Question Tag: Healthcare Management

Within the same business organisation, some decision-making might be centralized, with decisions made by senior management. Other decisions might be decentralized and taken by managers or employees involved in operations.

A company owns and operates five private hospitals. It has a head office, a management team, and staff in each hospital (including medical staff such as doctors and nurses). Decisions now need to be made on the following:

i) Decisions about the medical treatment or surgical treatment for individual patients.
ii) Establishing policy on hygiene standards in the hospitals.
iii) Scheduling operations in the operating theatres of each hospital.
iv) Discharging patients from the hospital.
v) Deciding the visiting times for patients in each hospital.
vi) Prescribing drugs for the treatment of patients.
vii) Hiring new staff, such as hospital porters and nurses.
viii) Dealing with payments from insurance companies for the treatment of insured patients.

Required:
For each of the decisions above, identify from the list below whom you would expect to make the decision and briefly explain why.

• Head Office Management
• The Management of each hospital
• Staff in each hospital