Cleveland Clinic

Introduction

Clinical operations involve a lot of issues ranging from the management of patients to all other activities that a certain clinic is engaged in with an aim of achieving the set goals and objectives in the medical world. Management in this case involves affairs such as organizing, planning, directing, and controlling all the medical activities of the clinic in order to meet the set goals of the organization. Staffing and human resource relations are the clinic’s part of the management that is done to ensure that only qualified doctors and nurses join the clinic. Therefore, this essay focuses on Cleveland Clinic and how it meets its set goals and objectives.

Section 1

Current Operations of the Clinic

Cleveland Clinic is a private health facility located at Cleveland, Ohio 44195 in the United States, and it operates in different parts of the country. It delivers different medical services in various parts of the country to meet the needs of its patients. Its statutes were instituted in USA in 1921 and have been changed over the years to meet medical requirements of the respective times. This clinic has got limited liability, and this has greatly contributed to its long perpetual existence. It has and adopts strong medical laws that protect its staff members and patients from all forms of injustice that they may be subjected to. The clinic is financially stable and incurs minimal losses; sometimes, it does not incur any losses at all due to its decentralized nature. Losses in one of the Cleveland franchises can be compensated by considerable profits from others in different geographical locations. The clinic has a centralized management system with headquarters situated in the USA (Alderfer, 2010). The financial status is stable in the sense of clinic’s accumulating a lot of resources in terms of treatment fees due to the fact that its operations are privately run and managed with no resultant wastage. Any adverse implications of the governmental actions towards clinics could affect their operations in any way. Whether the medical taxes are increased or not, the clinic still performs well in terms of medical intervention and profitability. The wide scope of market for the clinic is another reason that contributes to its financial stability in the long run. Additionally, this is a result of good services that the clinic delivers within medical field.

Organizational Hierarchy and Structure as Well as Management and Leadership Styles

The medical institution employs different organizational hierarchies and structures in the sense of its organization according to the level and functions of management. Based on the level of management, there are top, middle, and trainee doctors and nurses who perform different duties. Using the functions, doctors in the clinic have got different roles and functions they are supposed and assigned to perform as a way of achieving specific goals and objectives of the Cleveland Clinic. In this regard, there are doctors in charge of examination, prescription, marketing and sales, operations, record keeping, and human resources among other clinical functions (Mayo, 2010).

All these doctors are expected to perform specific functions like in the case when a human resource doctor ensures that there are enough qualified medical personnel and support staff by recruiting doctors and nurses to replace vacant positions in the clinic. Due to this, the clinic has got both vertical and horizontal structures. Vertical hierarchy means that the doctors occupying top positions are able to and can delegate duties to those at lower levels. One can be able to exercise authority, thus facilitating the efficiency and the effectiveness of the clinic in terms of management and its general performance. The clinic is also flexible to changes as individual nurses and doctors are quick to receive and act/respond to emergencies and orders from above. In its turn, horizontal hierarchy implies the doctors, nurses, and supporting staff are able to directly interact with each another without any problems. Doctors with the same posts in the clinic but being from different medical institutions also do communicate from time to time in order to discuss matters concerning their positions with an aim of achieving the set goals of the clinic at large (Alderfer, 2012).

Moreover, different leadership styles are used in the same clinic as one of the ways of achieving the set goals and objectives. The utilized leadership styles include situational and skills approaches to leadership style and authoritative leadership styles. Situational leadership is where a doctor or a nurse acts in leadership positions whenever an emergency incident occurs in a given medical institution. At Cleveland Clinic, for instance, in cases where doctors are not nearby, charge nurse or those in assistant positions can step up to play the doctor’s role. This ensures that there is continuous high-level medical intervention in the clinic, and that neither work stands still nor a patient dies because of the lack of emergency intervention. Additionally, in cases of sickness, death, retirement, and transfer, the vacant positions are immediately replaced. This has greatly enhanced the performance of Cleveland Clinic. Therefore, the individual doctors and nurses tend to become leaders upon the occurrence of any emergencies that may have adverse implications on the clinic if not addressed in time.

There is also skills approach to leadership style when doctors and nurses in the clinic are assigned duties based on different skills and knowledge as well as the expertise they possess. This may be done in terms of the technological knowledge and marketing as well as the nursing knowledge. The latter has greatly helped the clinic in enhancing its medical services delivered in different areas of operation.

Human Resource Aspects of the Organization

The rewards and compensations of the medics by the management is appropriate in the sense that the doctors and nurses in clinic are paid in such a way that they are motivated to work smart and deliver high-quality health care services. They are also motivated by the management which facilitates good working environments as well as protects them fully from any environmental hazards that may affect their productivity.

The staffing process is done fairly; the work is also organized well; the doctors and nurses are allowed to work in their areas of specialization. This has greatly improved effectiveness and efficiency in the clinic. The quality and quantity of the goods and services offered by the clinic is also enhanced by this factor. The workers are also trained in their respective areas of work. Moreover, personal development is also emphasized in the clinic, and this leads to good overall performance.

Technology and Information Systems Employed by the Clinic

The clinic employs computer technologies to large extent. Therefore, most of its services are delivered online. This has enabled the clinic to reach a wider scope of the market within a short period of time. The patients are able to get access to information and other services via the internet easily. Thus, this possibility satisfies their needs and maximize utility (Alderfer, 2010).

Operational Decisions or Procedures

The clinic carries out its activities in a way that aims at producing high quality services compared to other medical facilities. This is achieved mainly through the organization of the clinic. The doctors and nurses are allowed to work in their areas of specialization where they are able to perform and deliver well even with fewer resources in terms of time and labour. The compensation and rewards to doctors and nurses are also appropriate, and this really motivates them towards providing better services to the patients.

Industry Environment Factors that Could Threaten Its Future Competitive Success

Despite the fact that the clinic is performing well today, it is faced with a lot of challenges that may be threats to its competitive future success. For instance, the clinic is facing stiff competition from other governmental and private medical facilities that offer similar services or rather substitute medicines being less effective to the patients. Therefore, this implies unless the clinic employs other extra costs in innovations to improve the quality of services, it could incur losses in the near future (Fredrick 2010).

Section 2

Corporate and Business Strategies of the Clinic

Corporate strategies of the clinic are those chosen by it so as to improve its competitiveness in terms of the quality of services being offered in relation to the same from other companies. For instance, the clinic applies corporate strategies by embracing specialization and division of labour in the organization and by allowing doctors and nurses to perform duties they are good at (Alderfer, 2012).

Mission and Goal of the Clinic

The mission of the clinic is to deliver high-quality and affordable services to its clients and to maintain good relations with them. The goals include achievement of the highest possible medical intervention with less resources and costs invested in medical provision.

Whether Business Lines Are Related or Just Portfolio Investments

The business lines are related in the sense that in cases when the clinic faces crisis, services in one franchise can be shifted to another one in different location for the purpose of continuous service delivery to the patients and ensuring that their medical health status is well enhanced.

Definition of the Clinic’s Strategy

The clinic’s strategy is related to diversification in terms of its concentrating on the provision of either complimentary services or service substitutes (McGregor, 2010). This makes it retain its competitiveness in the market compared to other medical institutions with similar services. The clinic has also diversified its services by decentralizing them.

Change of the Strategy

The strategy of the clinic is changing over time due to some new demands for services delivered to patients. It changed and adopted unrelated diversification because it had limited itself to the provision of services only, thus leading to its vulnerability to stiff competition from other medical institutions.

Impact of Production, Marketing, Research and Development on Strategy Formulation

Provision, marketing, research and development of its medical services impact strategy formulation in the sense they tend to dictate the type of strategies to be formulated by management (Fredrick, 2010). They determine the decisions to be made as far as strategy formulation is concerned. For instance, the issues determine the strategies to be formulated, which aim at having positive outcomes from all of them.

Section 3

In summary, section one describes about current operations of the clinic, whereas section two explains corporate and business strategies employed by the clinic in its attempt to meet its set goals and objectives. The clinic’s operations include running of activities performed by management, and the structures as well as leadership style are also expressed here. Corporate and business strategies employed by the clinic include marketing and research and development strategies among others.

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