Strategic Management in Healthcare: Reducing Patient Wait Times

This report delves into the critical aspect of strategic management within the healthcare sector, specifically focusing on the impact of patient wait times. It underscores the significance of reducing wait times to enhance patient satisfaction, improve the organization's market position, and ensure efficient operational management. The report highlights the detrimental effects of prolonged wait times, which can lead to negative patient experiences, reduced satisfaction, and diminished organizational reputation. It emphasizes the importance of internal audits and process analysis to identify bottlenecks and implement effective strategies to reduce waiting times, such as optimizing emergency and diagnostic departments, providing staff training, and streamlining discharge procedures. The report also stresses the importance of maintaining a competitive edge by monitoring and improving wait times compared to competitors. By implementing these strategies, healthcare organizations can improve patient flow, enhance their market presence, and cultivate a culture of efficiency and patient-centered care.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE
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Impact of Reducing Patient Wait Times
Value to Patients and the Marketplace: A healthcare organization’s successful attempt
at reducing the waiting times across all clinical departments results in positive impact on both
patients as well as the market position of the organization. While reasonable times of waiting mat
often be indicative of the availability of quality healthcare services, long hours of waiting may
yield an opposite effect (Khanna et al. 2016).
Patients often perceive long waiting lines as an indicator of poor management and poor
quality in the concerned healthcare organization. This can further result in the loss of satisfaction
among patients and negative customer feedback given to the healthcare organization. Negative
ratings will result in reduced patient flow, losses and poor market position of the organization.
Hence reduced waiting times will not only induce positive perceptions among patients, but will
also enhance customer satisfaction, improved ratings, improved patient flow and profitable
organizational position in the market (Dong, Yom-Tov and Yom-Tov 2018).
Rareness: Successfully implementing reduced times of waiting will provide the
healthcare organizational a unique role and identity in the clinical marketplace. If along with
internal audits, the organization also conducts external analysis of its competitors to identify and
compare its waiting times with its rivals, it will prompt the management to continuously
maintain low waiting times. Such engagement will administer a rare or unique status to the
healthcare organization as the only one which strives to uphold patient needs through the
maintenance of realistic waiting times (Ryu and Lee 2017).
Internal Factors: Conducting regular internal audits or process analysis is helpful in
maintaining reduced waiting times where in, the management can evaluate the functions of the

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emergency or diagnostic department and immediately correct any discrepancies which may
contribute to delays in patient flow (Kozlowski and Worthington 2015). Additionally,
maintaining a workplace culture of adequate time management comprising of continuously
training and educating staff on strategies of reduced waiting time, will also proved to be useful in
preventing patient flow delays in the long run. Stringent maintenance of the discharge times is
also a key strategy since it will prevent patient crowding and hence patient flow delays (Shi et al.
2015).

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Reference
Dong, J., Yom-Tov, E. and Yom-Tov, G.B., 2018. The impact of delay announcements on
hospital network coordination and waiting times. Management Science, 65(5), pp.1969-1994.
Khanna, S., Sier, D., Boyle, J. and Zeitz, K., 2016. Discharge timeliness and its impact on
hospital crowding and emergency department flow performance. Emergency Medicine
Australasia, 28(2), pp.164-170.
Kozlowski, D. and Worthington, D., 2015. Use of queue modelling in the analysis of elective
patient treatment governed by a maximum waiting time policy. European Journal of Operational
Research, 244(1), pp.331-338.
Ryu, J. and Lee, T.H., 2017. The waiting game—why providers may fail to reduce wait
times. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(24), pp.2309-2311.
Shi, P., Chou, M.C., Dai, J.G., Ding, D. and Sim, J., 2015. Models and insights for hospital
inpatient operations: Time-dependent ED boarding time. Management Science, 62(1), pp.1-28.