Role and Nature of Managers and Leaders in Modern Healthcare Organizations

1Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding

·Systematic understanding and critical appreciation of contemporary healthcare policy, leadership theories, information systems.

2Demonstrate the following skills and abilities

·Ability to evidence a practical understanding of the ways in which theories and research are applied in future practice, through a specific aspect of healthcare.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

This is an individual assessment.

Each student should ONLY submit an e-copy online using BREO’s Turnitin link. Please follow the instructions provided in BREO’s “Assignment” folder. Your work will NOT be assessed if you fail to submit a copy online.

The University of Bedfordshire uses a plagiarism-detecting tool (Turnitin) for all written assignments. Any attempt to plagiarise your work will be detected and penalised.

You will be marked as a fail if you have missed the deadline for submission. Any student that fails to follow above specifications will NOT be assessed.

Non-submitted reports will be marked as “No Attempt” which is a “0” (G).

Background: Recently, there has been increasing concern from the public about the role of managers and leaders within healthcare organisations such as the NHS. In addition, many managers have both clinical and management roles. In recent times there have been high-level inquiries into patient-safety failures and failing care, with these inquiries showing how important it is for patient care to be a priority at all levels of healthcare organisations. The use of information and Information Systems have often been highlighted in several inquiries.

You are required to write a report that focuses on ONE of the three following questions:

1.The flow of patients through beds in a hospital reflects the same dynamics as the flow of traffic on a road’. Write an individual executive report drawing on your knowledge of health informatics, leadership and/or other MBA core topics on how problem of flow and congestion could be resolved.

2.An ageing population is a population in which the median age is increasing due to rising life expectancy. This trend is common amongst more economically developed countries. An ageing population can have a number of consequences both in terms of the clinical management of complex chronic diseases and co-morbid burden, but also a range of socioeconomic issues. As a management consultant, write an individual executive report drawing on drawing on your knowledge of health informatics, leadership and/or other MBA core topics on how problem of aging population could be resolved.

Demonstration of Skills and Abilities

3.Evidence suggests that more than 60% of patients admitted to hospitals are subject to a patient safety incident hence, patient safety in clinical processes are an increasing concern. Based on your critical understanding of factors that impact on modern healthcare organisations and processes, stating the implication for quality of care provision and service delivery, write a structured report with clear recommendations for tackling this problem.

4.Pandemics are large-scale outbreaks of infectious disease that can greatly increase morbidity and mortality over a wide geographic area and cause significant economic, social, and political disruption. Despite these improvements, significant gaps and challenges exist in global pandemic preparedness. You can choose from the listed pandemic incident such as influenza, HIV/AIDS or the current COVID-19 outbreak and critically discuss and make recommendations for the management of the pandemic to address the healthcare policy, leadership theories and the use information systems in healthcare management.

Requirement: You will prepare an individual report focusing on the role and nature of managers and leaders in modern healthcare organisations. This report must demonstrate an understanding and critical appreciation of contemporary healthcare policy and leadership theories. You should concentrate on one specific challenge of healthcare (challenge 1, 2, 3 or 4) in your report.

1.You may include either an assessment of social, political and cultural factors that have the capacity to potentially undermine the delivery of equitable healthcare. Or, demonstrate your ability to draw upon contemporary leadership theories applicable to healthcare, identify how leadership theories and managerial practices can be interpreted and applied to your future practice of delivering effective and efficient healthcare services.

2.Your report should also include an analysis of the key issues related to the use of information and Information Systems in hospital and healthcare contexts to support recommendations for the application of IS methodologies and techniques in hospital and healthcare contexts.

3.You will also include a reflective account of your learning that highlights your personal professional development and how the unit will contribute to your capacity to organise modern healthcare services.

Format and requirements for the written report (maximum of 3600 words)

Section / Title Details / Guidance

Title page Title of your report, your name, the unit name, and the date.

Executive Summary Summary of your report appropriate for a chief executive, including key recommendations.

Contents page Include page numbers

Introduction You should describe the context for your report, focusing on the role of managers and leaders within healthcare organisations. Include the aims and objectives of your report.

Individual Assessment

Analysis Describe your recommendation to address the problem of healthcare delivery. Your analysis should include studies on the nature of healthcare leadership/management, and the role of clinical staff as managers and leaders. You could also discuss social, political and cultural factors that have the capacity to potentially undermine the delivery of equitable healthcare.

Your report should focus on the use of information and Information Systems in hospital and healthcare contexts, and ways in which healthcare leaders can use these resources to improve healthcare delivery. The main emphasise must be on making recommendations for improvement and justify the use of IS/IT solutions to overcome the challenges discussed with in socio-cultural/demographical contexts. (approx. 2600 words)

Conclusions Provide succinct answers to the aims and objectives based on your analysis. (approx. 350 words)

References A list of all sources cited in the text should be provided at the end of the document following the Harvard Reference Systems, e.g. EJIS style (European Journal of Information Systems). The university library web site has “A guide to academic referencing” at

Bibliography The sources you consulted but which you do not cite.

Word count Please state the number of words using Word Count function at the end of your report.

What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)

In order to pass assessment 1 you will need to:

·Evidence satisfactory understanding of contemporary healthcare policy, leadership theories and information systems in healthcare management.

In order to pass assessment 2 you will need to:

·Demonstrate satisfactory ability to critically apply healthcare management research and theories to the management of modern healthcare organisations

How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?

I order to get a good grade in this assessment you need to make sure that you have provided a comprehensive discussion of your chosen issue. Based on guided learning, you need to produce a well justified solution to the problem making sure that you have fully discussed social, cultural, political, leadership, management and design factors as per the brief. Make sure provide a hypothetical context to the healthcare management problem chosen.

How does this assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?

In order to pass this assessment you need to make sure that you attends all sessions as are closely related to the questions raise in this assessment. You will be learning about the large range of healthcare management issues and possible solution to these will be discussed in the class.