helps a
business to sustain the brand image in market and company also provide different training
session to their customers for new policy and procedure implementation.
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From the above image, it has been analysed that the company's target with regard to
improving the quality is achieved but the only issue which currently the company face is long
waiting of their patients. Therefore, there is a need to establish or implement the solution that
helps to overcome this problem and an advance technology is considered the best option.
QUESTION 2
Strength and limitation of the analysis in the context of Western Health Hospital
Being a consultant, it has been analysed that in order to conduct the research and reach to
the exact problem of Western Health Hospital, I used both primary as well as secondary data
collection methods. Firstly, I make direct contact with the hospitals in which it has been
evaluated that almost people go Western Health Hospital to take proper medication because in
Australia, it provide good service to their patients. Further, through survey, it has been analysed
that quoted hospital suffer from the long waiting of patient and crowd in reception area. That is
why it leads to affect the goodwill of the firm and leads to delay in medication as well.
Strength: During the entire research, it has been analysed that through primary data an
survey, consultant get exact information about Western Health Hospital in which I realized that
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hospital faces issue of long waiting and check-in process of patient (Coyle and et.al., 2019). On
the other side, I also went to small clinics in order to take their review regarding Western Health
Hospitals. Thorough this, it has been analysed that the hospital provides the best facility to their
customers but due to not having effective and advance check-in process into its working place,
that cause decrease the customer satisfaction. In the entire, research, being a consultant, I
consider that survey and small clinics market research is consider my strength because I get
exact information and come to analyse that from which problem, Western Health Hospital is
suffered from. The overall performance of the hospital is better and it also provides best services
to their customer even in emergency period, which leads to increase the satisfaction level of the
customers towards a firm.
Limitation: During the research, being a consultant I also analysed that there are some
limitation such that while using primary research, which is quite costly and it takes more time to
conduct the research in better way. Further, it is also analysed that as it takes lots of time in order
to generate the exact result, which consider as a limitation. On the others side, secondary data
also did not provides exact result and it leads to generate wrong outcomes. Even, consultant also
uses survey methods and there may be chances that interviewer may be bias and this also affect
the research in negative way and also provide wrong information as well. In addition to this, the
limitation also includes the consideration of potential bias, Heuristics which are face by the staff
of Western Health Hospitals. As a result, it leads to delay in the decision of the company or may
cause some negative impact upon the firm's overall structure.
Recommendation: In order to improve the limitation, it has been recommended that in
order to improve the analysis, consultant should use their time in proper way so that they can get
exact result and this will help to lead or generate proper results. Apart from this, using secondary
research is more reliable because the research had already done and this provides proper result,
which helps to determine the specific issue which currently Western Health Hospitality is
suffered from. (Batada and et.al., 2015) Even by using advance technology such that Check in
kiosk system into hospital will also help to reduce the crowd in reception area. Therefore, proper
management system should also be implemented and to sustain the brand image in market, it is
also recommended that company should use Analytical Hierarchy Process so that the
management take proper decision for the welfare of a firm.
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In addition to this, the company may use PAS record which includes all the detail of
patient and this system also provide more clinically and operationally functionality to the
hospitals so that it will help to raise the performance. Apart from this, the company also install
Check-in Kiosk system that increases patient satisfaction and also deliver the quality
improvement in the hospitals, further it helps to reduce the check- in queues for patient, staff
members are also become free, they can do other work as well and then contribute their best
efforts for providing the best hospital environment. The hospitals must have different wards for
every problem and each and every person needs to be provided effective care and using effective
advance technique, Western Health Hospital may also reduce the crowd at reception area as well.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report, it has been concluded that Western Health Hospital
currently faces the issue of crowded patient in their reception area and waiting room, even the
company also did not have proper check- in process which also cause dissatisfaction among
patients. Further, report concluded the ways such that uses PAS system and Check-in Kiosk
system through which the company can minimize the problem and it also concluded the strength
and weaknesses of analysis and then recommended the ways to improve the same.
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