Chapter 1 - The Context of Health Care Management
QUESTIONS
1. Define and describe the concept of managed care. Differentiate between managed care and health care in the past.
2. Identify two widespread effects of the managed-care movement. Describe how managed care affected these areas.
3. Identify the major laws and regulations that impact health care organizations in your state. What state-level agency issues licensure regulations for each type of health care facility in the state (e.g., hospitals, long-term care facilities)?
4. What are the primary strategies for initiating change in organizations?
5. Identify at least two strategies that have been utilized to ensure or at least enhance organizational survival. Give examples of each of the strategies and their impact on organizational survival.
Chapter 2 -The Challenge of Change
QUESTIONS
1. How does a department manager appropriately serve as a change agent and foster a change-ready environment for the employees? Provide examples with your answer.
2. What was initially misleading about the introduction of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known commonly by the acronym HIPAA?
3. In what ways has the implementation of HIPAA created additional expense for health care organizations? How about other organizations? Please provide examples for each of these areas; evaluating the impact of HIPAA on each.
4. Describe what areas or situations you believe to be the principal cause of most instances of resistance to change. Also what responses should be implemented to counteract the negative impact in these areas?
5. A manager is there to get things done through the employees and since time memorial managers have done so by issuing orders and instructions. What, if anything, is wrong with having changes implemented in this manner?
Chapter 3
1. Define management and differentiate between the art and science of management.
2. Describe the major phases in the development of organizational management. Provide examples with your answer.
Chapter 4 - Planning
QUESTIONS
1. Describe at least three characteristics of effective plans. Evaluate how each of these characteristics impacts the planning process.
2. What is the difference between a general objective and a functional objective? In what ways is a functional objective characterized?
3. Describe the essential difference between a policy and a procedure. Provide examples of each.
4. Quote a single sentence from early in the chapter describing one characteristic that broadly defines planning of all kinds.
5. What is the importance of the mission, vision, and values of the typical
hospital to its success and operations?
Chapter 5 - Decision Making
QUESTIONS
1. What kinds of decisions are most likely to be made by first-line supervisors or managers, as opposed to those made by top management?
2. What should be the primary determinant of the amount of effort and resources going into the making of any particular decision?
3. The "Pareto Principle" has often been described as the "80/20 Rule." Write out an example (a single sentence will do) indicating your understanding of the 80/20 Rule and thus, the Pareto Principle.
4. List three decision-making analysis tools. For each tool provide an example of the kind of decision making situation in which it might be employed.
5. What are the barriers to rational choice that impact hospital managers?
6. According to the text how do bad decisions get made? Provide examples. .
ESSAY
Enumerate all of the steps included in the basic decision-making process and, in your own words, describe what is occurring at each step. Be certain to include the role of those steps when each may not be fully evident as in programmed or supposedly "automatic" decisions. Also thoroughly explain and evaluate the role of follow-up in the decision-making process.