The Merger of Two Competing Hospitals

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To continue with, Banner Regional Medical Center has offered to return its hospital to the county and has a payment plan established to pay BRMC for the space. The merger should focus on building the reputation and success of the new facility, while acquiring knowledge from the financial failures of the former two hospitals. As measurable success presents itself in the new facility, the existing PRMC facility should simplify its scope of services. As a result, the privately owned PRMC facility would profit from a gradual shift to specialty services. If this facility cut some of its costly or weaker programs it may be able to build up specialty services like radiology, rehab, or dialysis. PRMC’s reputation would build and there would be a greater utilization of these services. For PRMC, significant strength in a few areas is much more valuable than moderate performance in many areas. Funding would come from the cut programs at PRMC and the strategic planning for financial success in the new institution.

With regards to duplication of services and departments, a job analysis is needed to avoid duplication of tasks and responsibilities across positions and to clarify individual responsibilities. For every position established at Portsmith Regional Medical Center there should be an estimate of the number of staff members needed to carry out those responsibilities at the present time as well as at some future target date. Choosing current numbers of staff is based on volume statistics that reflect the combined current performance of PRMC and BRMC. Future volumes should be determined through a consensus-based strategic planning process where there is agreement on future service volumes. Next step is to create job descriptions for every position within Portsmith Regional Medical Center. Position descriptions should be created through joint efforts of line managers and human resources staff. Once recruitment needs are made known by line managers, it is the accountability of HR to follow the appropriate procedure to fill these positions. In this case, only internal candidates will be considered, only people employed either by BRMC or PRMC. After streamlining (re-hiring) they will be considered Portsmith Regional Medical Center employees. However, some of the positions might require training to meet the needs of the new job descriptions. In order to meet the high-technology services offered by the merged organization, proficiency level of existing staff needs to be developed rapidly in order to perform in a more technically-advanced environment. For instance, the nursing staff ratio needs to be changed to a 60:40% RN to LPN (as opposed to 70% to 30% RN) ratio as rapidly as possible. LPNs should be encouraged to upgrade their qualifications to the level of RPNs through incentives. A plan should be developed that would identify the specific training needs for the newly defined job descriptions. This can be achieved either by organization wide needs assessment or by managers communicating training needs in their departments to Human Resources. Moreover, a combination of these two approaches can be used in agreement with appropriated training budget and time frames. As a result of this, there will be value for the organization by returning benefits, such as increased productivity, greater effectiveness, higher quality, greater coordination of care, and enhanced patient service. “Greater employee engagement Lean initiatives depend on empowering employees to increase patient value, and empowered employees are more engaged, and are likely to exhibit higher levels of job satisfaction and these results can lead to increased employee retention and reduced turnover rates” ( Andel, Davidow, e tal, 2012).

There are risk management issues and legal issues associated with the merger for both hospitals. The environment of healthcare can limit innovation and creativity because of the strict legal and safety requirements in place. This is particularly imperative in a merger since it is a new concept that will need to follow all necessary regulations from the beginning. Kaveler and Spiegel (2007) stated that it is particularly important to be aware of the antitrust problems that may arise as a result of the corporate structure that has been chosen and the role that the system will play in the provision of health care in a relevant market. To elaborate, the federal antitrust statute, antitrust act, prohibits acts in restraint of trade, and forbids the formation of market monopolies. Laws within the healthcare field act as a barrier to leaders, but it is one that can be prevailed over through the use of advisors and through third party checks during the planning and implementation process. As a result, these procedures will all challenge the management’s ability to lead, but not prevent them from it. A successful leader should be mindful of both risk management and physical safety concerns. Following OSHA standards and investing in safety education throughout the hospital can maintain the safety of patients and employees as well.

On the other hand, administrators should have a clear strategic plan for the merger development. Fears arise in uncertainty. There should be constant Two-way symmetric of issues. Employees will understand managers concerns and will be more motivated to improve their performance. Human Resource has a critical role as well. The department should administer a compensation and salary survey for positions within Portsmith Regional Medical Center in order to benchmark current compensation to local and regional market trend, and adjust salary ranges for positions as appropriate to remain competitive. A new compensation philosophy has to be developed that reflect the organization’s mission, values, and strategy regarding Human Resource, as well as consideration of internal and external dynamics. Human Resource must have a separate selected staff to handle the administration of compensation, on one hand, and benefits, on the other. Additionally, specific pay ranges and benefits should be established for each position. The newly formed benefits and compensation packages should be communicated to staff so they know what to expect. To locked and retain desired employees, HR must know what motivates employees to like their jobs and provide the resources to meet their needs. Buchbinder and Shanks (2012) said for motivation to exist, there should be either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. In other words, either an individual feels good about themselves for providing best care to a patient or they become so happy for receiving annual bonuses at the end of the year. Good benefits package will be one of the most critical factors in making good employees stay. Pay range should vary by position, but within a position class there should be equity- Incentive system that promotes teamwork should be put