Change Management in Healthcare

This essay examines change management within the context of Australia's dynamic aged care system. It highlights the increasing demand for aged care services due to an aging population and the resulting need for effective change management strategies to ensure the system's sustainability and affordability. The essay uses Abbey House Aged Care as a case study, analyzing its services and the challenges it faces. It then applies Kotter's 8-step change model as a framework for addressing these challenges, focusing on creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, enabling action by removing barriers, creating short-term goals, exploiting and consolidating gains, and anchoring the change in the corporate culture. The essay proposes using surveys of both staff and patients to measure the success of implemented changes, emphasizing the importance of staff training and development to ensure high-quality care. The conclusion underscores the critical need for change management to address the predicted workforce shortage in Australia's aged care sector.

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Change management refers to all the approaches towards preparing and encouraging
people, groups and organizations in bringing about organizational change. This includes the
processes of redirection and redefinition of resource usage, budget allocation, business
process or any other operational mode that brings about significant change in the company.
This essay deals with the aged care facilities in Australia and the changes that the system is
undergoing. This essay points out the key factors that should be managed during the process
of the change. It measures the amount of success the change can bring about in the system
and the ways in which these changes might be incorporated into the system. The essay
concludes with an approach to imbibe the learning from the current change process into other
change management activities that may occur in the future.
Change management may refer solely to the ways in which people and groups are
affected by the transition in the organization. It involves a number of different disciplines
ranging from social and behavioral sciences to business solutions and information
technology. Organizational change management or OCM on the other hand refers to the
needed changes keeping in mind the entire organization. One of the key worries that health
mind administration faces is the monitoring of the progress and the services in the field. The
medicinal experts are dedicated towards achieving and keeping up with the expected
expertise needed to accomplish the work in hand. They are dedicated towards the
accomplishment of the tasks they are competent at doing. Overseeing the change refers to the
versatility of the process of doing so. Managing the change in the process is process to test
the active and alert nature of the mind (Worley & Mohrman, 2014). In this era of constant
technological innovation and globalization, change in business affairs has become mandatory.
In today’s scenario, it is mandatory to be able to adapt and manage oneself to the changes that
the organization is going through (Hayes, 2014). Technological growth has resulted in

2CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
organizational changes that are maximally influenced by external alterations rather than the
internal ones. The changes in the organization affect every employee and department of the
concerned organization. Thus, there needs to be a sound change management model that
should be followed in the organization.
The change management strategy of the essay discusses aged care hospitality
management as a human resource departmental issue. The purpose of the department is to
oversee and care for the experts in the business as well as for the representatives of the
organization. The various spheres that the department includes are overseeing the
employment-benefits design, recruitment of employees, training and development, appraisal
of performance and rewarding the employees. The main focus of human resource is to
maximize employee productivity. In this essay are discussed three aspects that should be kept
in mind while initiating any successful change. The change should be sustainable one and to
be so it needs an enlightened leadership, the project management should be commendable
and the talent in the field should be managed excellently by the leader (K. Vora, 2013).
Aged care deals with fulfilling the requirements and special needs that are unique to
the elderly citizens. These services include care providence on a long-term basis, day care,
home care, clinical care, assisted living and residential care. Elderly care or aged care
highlights the personal and social requirements of the elderly citizens of the country, who
generally need help with their health care and daily activities, but wish a dignified
aging(Utahcares.org, 2017). This is a completely customer-centered activity that is different
from the other hospitality branches. The global elderly population is increasing as the days
pass by (Broad et al, 2013). This is the situation in the developing countries especially as
these countries face a constant pressure of limiting the fertility rate and decreasing the family
size. The general life expectancy of the aged has increased (Dwyer et al, 2014). The aged
people consume most of the global expenditures on health care.

3CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
One such aged care is the Abbey House Aged Care. This is a luxurious facility in
Mittagong surrounded by wonderful farmlands (Abbey House Aged Care, 2017). This aged
care facility boasts of large ensuite rooms that are private, that include flat-screen televisions,
air conditioners and large windows that overlook wonderfully landscaped courtyards and
gardens. There are registered nurses who are available to take care of the residents round the
clock (Beattie,2014). The attending facilities promise not to change with respect to the
change in demand of the residents. The residents are at their liberty to use the facilities that
are provided by the facility like in-house or knitting or join a men’s club. In addition to that,
the residents may also just sit and relax in the designed interiors while enjoying a coffee from
the cafeteria within the facility. The theatres, regular outings by bus, workout and fitness
groups, indoor activities such as craft Abbey House offers the residents seasonal meals
prepared by an in-house chef and lets them enjoy their favorites.
The Abbey House Aged Care facility is also well known for its clinical care that is
provided by the Thompson Health Care (Thompsonhealthcare.com.au, 2017). The clinical
care department of the facility is apt for all kinds of residents, be it long-term residents,
palliative, respite or even those suffering from dementia. Residents are allowed access to
internet, on-site physiotherapy, salon services, massages, aromatherauptic treatments and the
opportunity to have a general practitioner on call at any time they feel. Australian aged care is
going through a multitude of changes over the last ten years. This has made the system of
aged care affordable and sustainable and the best possible system for the Australians
(Agedcare.health.gov.au, 2017).
These changes can be approached keeping in mind the Kotter’s model of change. This
process can be divided into eight distinct steps. Firstly, there should be an urgency in the
country to incorporate the change (Kotterinternational.com, 2017). In the second step, Kotter
suggests the formation of a powerful change coalition. A strong leadership is needed along

4CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
with visible support from the crucial leaders of the organization is needed to convince the
people that the change is necessary. The proposer should not only manage the change but also
lead it. The next step is to create a change vision. This may help the employees of the
organization understand the reason behind the needed change thereby helping them to derive
sensible reasons for their given directives (Kotter & Cohen, 2014). The leaders of the change
should communicate the vision of the change to the other fellow employees as often as they
can. After all these, the obstacles that are found in way of the change should be attended to
and removed (Kotter, 2014). The internal structure of the organization should be in line with
the suggested change. The leaders of change should design short-term targets instead of long-
term goals. Success is the greatest motivator in case of changes. Kotter suggests that constant
improvements should be implemented in order to maintain the achievement of success due to
the incorporation of change (Neumeier, 2013). In the final step of change management, the
implemented change should be anchored in the corporate culture. This model of change
should be implemented in the management of Australian aged-care facilities so as to manage
the increment in the number of the members of the older generation (Pollack & Pollack,
2015).
Creating a sense of urgency
A sense of urgency must be created in the field of the aged caregiver recruitment.
There must be needed a fleet of trained nurses as well as registered nurses in the health care
department. There is also needed an increase in the number of facilities that provide for the
accommodation of the homeless aged.
Building a guiding coalition
The concerned organization should collaborate with the recruitment firms and other
such organizations so as to appoint the best candidates for the job. The criteria of selection of

5CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
the candidates should be clearly conveyed to the recruitment firms. The recruitment
procedure should help the organization select qualified nurses who may help deal with
elderly who are affected by ailments like dementia as well (Chenoweth et al, 2014).
Developing a vision and strategy
Interviewing the candidates on a personal basis and letting them know of the exact
requirements needed for the well-being of the aged. There should be a greater number of
trained personnel in the new recruits. They must be provided with training if needed. The
older population face huge problems in hospitalization and availing proper medication (Tariq
Georgiou & Westbrook, 2013). Thus, the nurses and other staff at the facilities must be
trained enough to handle the odds as and when required.
Communicating the change vision
The vision of the change needs to be communicated to the recruits as well as the
recruitment firms. The recruited personnel need to behave well with the elderly and be able to
collaborate with the other staff present in the facility in order to provide the elderly with their
requirements (Rajan, & Ganesan, 2017). The staff needs to go through training on several
fields in order to meet up to the needs of the elderly population.
Enabling action through removing barriers
The only way success can be achieved in any field, is by implementing the plans and
putting them into action, so that progress can be made. The fifth step of the Kotter model
makes way for the actions through ensuring any obstacles, that may exist, to be removed. To
put this into effect, the established structure must be changed, so that it does not cause any
hindrance. Any process or set norm, that may prove to be a problem in this must be discarded
swiftly. In order to do this successfully, the most competent leaders must be identified first.

6CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
The organization has to recognize the efficient ones and hire them accordingly. Aligning the
organizational visions with every other aspect of organizational operations. The job
requirements of the employees, the company hierarchy all need to be at par with the ideals
and primary objectives of the organization (Clune, & Lockrey, 2014). The employees and
every other stakeholder of the organization has to be recognized for their part in the process
to usher in change. They have to be compensated accordingly as well. Early goals must be set
which are easy to achieve and not something of stupendous proportions. In this case, for
example, a price hike should be arranged for the existing workers to retain the present
workforce (King et al., 2013).
Creating short-term goals
The proposition of an easy success can be a powerful driver. Organizations, in order
to achieve true greatness, have to take small steps towards it. Small actions and change that
would fetch swift and easy success can be a great way to harness positive performance from
the employees. If these successes are reached, the employees themselves will become
motivated to work even harder to attain something even better. To do this, organizations have
to target the projects that cannot fail (Appelbaum et al 2012).
Exploiting the change
Even though a change of direction may seem to yield fruits at an early stage, it would
be a folly to declare them as victories. One must first take time to observe whether it is
sustainable in the long run before leaping into any sudden decisions about the organizational
success. A change that is well set, needs to be felt deep within the organization. Launching
one successful product does not end there: the change has to be firm enough to enable
building on itself. Every step towards success needs to be used as extensively as possible and
serve as a base for a more advanced and even better step. Every step needs to analyzed so that
it can understood what went right and then those need to be further exploited.

7CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Getting a grip on change
A change may help short term success. However, unless that positive change is not
internalized and embedded deep into the very core of the organization, it has not served any
true purpose. A change has to stick: it has to change the collective mindset of the employees
and authorities as a whole, if the company wishes to attain something truly great. It must be
ensured that the change is reflected in every operation of the organization.
The approach used to measure the success of the process of change in this
organization is mainly survey. The survey is done on the employees and the patients in the
organization who are the end users (Bauer et al, 2014). The survey will be based on the two
changes that are to be implemented in the organization. The changes are mainly, recruiting
trained nurses and doctors and increasing the facilities in the organization. Firstly, the survey
will be conducted on the staff, that is, doctors and nurses of the hospital. The questions will
be related to the satisfaction level of the change process to be implemented, whether the
changes are feasible for the organization and the people related to it. The other aspects
include, the cost effectiveness and whether the changes to be implemented are realistic or not.
After the survey is done based on these points, the management of the organization
can decide whether to implement the changes or not. Secondly, the survey will be based on
the patients who are the end users of the change that is being implemented. The patients will
be interviewed or questioned on the fact that whether they are satisfied with the changes
brought in the organization or not. The satisfaction of the patients in this case is the most
important factor. If the end users of the implemented change are not satisfied with changes
that are implemented, then the changes will be of no use. It will result as a wrong investment
by the organization. Therefore, if the survey proves that the changes are not feasible for the
hospital, then the organization needs to rethink the whole process and implement some new
changes as has been derived from the survey.

8CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
The changes applied in the organization, which are mainly increasing facilities and
recruiting trained nurses. The nurses and doctors who are being recruited in the hospital, need
proper training. The most important factor in the training needs to be behavioural training. In
this case the behaviour of the nurse or doctor plays an important role in the organization. The
aged people need to be handled with utmost care and compassion (Brownie, & Nancarrow,
2013). It has been further observed in the survey that the quality of the staff in the hospital
who are responsible to take care of the aged people, are not of best quality. From the survey it
has been derived that the training and development of the staff is important for the well-being
of the patients. In this case, the organization needs to develop a training and development
program for the workforce that has been hired. It is evident that the staff which is being hired
for this purpose need to be trained properly, so that the patients do not have any complaints
regarding the facilities provided by the hospital (Edvardsson, Sandman & Borell, 2014).
Quality management plays an important role in the success of the organization. The quality of
the staff determines the quality of service being provided by the organization. The quality of
the service determines the satisfaction level of the patients, further increasing the business of
the organization. In this context, it can be said that, recruiting of staff is not enough. Training
them properly to provide the best service is equally important. Volunteering services can also
be used in this case (Volunteering.nsw.gov.au. (2017). People who are willing to volunteer in
this service need to be motivated and encouraged.
In conclusion, to the above essay, it may be said that due to a huge increase in the
aged population of the country, Australia is facing a huge upcoming shortage in the
profession of aged health care personnel and caregivers. There is a dearth of trained and
registered personnel in this field of work. The issues of the present workforce should be
addressed to retain the present work force and at the same time, the future workforce must be
motivated in order to join the workforce of aged health care management. This will help

9CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
manage the predicted workforce of the near future as well as increase the number of
employed people in the country. Thus, it may be safely said that a huge change is needed in
order to manage the upcoming work conditions in the field of aged care in Australia. These
changes must be incorporated into the system in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the
system of aged care facilities.

10CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
References
Abbey House Aged Care, A. (2017). Abbey House Aged Care, Mittagong, Aged Care,
Nursing Home, NSW. Villages.com.au. Retrieved 20 September 2017,
from https://www.villages.com.au/nsw/mittagong/abbey-house-aged-care-2605
Agedcare.health.gov.au. (2017). Aged care reform | Ageing and Aged
Care. Agedcare.health.gov.au. Retrieved 20 September 2017,
from https://agedcare.health.gov.au/aged-care-reform
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J. L., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future:
revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8),
764-782.
Bauer, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., Tarzia, L., & Chenco, C. (2014). Staff–family relationships
in residential aged care facilities: The views of residents’ family members and care
staff. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 33(5), 564-585.
Beattie, E., O'reilly, M., Strange, E., Franklin, S., & Isenring, E. (2014). How much do
residential aged care staff members know about the nutritional needs of
residents?. International journal of older people nursing, 9(1), 54-64.
Broad, J. B., Gott, M., Kim, H., Boyd, M., Chen, H., & Connolly, M. J. (2013). Where do
people die? An international comparison of the percentage of deaths occurring in
hospital and residential aged care settings in 45 populations, using published and
available statistics. International Journal of Public Health, 58(2), 257-267.
Brownie, S., & Nancarrow, S. (2013). Effects of person-centered care on residents and staff
in aged-care facilities: a systematic review. Clinical interventions in Aging, 8, 1.

11CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Chenoweth, L., Merlyn, T., Jeon, Y. H., Tait, F., & Duffield, C. (2014). Attracting and
retaining qualified nurses in aged and dementia care: Outcomes from an Australian
study. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(2), 234-247.
Clune, S. J., & Lockrey, S. (2014). Developing environmental sustainability strategies, the
Double Diamond method of LCA and design thinking: a case study from aged
care. Journal of cleaner production, 85, 67-82.
Dwyer, R., Gabbe, B., Stoelwinder, J. U., & Lowthian, J. (2014). A systematic review of
outcomes following emergency transfer to hospital for residents of aged care
facilities. Age and ageing, 43(6), 759-766.
Edvardsson, D., Sandman, P. O., & Borell, L. (2014). Implementing national guidelines for
person-centered care of people with dementia in residential aged care: effects on
perceived person-centeredness, staff strain, and stress of conscience. International
Psychogeriatrics, 26(7), 1171-1179.
Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.
K. Vora, M. (2013). Business excellence through sustainable change management. The TQM
Journal, 25(6), 625-640.
King, D., Mavromaras, K., He, B., Healy, J., Macaitis, K., Moskos, M., ... & Zhang, W.
(2013). The aged care workforce 2012 final report. Canberra: Department of Health
and Ageing.
Kotter, J. P. (2014). Capturing the Opportunities and Avoiding the Threats of Rapid
Change. Leader to Leader, 2014(74), 32-37.

12CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. (2014). Change Leadership: The Kotter Collection (5 Books).
Harvard Business Review Press.
Kotterinternational.com. (2017). The 8-Step Process for Leading Change - Kotter
International. Kotter International. Retrieved 25 September 2017,
from https://www.kotterinternational.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/
Neumeier, M. (2013). Using Kotter's Change Management Theory and Innovation Diffusion
Theory In Implementing an Electronic Medical Record. Canadian Journal of Nursing
Informatics, 8(1-2).
Pollack, J., & Pollack, R. (2015). Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an
organisational change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and
Action Research, 28(1), 51-66.
Rajan, R., & Ganesan, R. (2017). A critical analysis of John P. Kotter's change management
framework. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management, 7(7),
181-203.
Tariq, A., Georgiou, A., & Westbrook, J. (2013). Medication errors in residential aged care
facilities: A distributed cognition analysis of the information exchange
process. International Journal of medical informatics, 82(5), 299-312.
Thompsonhealthcare.com.au. (2017). Thompson Health Care. Thompsonhealthcare.com.au.
Retrieved 19 September 2017, from http://www.thompsonhealthcare.com.au/
Utahcares.org. (2017). Elderly Care - Utah Caregiver Coalition. Utah Caregiver Coalition.
Retrieved 20 September 2017, from http://utahcares.org/aging/

13CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN DYNAMIC HEALTHCARE
Volunteering.nsw.gov.au. (2017). Aged care - NSW Volunteering. Volunteering.nsw.gov.au.
Retrieved 20 September 2017,
from http://www.volunteering.nsw.gov.au/volunteers/types-of-volunteering/aged-care
Worley, C. G., & Mohrman, S. A. (2014). Is change management obsolete?. Organizational
Dynamics, 43(3), 214-224.