Saint Vincent Hospital: Analyzing the Organizational Structure Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the organizational structure of Saint Vincent Hospital, focusing on its mission, vision, and goals. It examines both the formal and informal structures, including an organizational chart, to highlight the management levels and decision-making processes. The report compares the advantages and disadvantages of each structure, offering insights into the hospital's operational efficiency. It also presents an overview of the hospital's services, core values, and publicized image, drawing from the annual reports and the hospital's history. Furthermore, the report includes recommendations for improving the organizational structure, emphasizing the importance of information flow, employee involvement, and structural flexibility. The conclusion summarizes the findings and suggests ways to enhance the hospital's performance through structural improvements.

Executive Summary
This report outlines the organizational structure of Saint Vincent Hospital. It aims at analyzing
the mission, vision, and goals of the organization using the organizational structure of the
hospital. The report contains the formal and informal organizational structure chart. The report
provides the conclusion along with some recommendations to plan and make some changes in
the organizational structure of the hospital and make it flexible for the staff members to work.

Introduction
The organizational structure is an essential element for the achievement of the
organizational goals. A suitable organizational structure helps in recognizing and addressing the
different realities of the company. It helps in proper decision-making and communication
through varying levels of management (Ashkenas et al., 2015).
The aim of this report is to shine a light on the organizational structure of Saint Vincent
Hospital, Melbourne. It highlights the overview and the publicized picture of the hospital. It
examines the mission, vision and core values of this organization. It discusses the actual
performance, and that reflected in the annual report of the organization. The primary objective of
this report is to compare the formal and informal organizational structure using the
organizational chart of this hospital. Moreover, it includes some recommendations for the proper
functioning of the hospital.
Discussions
Overview of Saint Vincent Hospital
Saint Vincent Hospital is a private healthcare service operated by St. Vincent Health,
Australia. The hospital offers a variety of services, which include medical as well as surgical
services, aged care, sub-acute care, cancer services, diagnostics, correctional health, general
practice services and a range of community services. It is a Catholic health care service, and its
mission is to provide compassionate and ingenious care to the people they serve. It brings the
love of God to needy people through the healing prayers to Jesus. Its vision is to bring the
revolutionary change in the health care services to ensure better care practices (St Vincent's
Hospital, 2019). The core values of this hospital are based on Gospel Values, which is inculcated

in the decision-making process and underlies to its Catholic identity (Whittington, 2017). Its
values revolve around its activities, which is demonstrated as Compassion, Justice, Integrity, and
Excellence. St. Vincent hospital has completed its 125 years of journey in 2018, where it has
created a tagline for the hospital that is ‘St Vincent’s Cares. Always has. Always will’ (St
Vincent's Hospital, 2019).
Its Publicized Picture
Saint Vincent hospital was previously, known as the Sisters of Charity Health Service is a
charitable hospital opened to serve the poor people better. Supporters and community kindness
have enabled healthcare to grow widely. It is one of the leading hospitals in Australia. From the
annual report, a picture is presented which shows the number of donors and the community
engaged for donations through social media. It also displays the success stories of patients cured
at St. Vincent hospital. The annual report of the hospital shows several events organized and
participated in it. These events are St. Vincent’s Fun Run, the Sisterhood lunch and Opera in the
market (St. Vincent's Health Australia, 2019). All these engagements and supports give the
positive visual representation of the organizational culture where the values and underlying
beliefs contribute to the success of the unique social environment of the hospital. From my
experience, healthcare has reflected the actual performance of the organization in the annual
report accurately. The real functioning of the hospital matches the messages indicated in the
story.
Organizational Structure
The organizational structure reflects the establishment of management level and process
of decision making that are implemented to achieve the goals of the organization. The hospitals

execute high quality services for every hour. For this type of requirements, hospitals usually have
a vertical structure (Mercy Health, 2019). It has different layers of management where most of
the employees have precise, narrow and low authority roles. These management layers are
designed to ensure the proper functioning of the hospital. Saint Vincent hospital have a
centralized structure to control the organization.
Comparison of Organizational Structure
In a formal organizational structure of St. Vincent hospital, all the management level
things and the division of work is written and explained. Therefore, it is easily understandable by
the employees. The formal structure of this healthcare can easily be described with the help of
the organizational chart. It shows how the different level of management works for proper
functioning and prevent misunderstandings. The formal structure of this hospital has a
hierarchical pyramid structure where the Board Members, the Chief Executing Officer, and the
Foundation members are at the top level. The Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Financial Officer,
and other managers are at the mid-level. The staffs are at the low level. The decisions are
implemented on the teams or employees at the low levels, and they are not even solicited for
opinions about the operation of the hospital. The advantage of having the formal organizational
structure in St. Vincent hospital is that the roles and responsibilities of every employee, from
top-level management to low-level management, are clearly defined. As a result, the employees
have the proper knowledge of working and helps in achieving the healthcare vision. The process
of decision-making and its implementation acts as the command from the top-level management,
which helps in controlling the work processes. Having such a formal structure also has certain
disadvantages. The method of decision making usually takes a very long time as it moves down

from the top level management to mid-level and then to a low level. Fewer interactions between
the executives and the staffs are often a cause of disconnect.
In an informal organizational structure of St. Vincent hospital, all the personal relations
and interactions are shaped naturally and informally. This structure is unique for this
organization as it depends on the employees’ personalities and techniques developed after some
time. Under this structure, the business of this hospital is operated by a system designed by the
productive employees. It relies on the cooperation and proper communication between these staff
members and the teams, which focus on achieving the set goals of the hospital. The advantage of
having the informal organizational structure in St. Vincent hospital is its adaptability and
flexibility to change. The business immediately responds to an external influence where the
organizational shift is demanded and quickly adapt the change. Having such informal structures
also adds to disadvantages. The things become too casual that leads to disorganization, chaos,
confusion and misunderstood communication. In this structure, there is a lack of a centralized
structure of management, which is also disadvantageous for this hospital. The employees may
take advantage of the freedom of decision-making process.
Organizational Charts
Formal Organizational Chart
The formal organizational chart of St. Vincent Hospital is given below:

Prof. of Medicine
Prof. of Surgery
Prof. of Psychiatry
Chair, Senior Medical Staff
Executive Director, ACMD
Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer
SVHA Foundation Victoria
Executive Officer
C
F
O
C
M
O
Performa
nce
executive
Acute
Service
executive
Corpora
te
services
Care
service
executive
Commu
nity
services
Strategy
&
Planning
C
N
O
Mission
Executiv
es
Health
officer
GM
Financial
Performa
nce &
Analytics
GM
Strategic
Finance
GM
Infrastr
ucture
Procur
ement
Telecom
municati
ons
GM
Quality
& Risk
GM
Continu
ous
Improve
ment
GM
Business
Analysis
Depu
ty
CMO
Rese
arch
Direc
tor
GM
Surgical
Services
GM
Medicin
al
Services
GM
Specialt
y
Services
GM
Access
&
Demand
GM
Mental
Health
GM
Sub
Acute
Care
GM
Cancer
Care
GM
Allied
Health
Manage
r Health
Infection
Control
Chief
Pharma
cist
GM
Biomedic
al &
Engineeri
ng
GM HR
GM
Health
Safety
GM
Support
Services
GM
Educatio
n Centre
GM
Legal
GM
Workforc
e Unit
GM
Strategy &
Developme
nt
GM
Media &
Communi
cation
Response
to VAD
Manager
GM
Voluntee
rs
GM
Cultural
Diversity
Catholic
Chaplain
GM
Pastoral
Care
GM
Aborigina
l Health

Saint Vincent Hospital has a vertical organizational structure where the power is
emanated from the top-level management to the low level (Meng, 2018). As we can see from the
chart above, the strength lies in the hand of the top-level management that is, the Managing
Directors, the Chief Executive Officer of SVH, Chief Executive officer of SVHA Foundation
and Executive officer. The decision moves down on the hierarchy level by level. The mid-level
management consists of the executives and officers of different departments. The low-level
management comprises general managers that have less autonomy. The supervision of decision-
making and commands moves down layer by layer that helps in achieving the mission and vision
of the hospital.
Informal Organizational Chart
General Medicine Emergency
Doctors
Staffs
Nurses
Attendants
Supply
Officer Manager Surgical
Specialists
Trauma
Specialists

At Saint Vincent Hospital, the unique structure develops the different departments, which
includes the general services, medicinal and emergency services. This structure involves the
decision making process at different levels. The informal communication ensures the activities at
this level.
Suggestions to improve the organizational structure
Few implications for the smooth functioning and growth of the organizational structure of
Saint Vincent hospital is given. To improve the structure, proper flow of information should be
communicated to everyone. Precise and detailed knowledge should be given about the formal as
well as an informal arrangement to every employee. It will help them in knowing who to report
for their service. Decision-making rights are reserved with top-level management. Meetings
should be held to consider some suggestions by the mid-level as well as low-level managers. The
organizational structure of this hospital is vertical, and that is not very flexible to survive in the
evolving market. Therefore, a change is required for getting the managerial and technical support
by contributing their ideas into the planning phase.
Conclusion
To conclude the study, it can be stated that solving the organization's structure is the most
convenient way to improve the company’s performance. The organizational structure of the
hospital shows the formal and informal structure of the hospital. The annual reports give the
present scenario and the actual performance of the organization. It clearly shows the comparison
between the structures and focuses on increasing the flexibility inside the management level for

proper decision-making and functioning. However, some suggestions are provided to improve
the organizational structure of Saint Vincent hospital.

References:
Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. (2015). The boundary less organization: Breaking
the chains of organizational structure. John Wiley & Sons.
Meng, M. (2018). 5 Elements of Organizational Structure Design | Org Charting. Retrieved from
http://www.orgcharting.com/elements-organizational-structure/
Mercy Health. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.mercyhealth.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/61/2018/10/MHVL-Report-
of-Operations-2017-2018.pdf
St Vincent's Hospital. (2019). About St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne - St Vincent's Hospital
Melbourne. Retrieved from https://www.svhm.org.au/about-us
St. Vincent's Health Australia. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.svhm.org.au/ArticleDocuments/1407/St%20Vincent's%20Hospital
%20Melbourne%20Annual%20Report%202017-18.pdf.aspx?embed=y
Whittington, J. L. (2017). Creating a real organization through servant leadership. In Servant
Leadership and Followership (pp. 51-79). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.