Springfield General Hospital Case Study

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Change Management Plan for Springfield General Hospital Springfield General Hospital (SGH) is committed to high quality healthcare for patients, and providing tools to support physicians, nurses and pharmacists. SGH leadership approved the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system as a solution to reduce prescription errors, and the results of the CPOE project are disappointing. The data show increased prescribing errors after implementing the CPOE; resulting in increased costs for adverse drug events, rather than the planned cost reduction (Spector, 2013). This change management plan provides the SGH board of directors and executive management team pragmatic steps to increase quality for patients by assessing the root issue of hospital …show more content…

SGH has been plagued with patient quality issues, therefore SGH finds itself in a situation which is inherently antithetical to the mission of the hospital. The costs of healthcare continue to rise at an alarming rate, and hospital boards are experiencing increased scrutiny in their ability, and role, in ensuring patient quality (Millar, Freeman, & Mannion, 2015). Many internal actors are involved in patient quality, from the physicians, nurses, pharmacists and IT administrators, creating a complex internal system. When IT projects, such as the CPOE initiative fail, the project team members, and the organization as a whole, may experience negative emotions that impede the ability to learn from the experience (Shepherd, Patzelt, & Wolfe, 2011). The SGH executive management team must refocus the organization on the primary goal of patient …show more content…

Given the long duration of patient quality problems, over ten years, at SGH, the communication plan may need to include not only the internal SGH stakeholders such as employees, but also external stakeholders both in the community, shareholders, and third party vendors. SGH is at greater business risk due to their previous attempts at improving quality and now potential lack of stakeholder confidence. Including stakeholders in the change management process allows the stakeholder’s viewpoint to coevolve with SGH to create a shared view of the change plan and how to measure change success (Windsor, 2010). Engaging with the stakeholders in change plan definition and focuses their energy on helping SGH with the change process, rather than undermining it (Windsor, 2010). Identifying all of the stakeholders for SGH, and engaging them in change communications and planning will assist SGH leadership in evolving the hospital towards a high patient quality

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