Multicorporate structure
As early as the 1980’s there has been significant effort to create management practices in the industry that parallel business strategies because of the realization of the need for sustainability as much as quality services (Alexander et al, 1988). The advocacy is now influencing current health administrators to adopt these practices on a structural level: organization are being reengineered operationally and to accommodate non-traditional and non-medical specific functions such as marketing, public relations and organizational development (Griffith & White, 2006).
Healthcare organizations that have multicorporate structures consider themselves not only healthcare providers but as an organization that has to be professionally productive socially responsive and operationally independent. This is not to infer that traditional healthcare organizations preclude these characteristics only rather that multicorporate structured healthcare organization follow more closely the structure of an enterprise
Going Multicorporate Structured
Technology, communication, culture and politics have changed perceptions regarding the industry and thus are changing the means of delivering services. For example, in evaluating accounting and financial management (A/FM) performance, the adaptation of performance benchmarking principles have allowed for early threshold performance measurements of health programs (Griffith & White, 2006, pp. 455-456).
In an effort to measure productivity levels of technology programs the Australia’s health and social services, the Australian Government Productivity Commission (2006) considered the marginal effectiveness propensity of the inclusion of technology in medical procedures as well as sensitivity analyses and compared them to the influence of technology in other government services to determine the impact to health services. This effort supports Griffith and White’s view of the need for sophisticated surveillance and forecasting activity in multicorporate structured organizations (pp. 564-565).
In a similar effort, the United Kingdom based Democratic Health Network (2006) established community support and communication networks to support and monitors health awareness and delivery of services. The effort has developed significant funding for community-based health activities as well for the Democratic Health Network itself, greater participation in programs and higher satisfaction rating of health services. According to Griffith and White, these efforts can be considered as part of the healthcare organization’s marketing strategy because the efforts create awareness, reinforces the significance of the organization to the public, and at the same time allows for insights that can be developed to strategic advantages (pp. 610-613).
Conclusion
Considering the demands on healthcare today, there is need to develop effective channels for services, streamline operations and maximize resources. According to Leatherman (2001), there has been a recognized need in the health care industry to reevaluate its social roles and the social developments affecting the nature of current health care needs.
This can only be accomplished if an organizations structure is able to respond to healthcare professionals and the public effectively, which can only be possible if the organization’s structure allows for the development of such competencies. The need for multicorporate structures does not invalidate the social mandate of healthcare institutions but only endeavors to make a strategy-based and sustainable enterprise. The adoption of corporate practices in healthcare is an effort to institute administrative and competitive competencies in healthcare organizations.
References
Alexander, J. A., Morlock, L. L. and Gifford, B. D. (1988). The effects of corporate restructuring on hospital policymaking. Health Serv Res June; 23(2): 311–337.
Griffith, John R. and White Kenneth R. (2006). The Well-Managed Healthcare Organization, Sixth Edition. Chicago, IL: American College of Healthcare Executives
Leatherman, S. (2001) Measuring up: Performance indicators for better healthcare. OECD Observer No. 229
Australian Government Productivity Commission (2006). Impacts of Advances in Medical Technology in Australia. Retrieved August 11, 2007, from <http://www.pc.gov.au/study/medicaltechnology/finalreport/mediarelease.html>
Democratic Health Network (2006). Accountability of the Health Service. Retrieved August 11, 2007
