Organizational Elements in Healthcare: A Case Study of Graceland

This case study examines Graceland Memorial Hospital through the lens of organizational elements, drawing from the definition of organizations as social entities with specific goals, structured activities, and environmental linkages. It identifies how Graceland Memorial Hospital embodies these elements, highlighting its social entity aspects through employees and client interactions, its goal-oriented nature in providing healthcare services and meeting regulatory compliance, its structured organization via various interconnected departments, and its activity system focused on delivering patient care. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the hospital's environmental linkages through its relationships with external businesses and regulatory bodies, ultimately concluding that Graceland Memorial Hospital effectively integrates these organizational elements to fulfill its healthcare mandate. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar case studies and solved assignments.

Running head: PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 1
Program Planning and Evaluation in Public Health
Student Name
Institution

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 2
Introduction
An organization is a legal entity that is formed to provides specific goods and services to
consumers within the environment it operates. An organization, therefore, are formed to realize
its business and this also includes compliance with the specific regulatory requirement within the
environment or sector it operates. There are many different types of organization and some of
these include healthcare organization that is formed to conduct the healthcare business within a
particular community setting. Organizations are build using some elements that enhance the
management of these organizations. Some of the common elements of organizations include a
social entity, goal oriented, interlinked structural units, activity system and link to its
environment. An example of health care organization that shows various organizational elements
is Graceland Memorial Hospital. The following paper explores various organizational elements
with reference to a case study of Graceland Memorial Hospital.
Organizational elements
Organization Can be defined as a social legal entity that performs a particular goal
following a designed structure, activities and externally linked to various factors that affect its
operations (Quattrone, 2015). The definition of the organization is connected to fives aspects or
elements that also defines the role that an organization performs in society. The definition of the
organization gives the hospital organizational role and the expected operation of healthcare
organizations owing to their importance in society. These elements include a social entity, goal
oriented, activity system, coordinated structure, and linkage with the environment (Lim, Griffiths
& Sambrook, 2010).

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 3
Firstly, healthcare organizations are social entities that are a task with the role of
providing various services to people both within and externally. As social entity health care
organizations have various team players that form part of its operations and these include
employees and public. The organization has its employees that are involved in various activities
that aim at reaching the mandate that the organization is tasked to performs. The organization
also has external stakeholders that are majorly consisting of public and clients. Clients are also
key players in the operation of an organization for it to remain relevant within the context of its
operation. This client line is also accompanied by the general public that also determines the
service provider through its connection with the management and service (Meyer, Pascuci &
Mamédio, 2016).
Secondly, organizations are a goal-oriented system that is designed with goals to
performs. Organizations perform a specific goal or set of goals and this includes giving services
to society and particularly in compliance with legal requirements. Healthcare organizations are
normally designed specifically to meet the goal of offering medical health services to clients in
accordance with healthcare legal compliance. For instance, the healthcare organization is
designed to realize the goal of medical service delivery to clients and the public (Lim, 2017).
Thirdly, organizations are structured and organized following legal requirement to meets
its mandates. As a structured system, organization and particularly health care organizations are
structured into departments that are coordinated to play a particular role within the organization.
In addition, various departments are systematically enabled to perform a specific task or offer
service to the client. For instance, laboratory department offers laboratory services to patients or
clients that visit the department. Moreover, healthcare organization has other departments that
also link the organization to other organization within the healthcare system. These departments

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 4
are also intentionally set up or arranged to performs its role in the system (Harmon, Green &
Goodnight, 2015).
Fourthly, another element of organization and organization that mainly consist of various
activities properly coordinated. Various activities of an organization with actions designed to
interact following functional structure. The interaction of activities within the system enables an
organization such as healthcare organization to offer medical services to clients. Within the
healthcare organization system, various activities are connected that ensures that the hospital
gives patients the required standard of healthcare (King, 2015).
Lastly, the organization is linked to the environment as the environment where the
organization operates from a major segment for its existence. The environment of an
organization majorly composing of various external factors that interact to enable the
organization performs its function without isolation. Some of the most common environment
include businesses that are linked to the organization and other regulatory bodies. For instance,
hospital equipment supply companies and community form hospital environment (Ang,
Benischke & Doh, 2015).
The case of Graceland Memorial Hospital
Graceland Memorial Hospital is a healthcare organization that is also structurally
designed following the five organization elements. Firstly, the Graceland Memorial Hospital is a
social entity with various people performing various tasks within the healthcare system. As an
organization, Graceland Memorial Hospital consists of various employees and a client system
that is connected and interacts to ensure that the organization is successful. For instance, some of
the employees include staffs and departmental employees such as Ms. Thomson and Mr.

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 5
Priestwood (Goelsch & Stanley, 2010). Secondly, the Graceland Memorial Hospital is a goal-
oriented organization with a mandate to realize the goal of a health care service provided to the
community. To remain within the goal, the Graceland Memorial Hospital tends to lead various
healthcare compliances, especially with regulations. Thirdly, Graceland Memorial Hospital
shows the proper application of structured organization element through its various departments
that include Infection Control department, Employee Health Department, and Medical Staffs
Affairs department among others. These departments interact with each other in a such as way
that brings interdependent hence delivery of service to patients (Hussung, 2016). Fourthly,
Graceland Memorial Hospital has organizational activities that include mask fit-testing and other
managerial activities such as meeting that assist in giving health care services to patients
suffering from respiratory infections. Lastly, the Graceland Memorial Hospital is linked to the
environment through various avenues that enhance its healthcare service provided to the
community. The hospital is linked to external business and organizations that offer services to
both the hospital and public. This is evident through hospital equipment supply that required
compliance with other health care regulatory bodies (Faulconbridge & Muzio, 2016).
In conclusion, the organization is an entity that plays an important role in the
environment where it operates. Organizations have various elements that are linked thus enabling
its operation and fulfillment of its mandates. Some of these elements include a social entity,
goal-oriented, structured and coordinated units, activity system and linked to the environment.
These elements are evident within the Graceland Memorial Hospital and ensure that the hospital
conducts its healthcare business as required.

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 6
Reference
Ang, S. H., Benischke, M. H., & Doh, J. P. (2015). The interactions of institutions on foreign
market entry mode. Strategic Management Journal, 36(10), 1536-1553.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.2295
Faulconbridge, J., & Muzio, D. (2016). Global professional service firms and the challenge of
institutional complexity: ‘Field relocation’ as a response strategy. Journal of
Management Studies, 53(1), 89-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12122
Goetsch, D. L. & Stanley, B. D. (2010). Quality management of organizational excellence: an
introduction to Total quality management. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Pearson.
Harmon, D., Green, S., Jr., & Goodnight, G. T. (2015). A model of rhetorical legitimation: The
structure of communication and cognition underlying institutional maintenance and
change. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 76-95.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0310
Hussung, T. (2016).The Role of Hospital Management in Transforming Healthcare. Husson
University Online 1 College Circle. Retrieved from https://online.husson.edu/role-
hospital-management-transforming-healthcare/

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH 7
King, B. (2015). Institutions and ideals: Philip Selznick’s legacy for organizational studies. In M.
S. Kraatz (Ed.), Institutions and ideals: Philip Selznick’s legacy for organizational
studies (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 44, pp. 149-175).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20150000044007
Lim, M. (2017). Examining the literature on organizational structure and success. College
Mirror, 43, 1, 16-18. http://www.cfps.org.sg/publications/the-college-mirror/article/1098
Lim, M., Griffiths, G. & Sambrook, S. (2010). The organizational structure for the twenty-first
century. Presented the annual meeting of The Institute for Operations Research and The
Management Sciences, Austin.
Meyer, V., Jr., Pascuci, L., & Mamédio, D. F. (2016). Managerialism in complex systems:
Experiences of strategic planning in non-profit hospitals. In R. Pinheiro, L. Geschwind,
F. Ramirez, & K. Vrangbaek (Eds.), Towards a comparative institutionalism: Forms,
dynamics, and logics across the organizational fields of health care and higher education
(pp. 271-295). http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20150000045024
Quattrone, P. (2015). Governing social orders, unfolding rationality, and Jesuit accounting
practices: A procedural approach to institutional logics. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 60(3), 411-445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0001839215592174