Conflict Resolution at General Hospital Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Conflict Resolution at General Hospital - Essay Example In the case of General Hospital, the conflict was intergroup, pitting the CEO Mr. Mike Hammer and Marge Harding, the chief operating office on one hand and, the director of medicine Doctor Williams and the company’s physicians on the other (WordPress.com, 2011). There are various sub-categories of intergroup conflicts including those among teams, divisions, departments, employees, and management. In the conflict at General Hospital, while physicians were more interested in the correct and timely readings of the EKG and proper diagnosis of patients, the CEO and the operating officer were more concerned with cutting costs. This paper thus explores the conflict at General Hospital, touching on the management style employed to resolve the stalemate. In addition, the possible use of teams and negotiation skills to resolve the conflict are also discussed. The Conflict at General Hospital Some years back, renovation activities at the General Hospital led to a drop in the number of pa tients admitted at the Hospital. Consequently, bed occupancy went down by about 65% (WordPress.com, 2011). The other effect of the renovation exercise at the General Hospital besides the dropped occupancy was a rise in the number of Medicaid and Medicare patients. In other words, the number of patients under private health insurance covers dropped, implying that General Hospital could not make profits from attending to patients with private health insurance covers (WordPress.com, 2011). Realizing the hospital was on the verge of failing to obtain its objectives and remain profitable, the CEO, Mr. Mike Hammer decided to implement certain changes, which he thought would stabilize the hospital. The first option to Hammer was to cut costs and increase the Company’s revenues. In addition, Hammer intended to initiate changes that would ensure the hospital retained its current services and even expanded into new areas. To implement these strategies, Hammer hired one Marge Harding, e mpowering her to make crucial decisions such as the firing of the hospital’s employees, more so those serving under the at-will employment status (WordPress.com, 2011). The first opinion of Harding’s was that the electrocardiogram (EKG) readings could be done electronically. Therefore, according to Harding, a physician was not needed to read the EKG. In fact, she suggested that at least $100,000 could be saved by computerizing the reading of the EKG. After the installation of the new equipment for EKG proposed by Harding and the training of EKG technicians, the physician, a Doctor James Boyer, was informed that his services were no longer needed at the General Hospital (WordPress.com, 2011). Harding’s plans soon started to flop as EKG’s arrived late, cases of misdiagnoses increased, and the staff became irritated as they looked incompetent, making them feel that Dr. Boyer was rather important and was needed at the facility. Nonetheless, Harding completely ignored these complaints from the General Hospital’s staff. Therefore, the main conflict at the General Hospital pitted cost control and management against physician agreement. To realize any positive results from his cost reduction strategies and policies, Mr. Hammer had to win over the physicians making up his staff. This was just another of the instances and incidence in which