Applying Managerial Theories and Practice in Health Service Sector

This essay discusses the importance of applying managerial theories and practices in the health service sector to enhance the effectiveness and quality of healthcare services. It highlights the role of healthcare managers in transforming healthcare practices to meet current requirements, emphasizing community-based services and the use of tools like community interaction and health insurance. The essay explores several key managerial theories, including Attribution Theory, which focuses on learning from past successes and failures to create a safer environment for patients and healthcare providers; Evidence-Based Management Theory, which promotes critical thinking and the use of research and experimental evidence to make informed decisions; and Utilization Management Theory, which aims to prevent unnecessary utilization of healthcare resources and reduce costs. The essay concludes that effective implementation of these theories can lead to improved healthcare outcomes, cost containment, and overall efficiency in the health service sector.

The importance of applying
managerial theories and practice
in health service sector

Table of Content.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The health care industry being a growing industry requires proper management strategies
in order to let it flourish and function properly. This is the because if which the job role of health
care management is also gaining importance. The job market of this genre is anticipated to
observe an increase by about 16 % by the US bureau of Labour statistics. These health care
managers are responsible for the administration of all the health care services that are being
provided at that health care setting. It has been observed that various administrators of health
care have different perceptions of how the health care setting should be managed so that the
effectiveness of the services can be maximised (Biancone and et.al., 2021). The effectiveness of
the health care services is dependent on the type of managerial theories that the administration
adapts or implements in its health care setting. This essay consist of a discussion on the various
managerial theories that can be implemented in the health care industry. In addition to that this
essay will also include the importance of the managerial theories along with a discussion on the
effects that these theories have on the management of the health care industry and on the quality
of the services provided by them.
MAIN BODY
The managers of the health play an important role in the transformation of the health care
practices as per the present requirements. This makes it necessary for the health care managers to
practice additional management skills on order to successfully manage the health care reform.
The health care industry is reforming towards providing more community based services and
uses tools like interaction with the community and taking into consideration the health insurance
vehicles. Through these a health care plan can be formulated for the health care services that are
required to be provided to a patient (Gifford and et.al., 2018). The roles and responsibilities of a
health care manager involves designing the interventions related to medical field, monitoring the
inclusion of those interventions and then evaluating the effects of those interventions on the
medical services that are being provided to the patients.
Due to this shift in the health care industry towards a more community based practices
has made management of this field more complex and tedious task. Identifying the public health
issues of a community, then considering the variety of characteristics of a particular health issue
among the members of the community and then gaining an understanding of the health needs and
care requirements of the population . After collecting all this knowledge, formulating and
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planning the medical interventions to fulfil the health care needs of the community is indeed a
difficult task. Therefore, a health care manger need to have proper understanding of the overall
status of the health of the targeted community or population and should have skills to evaluate
the needs of the people pertaining to their health condition (Folkman, Tveit, and Sverdrup,
2019).
The management of the health care aims at meeting the health care needs of people while
practising cost containment. It aims at making the health care services available for the entire
population or community while ensuring that the people do no have to compromise with the
quality of the medical services. As the medical industry is now emphasising in using preventing
approaches for diseases rather than using the curative approach therefore, the managers also need
to strategically lead the health promotion approach of the medical industry. The effectiveness of
the services of a health care facility depend on the managerial strategies that the health care
management of that setting adapts and also depends on how effectively that approach has been
incorporated in the daily practices of the health care professionals and care providers in that
facility.
One of the theories that can be used by the managers of health is the Attribution theory.
This theory can be basically defined as a way to create a safe environment for the patients by
assessing the past successes and failure of the health care pattern. This theory works in the
concept “ to err id Human” which means that the prior errors can be used in the present in order
to create an even more safe health care environment for the patients. This theory can also be used
to build a better working environment for the health care providers. This theory can be used by
the health industry to learn from the outcomes that have been received in the past. This theory
helps the health care professionals to adapt the approach of value based care for providing
services to the patients (Christou, 2021). Value based care is an effective approach that results in
elevation of the level of quality of the care services provided by the health care setting.
Attribution theory is also helpful in assessing the quality of measures that have been recently
introduced and can also help in predicting the negative outcomes that the health care
professionals might receive. Knowing the probable negative outcomes prior handily can help the
health care professionals to formulate measures to manage those negative outcomes and can
reduce the damage to the health of the patients. Therefore, it can be said that the attribution
theory provides a framework that can be used further developments and researches. This ensures
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conceptualisation of the developmental changes that are being introduced in the healthcare
industry.
When considering the work environment in a health care setting this theory can be
helpful in understanding the feeling of cynicism which can increase the positive outcomes by
increasing the self interest of the health care professionals and help them to keep themselves
motivated. This theory can also be helpful in understanding the concept of “organisational
inertia” in health care. Gaining this understanding the health care managers can foster positive
working environment in the health care setting. This ensures improvement in the response to the
medical errors by the health care professionals (Heley and et.al., 2018). A better response to an
error means that the care providers focus on the immediate rectification of the error rather than
focussing on the failure of the approach. Therefore, this theory help the health care professionals
to learn from their mistakes and helps them to learn approaches to provide the patient with
positive environment in which the patient can recover rapidly as well as efficiently.
Another managerial theory that can be used by the mangers of the health care is the
Evidence based management theory. This theory is based on the concept of using critical
thinking instead of considering the already present conventions and opinions. The available
evidence is made the basis for critical thinking and then a better management technique is
formulated for the situation. The evidence based management theory utilises the best available
research and experimental evidences about the topic and make the best relevant decision about
the situation. As this theory comprises of the steps of asking, acquiring, appraising, aggregating,
applying and assessing thus the health care manager should have sound skills of searching the
best relevant evidence from management researches and should also have knowledge about
critically appraising the collected research information (Janati and et.al.,2018). The managers
should also have sound analysing skills which will allow them to effectively analyse the
information and then critically think about it and make better decisions. Practising evidence
based management theory, the quality of the health care services can be elevated.
This approach makes the decision making skills of the mangers more efficient which
results in more apt and rapid decision making by the managers and thus help in increasing the
efficiency of the health care services at the care facility. More efficient care providing will
further increase the chances of receiving positive outcomes. As the health care managers come
across the view points of the researchers and experts in the management field while searching
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facts and evidences for the topic, this results in betterment of the thinking process of the
managers (White, Dudley-Brown, and Terhaar, 2019). In the researches that the managers refer
to, there are certain researchers that also identifies the gaps in the process of evidence based
management practice. This helps the managers to identify the gaps that can hinder the effective
implementation of the approach. Knowing the hindrances prior handily the managers can
eliminate those hindrances and thus ensure effective implementation of the evidence based
approach.
The approach of evidence based practice can also increase the uniformity of the decision
making process by the managers. This evidence based approach of management reduces the
chances of irrational thinking in the management process and thus reduces the bias behaviour ,
exhaustion that can negatively effect the management process. The evidences for the making the
managerial decisions in health care industry can be collected from the health care experiences of
the service users and the knowledge of the experts or the experienced care providers. The health
care experiences of the service users can help the care providers to assess the mistakes and the
efficient practices that can help the recovery process of the patient rapid. The knowledge of the
experts can be utilised by the other care professionals for making care service decisions for the
patients (Lehane and et.al., 2019). The decisions made by referring to the knowledge of the
experts about the care regime for a patient will increase the chances of acquiring positive
outcomes. Practising this type of managerial theory in health care ensures using of credible
information that can be used to formulate the policies and practices that needs to be practised in
order to efficiently manage the health of the patients.
Utilisation management is a yet another managerial theory that can be used in the
management of the services provide in the health care industry. Utilisation in terms of health care
implies to the consumption of the cares services and use of the supplies that help in maintenance
or betterment of the health status of an individual. Therefore, application or use of this theory can
ensure prevention of the unnecessary utilisation of the health care resources and will also reduce
the spending of unnecessary cost for the excess requirement of the supplies. As per the current
trends the cost of health care services is rising in an uncontrolled manner and for the
management of these rising prices this theory can be used (Ramori and et.a., 2021) . This theory
will prove beneficial in reducing the cost of health care services and will make them affordable
for all. Thus the two main objectives of the utilisation theory are to ensure the effectiveness and
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efficiency of the health care services that are being provided to the public in affordable rates. The
second objective that this theory can help to achieve is the objective of minimising the
unnecessary and over utilisation of the health care services and supplies. This theory manages
the health care through a set of guidelines that already exist unlike the evidence based theory of
management.
This cost management theory is based on three main functions, first of which is the
utilisation review, then management of the case and the last is discharge planning. The
application of this theory initiates with determination of the priorities of the organisation which
is then followed by conduction of research to determine that who will be benefited by the
determined priorities. This information is then used by the health care managers to set goals for
the organisation that are needed to be achieved in order to provide the service users with quality
care. Amongst the above mentioned three processes, the step of utilisation review can be carried
out before the clinical encounter as well as during and after the clinical encounter. If conducted
prior to the clinical encounter then it is called as “prior authorisation”, if during the clinical
process then it is known as the “concurrent review”, and if the review is performed after the
clinical events then it is mentioned as “retro review” or “retrospective review”. These three
types of review has different purposes. “Prior- authorisation is necessary to be conducted to
ensure the aptness of the requested health care service and if the setting is appropriate for
delivering the requested procedure or not (Gerich, Moosbrugger,and Heigl, 2022). This step also
ensures imparting the patient with the important information regarding the other aspects of the
health care setting for example information regarding the quality monitoring process, the
additional services that the patient will have access to and the care that the patient will be
subjected to while transition between different levels of care.
The concurrent review being conducted during the clinical events is necessary in order to
keep a check on the quality of services that are being provide to the service users. This step is
used to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of the health care services. Just as the “pre- auth”,
this step also facilitates the proper flow of patient related information among the other
departments of the health care setting that aids in the monitoring of the treatment process. The
steps at which the concurrent review is usually conducted are providing multidisciplinary
approach, while discharging the patient and while transferring the patient from one level of care
to another therefore, it is also known as the continued stay review. Retrospective review is the
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kind of review which is conducted when the treatment regime of the patient has been completed.
The main aim of the retrospective review is to analyse which treatment gives the most suitable
for achieving positive outcomes. This review process is helpful in assessing the effectiveness and
appropriateness of the treatment regime. This can also help the health care professionals to
decide what treatment can be prescribed to the patients in future in order to maximize the
positive outcomes.
Through these three steps the management theory of utilisation management achieves its
aim of reviewing the entire process of health care provision and gaining an insight on the
advantages and disadvantages of the care process (Hanlon and et.al., 2018). This review helps to
assess all the possible treatment procedures and help the care professionals to decide the one
with most benefits and maximum number of positive outcomes for future use. This is the reason
that this management theory can be used to minimise the chances of medical errors thus resulting
in reducing the cost spent on healthcare.
The management theory in health and service sector that can help in achieving
improvements in patient safety on a large scale is organisational behaviour management. This
theory is basically based on the analysis of the actions of the care providers and the reason
behind those actions. This analysis is then used for deciding that which evidence based
intervention theory can be used in order to improve the actions of the care provider. The poorly
designed systems in the health care industry are the main reason for increase in the number of
negative outcomes and medical errors. This issue of increased medical errors can be managed by
the implication of this management theory. This theory uses a model that uses the three terms to
analyse the behaviour of the care providers which is known as the ABC model. The Antecedent-
Behaviour – Consequence model forms the foundation of this management theory (Gross and
et.al., 2019).
A that is antecedent act as a stimulus that encourages the performance of a behaviour B
and can be in a form of a reminder or prompt or a directing behaviour. The C stands for the
consequences of the behaviour which can be a feedback or rewards or in the form of praises. The
consequences thus tend to manage the motivate the performance of the behaviour. This model
can also be used to achieve large scale benefits if this theory but certain evidence based
guidelines are required to be followed. The guidelines consist of first targeting the observable
behaviour, then finding out the external behaviour that can affect the behaviour. After that the
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antecedents are directed for the performance of the behaviour and the motivation is provided
through the consequences. Then the interventions are designed while keeping in mind the
internal feelings and attitudes (Carlucci, Mura, and Schiuma, 2020). These intervention are then
applied over by scientific methods in order to improve those interventions. Through these
guidelines OBM can be strategically used to combine the concepts of behaviourism and
humanism to design interventions that can enhance the levels of patient safety.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion that can be derives from the above essay is that the health care and
service sector also requires application of managerial theories in order to ensure proper
functioning of the health care industry. The managerial theories mention in the above essay
consist of organisational behaviour theory, utilisation management theory, evidence based
management theory and attribution theory. Applying these managerial theories in health sector
can be beneficial in a number of ways. It can help in making the care professional more efficient
and skilled in their practice and can also result in increasing the level of patient safety. Using
these theories can also ensure use of evidence based approach in healthcare which can further
result in increasing the quality of the care services. In addition to this these theories can also be
helpful in minimising the medical errors and efficiently managing the spending of the health care
sector.
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REFERENCES
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Christou, G.A., 2021. Exploring Elementary Educators’ Mental Health Literacy and Decision-
Making Using a Mixed Method Approach and Attribution Theory (Doctoral dissertation, Queen's
University (Canada)).
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health care. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 12, p.97.
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