A group of community-minded physicians merged their practices to form an outpatient center for the purpose of providing exceptional care at reasonable costs. A very capable administrator and a topflight human resource manager were brought onboard to launch the start-up and oversee daily operations. They constructed a unique building with interconnected medical suites that could be opened and staffed in progression as the center expanded.
The outpatient center opened on schedule. At first the patient flow was modest, so the doctors were able to spend quality time with patients. The staff had time to upgrade their skills and orient new hires without the pressure associated with a busy medical practice. Patients came away feeling truly cared for and eager to tell their friends about it – which they did.
As the word spread an influx of new patients overloaded the system. Staff was forced to stay after hours to deal with the mounting backlog, which drove up the overtime cost. To handle the disruption the HR manager brought in temporary staff from an employment agency and the administrator opened two additional suites.
A shortage of medical equipment and supplies soon developed together with a growing list of complaints from physicians regarding the lack of proper staff support. As the gap between the three subsystems widened patient dissatisfaction increased dramatically.
Meanwhile, one of the patient coordinators became concerned about the growing chaos and requested a meeting with the HR manager wherein she explained how her previous employer had formed networks between subsystems to resolve a similar situation.
Her recommendation made sense, so the entire work force was pulled together to discuss how best to implement networking as a way of counteracting the impact of the disruption.
As networking took hold, staff came away from each encounter with an understanding of what was driving the subsystems apart. Drawing upon this new knowledge the following three-pronged action plan was developed:
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- A process improvement team focused on intra-subsystem communication.
- A joint task force realigned subsystem policies, procedures, and protocols.
- A disruption response team implemented changes and monitored the results.
The board of directors approved networking as a standard operational procedure. Staff was given the authority to form cross-functional teams to initiate solutions wherever they believed such action would close the gap between subsystems. It took only a few weeks to restore functionality and get the medical center running smoothly again.
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