Introduction
Mapleton Family Medicine is a medical facility that is faced with challenges in the quality of health services and the productivity of its staff. Patients in this facility have been complaining about the time it takes to see a physician. It is evident that the physicians are taking too long with the patients, which creates dissatisfaction among other patients. The constant complaints from patients are likely to affect the reputation of the medical facility. It would additionally lead to a shift to other medical facilities that offer swift and quality medical services. The management of this hospital is concerned with the complaints and the quality of medical services, which seems to be deteriorating. As such, the company has come up with an idea of improving productivity among physicians while at the same time meeting quality standards. The purpose of introducing a new compensation plan might help to address the challenges of the facility, but the owners are unsure of the impact this new plan is likely to have on the attitudes of physicians. Additionally, the new policy might be opposed or demotivate employees towards meeting the expected goals. As such, the facility is looking into expert advice on how a new compensation plan would negatively affect the organization. Additionally, the management is concerned with the reaction of physicians toward the new compensation plan.
Advice to the Owners
The owners of the company need to understand the potential impact of rolling out a new compensation plan in the organization. The management needs to come to terms with how the new plan will influence the level of motivation of employees. The owners must first research the causes of the deteriorating quality of health create in their facilities. Getting to the cause of the problem is vital in developing countermeasures of addressing the problem. From the case, it can be noted that there has been a consistent decrease in the number of children being immunized at the facility. Additionally, the number of people at risk of being vaccinated against pneumonia and flu has also reduced. The cause of the decrease could be a result of quality health care, but this cannot be solely blamed on the physicians. The management must get to the root of this problem and determine if it is related to compensation. On the productivity of employees, the management additionally needs to research on the cause of reduced productivity that has led to persistent complaints by patients. Getting to understand why physicians are taking longer to see patients and provided health services. Once this can be fully ascertained, then the issue a new compensation plan should be considered (Fried, Fottler & Johnson, 2008).
If the company ascertains that its problems are related to employee motivation, then it should roll out a new compensation plan. The management should survey how the new compensation plan can influence the performance of physicians. The feedback will help to know the views of employees on the problems being faced by the organization. It will additionally set the pace on how compensation plan can be used to motivate employees to improve their productivity and the quality of services. Opinions and suggestions from employees need to be considered before rolling out the compensation plan. It will additionally provide a platform for making changes to the proposed plan to promote its acceptability and implementation (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
The management needs to consider additional ways of improving the compensation plan. From the suggestion, the compensation plan is based on the number of patients seen by a physician. The plan disregards the quality of health care, as it will base quality on the views generated through patient surveys. The compensation plan should be designed in a manner that allows physicians to see patients through other means of communication. It should not be based on the number of physicians who visit the facility. In some cases, the physician will be forced to follow up with a patient through phone calls and video calls. Such efforts by physicians should be considered in designing the manner in which physician performance is evaluated. Developing a comprehensive compensation plan is vital in addressing the present challenges faced by the organization. A compensation plan that is inclusive and considers the views of employees would help Mapleton Family Medicine to realize its productivity and quality goals (Fried, Fottler & Johnson, 2008).
Potential Negative Consequences
The new compensation plan is likely to elicit negative consequences among physicians. First, the level of motivation of physicians is likely to reduce based on the reduction base compensation. The management is considering cutting the base salary to 75% of the current salary received by physicians. The move to reduce the salary will negatively affect employees who will experience a significant drop in their wages. Psychologically, people tend to be demotivated by actions that undermine their hard work. Physicians could end up providing poor quality services since they will lose their passion in this field. Physicians will lack the morale to serve patients and deliver quality health services to patients (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
The other consequence of this compensation plan has increased the emergence of employee-employer conflicts. The management is likely to find it hard to implement the plan since most of the physicians will oppose the plan. If the plan were to be ratified through the signatures of the staff, then the staff would choose not to sign the new plan. The conflict is likely to affect the manner in which services are provided to patients. The new plan could lead to work boycotts and strikes in retaliation for the changes which the management would seek to implement. Some employees would consider not going to work and threatening to quit their positions. If employees boycott their services, the operations of the facility will be affected which will see patients being transferred to other facilities. The image of the hospital is likely to be tainted which would take several years to correct. The issue could escalate to a point where physicians had in resignation letters protesting the new rules aimed at overworking them in the name of compensation. If experienced and talented physicians resign, the hospital will find it hard to find experienced physicians in the job market (Fried, Fottler & Johnson, 2008).
These concerns should be addressed by first retaining the existing terms of service. If the facility seeks to improve employee productivity, it should not reduce its base salaries. The organization should consider retaining the current base salaries and introducing competitive pay for additional meeting the set targets. Retaining their salaries and rewarding them competitively for exceeding goals will improve their motivation. The resulting impact will be a reduced waiting time by patients and the ability of physicians to see more patients. The issue of conflict can be addressed through joint negotiations. The management should consider involving the physicians in developing a new compensation plan. The move to include physicians will ensure that an agreement is reached which will prevent potential conflicts. Involving physicians will ensure that the compensation plan will be accepted which in turn prevents possible boycotts and strikes. Physicians will additionally remain committed to their work, and the issue of resignation will not be witnessed. Entering into dialogues with physicians will prevent conflicts by agreeing on a compensation plan that will address challenges faced by the hospital (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
Physician Reaction to the Plan
The new compensation plan will elicit diverse reactions from physicians. The physicians will feel that the management does not appreciate their services in the organization. The move to introduce a compensation plan that will require physicians to work to see more patients is a means of underappreciating the efforts of physicians in providing quality health care. Physicians will react to the new plan as a means for the facility to terminate their services. It will be felt that the management will resort to firing employees if they reject the new compensation plan. Some physicians might perceive the new move as a cost-cutting strategy to maintain high revenues. The varied reactions by the physicians will indicate their dissatisfaction with the compensation plan. Some physicians could react to the new plan as a means of making more money. Some physicians could view the compensation plan as a way in which the organization will appreciate the efforts of physicians. Hardworking physicians will feel that the new plan will be more rewarding than the existing plan (Fried, Fottler & Johnson, 2008).
Physicians should be involved in the development of the new compensation plan. The contribution of the physician will enable the management to understand the various challenges faced by physicians that affect their productivity and the quality of health services. The physicians should propose new measures that should be put in place to address the challenges they face. They should additionally provide suggestions on the manner in which the compensation plan should be designed to motivate physicians as well as improve the manner in which they perform their tasks. The physicians can additionally come up with better ways of increasing the number of patients they see on a daily basis. The move to propose the changes that should be implemented by the management will improve relationships with management as well as provide a platform for solving issues that negatively affected their relationships. Physician involvement in the development of a new compensation plan will work to address existing challenges in the organization as well as promote good relations with management, which will lead to improved productivity and better health care (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2018).
Conclusion
The current problems faced by Mapleton Family Medicine could be related to the management of physicians. Some of the quality issues raised by the management do not require much involvement by the physicians. There seems to be a communication problem between the management and the physicians, which has led to decreased productivity. The choice by the management to introduce a new compensation plan might not be appropriate, as it would create much division in the organization. The organization must first solve its internal problems before involving employees in coming up with a new compensation plan. The new compensation plan should be designed with the aim of motivating employees to attend to more patients as well as improve the quality of health care offered at Mapleton Family Medicine.
References
Fried, B. J., Fottler, M. D., & Johnson, J. A. (2008). Human Resources in Healthcare. Mananging for Succes. Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (Second ed., Vol. 53). AUPHA/HAP.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
