Let me start by expressing my gratitude for the honor of accepting to partner with Queens Hospital center in the quest to bring about positive changes in the organization. Queens Hospital Center is faced with several problems that affect the quality of services offered to clients.
We have developed an overview of the main problems facing this organization and from this analysis, we can be able to point out the most pressing issues that need to be addressed and the parties who will be expected to contribute to making this process a success (Hardinal et al, 2006). To carry out this analysis in a comprehensive way, there are areas which we will emphasize, and these include:
- The specific problems affecting clients.
- The key players and stakeholders in the organization.
- An analysis of how these problems affect these parties
- The goals and objectives of the planned change process.
- The strategies to be adopted to attain these goals.
- The feasibility of the anticipated changes and the probability of being successful.
The subsequent section of this memo will address the issues highlighted above in detail.
Problems affecting clients in the organization
One of the problems that have adverse effects on service delivery is the lack of properly trained staff. The result of this is a lack of empowerment hence clients are not able to get quality and satisfactory services. In the smoking cessation department, the employees and volunteers have not undergone the necessary training especially with regards to handling special cases such as mentally disturbed clients.
They, therefore, tend to work with the assumption that all clients are of sound mind and overlooking the possibility of having clients who have fallen into the smoking addiction as an escape from other distressful situations. This also limits the decision-making mandate to a few individuals in the management positions hence narrowing the scope of decision making in the organization (Green, 1998). Lack of proper training and education comes in many ways including hiring non-qualified staff and cutting costs in the training department which limits the number of staff who are trained.
The key players and stakeholder in the organization
The key players in this organization include the social workers, the management of Mount Sinai school of medicine, and Queens Health center management. These three players are required to work hand in hand with each other to ensure the success of the smoking cessation program. The responsibility of the social workers is to do the ground job which includes reaching out to the community and bringing the program to their attention. As a result of this, smoking addicts in the community will learn of our existence and they will enroll in the program (Green, 1998). Social workers are also the ones who facilitate the programs and do follow-ups on clients who have already completed them.
They, therefore, work with the clients directly and hence determine whether the clients will leave satisfied and recommend others to the program or whether they will have a bad experience hence discourage other people from joining. Queens Hospital center management on the other hand provides the facilities required by the social workers to conduct these activities. They provide financial support and besides that, they also offer medical services when required to do so.
Some patients for example suffer distress as a result of the withdrawal syndrome and hence require further medical attention. Mount Sinai school of medicine as a stakeholder provides educational materials to both the clients and the social workers. This comes in form of study texts, research materials conducted from the institution, and stationery. From this, therefore, it is clear that these three players have to work hand in hand to ensure the program runs successfully and the clients are satisfied with the services being offered. This strategy should therefore aim at synchronizing the three to increase efficiency in the organization.
Goals of the planned changes
The changes that we are anticipating to put in place are aimed at increasing efficiency and ensuring that the three stakeholders work together to ensure the client’s satisfaction. This means that the strategies to be put in place should be fair and accommodative to all parties to ensure that they are satisfied hence being able to provide satisfactory services to the clients. A good example of such collaboration is whereby Queens Hospital Center gets into an agreement with Mount Sinai school of medicine to provide students from the institution with internship opportunities. These are the same people who will be providing their volunteer services to the smoking cessation department.
As a result of this, the smoking cessation department will benefit from the services and also from the materials provided by the institution in return. Queens Hospital center should also ensure that people working in the smoking cessation department have access to their facilities so that they can be able to deliver the services with little or no setbacks.
Force field analysis of the problem
The forces that are at work in this change program are classified into three categories namely the driving forces and restraining forces. Under driving forces, collaboration is the most important element of change required in this organization whereby the three stakeholders are required to develop working relations with each other. The second driving force is the need for training facilities and this can be done by ensuring that all social workers, interns, and any other person in the department undergo special training on how to handle the smoking cessation program participants.
This is because these people can exhibit different behaviors depending on how their bodies react to withdrawal from smoking addiction. The third force is the need for financial support to enable the program to reach as many people as possible, by providing scholarships to those people who need the program but are unable to afford it. The restraining forces on the other hand include time and lack of sufficient resources to commit to the process of making these changes.
Strategy for change using the force field analysis
The first strategy in implementing these changes is increasing the number of social workers and volunteers in the department. This can be done by employing interns and volunteers who have been there for some time and advertising for more internship positions. This will also ensure that the students are willing to intern in the organization hence providing the extra manpower needed. As a result of this, social workers will be able to attend the workshops hence get more enlightened. This will solve the problem of securing students from Mount Sinai school of medicine internship positions and that of understaffing.
The other restraint which is financial will be addressed by involving the community. The organization can conduct garage sales within the affected communities and make the people understand that the proceeds will be directed to the smoking cessation program. This issue can also be addressed by involving third parties such as donors to help raise the funds necessary to run the program. The table below shows the forces of change in action.
Feasibility of the planned change and the possibility of success
The planned change of improving the services to the clients in the smoking cessation department is feasible since it involves the main stakeholders in the program. These are parties that directly benefit from the success of the program and hence will be willing to co-operate and make it work. Without the program, the social workers will be rendered jobless and the hospital will lose a lot in revenue.
Mount Sinai school of medicine on the other hand will lose a teaching tool since they use the program as one of their references. From this analysis therefore it is clear that all the parties will work together to ensure that the program is successful in the sense that they can reach a vast number of smoking addicts in the community and make follow-ups to ensure that they adhere to the cessation rules. As a result of this, we will get more referrals hence increasing the number of attendants and subsequently revenues.
Reference list
Green, R. (1998). Skills for effective management of nonprofit Organizations. Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers.
Hardinal, D., Middleton, J., Montana, S.,& Simpson, R. (2006). An empowering approach to managing social service organizations. New York: Springer Publishing Company.