Government cutbacks in Medical/Health Care Fields

Introduction

Government cutbacks in our healthcare environment have become as commonplace, and unfortunately, as accepted, as rush-hour traffic jams. Certainly, pharmacy computer systems improve productivity in product services. Order processing, cart-fill distribution and point-of-care medication administration is streamlined and facilitated by pharmacy software that integrates with automated dispensing machines and other hospital information systems. Even facilities unhappy with their pharmacy computer system will acknowledge that if their computer system is down, the medication distribution process becomes a nightmare in terms of the effort involved to perform these tasks manually.

Considering the work involved in calculating doses, profiling medications, printing labels, creating cart-fill lists, manufacturing IVs, and compiling medication administration records, it is inconceivable for a facility of any size to manually provide these services for any length of time. (Amara, p16)

The government cutbacks process in an institution precipitates initial confusion even in the best grounded social work manager. The value of social services in the institution and the manager's sense of personal competence as a leader and as a professional may seem to be in question. At such a time it is vital to identify a clear conceptual model from which a strategy may be organized.

Recognition of these concepts and attention to their mutual connection permit activity with confidence and empower the social work manager to make strategic decisions that can support social work staff at a time of major stress and uncertainty while supporting and joining the larger organization as it struggles to focus its mission and maintain fiscal integrity. Furthermore, recognition of these concepts and attention to their interconnection ensure the continued integrity of the social work department at a time of instability, and they constitute a politically aware multidirectional process that permits the social work manager to be sensitive and accountable to a variety of interests up and down the hospital organizational structure. Recognition and use of the power of this multidirectional process can permit gains in both directions. (Gabel, p103)

Discussion

Government cutbacks occur at times of change, and it in turn precipitates change. The strength of an organization may be measured in terms of its capacity to accommodate change (Slavin, p111). Change is fundamental to all human endeavors: the natural history of human services organizations includes constant change at a variety of levels. Nowhere is this more true than in health care, where new medical developments demand continual change in therapies, patient management, and organizational structures to accommodate them. Social work in health care is conducted in an ever-changing environment.

Analysis for organizational change within the hospital demands awareness of trends and events beyond the hospital and the social work department as well as within them. Clear understanding of the complex context within which government cutbacks occurs is essential. It informs and explains local change against a larger picture of health care change, removing to some degree the perception of particular victimization that occurs if government cutbacks is taken out of context.

Analysis recognizes interconnection at a variety of levels. Policy and regulatory decisions at the ...