This is a Students’ blog. It is a platform for us, the Students of School of Health Systems Studies (SHSS) to express our ideas; but please note the word “IDEA”. An idea, a product of human mind...there is no guarantee of it being right but that doesn’t mean that we cannot express it! The blog is not a peer-reviewed journal or a sponsored publication. That does mean something…it means that information here is the product of our brain which is under evolution at SHSS and it is UNPROOFED and UNREVISED.

The opinions expressed by the SHSS Student Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of the School of Health Systems Studies or any employee thereof. School of Health Systems Studies and Tata Institute of Social Sciences is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Student Bloggers.

Friday, June 28, 2013

THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT.

"Life used to be so simple", lamented an independent logger." My father cut the trees, hauled them to a saw mill, and got paid.  The demand for wood was quite stable, the supply of trees was plentiful, and his logging equipment consisted of a chain saw, axe and truck. Life was good in those days.
"So what is different now?" the logger was asked.
"Absolutely everything", he replied. "Current logging rigs cost hundreds of thousands of rupees. I need Government permits for everything I do. Environmental groups protest against logging. Demand for my loggers fluctuates widely. And cut throat competition makes it tough for me to make a buck. I am not sure I can keep my head above water."
EVERYTHING CHANGES. The only thing permanent in universe is change. So to exist we need to adapt; we need to change. Unless we do that we fail to exist: we perish. So did a range of entities ranging from the mighty dinosaurs to thriving organizations.
Change management is being increasingly recognized as an important issue for organizational management. The world is not the same as it was 50 years ago or as a matter of fact 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. With changing times, people change, expectations change, circumstances change, trends change and so need an organization to change. Whether the change is positive or negative is very relative.

Factors initiating change-
·        Globalization
·        Increasing customer awareness
·        Increasing customer demands
·        Changing customer tastes
·        Changes in technology
·        Increasing competition
·        Increasing costs
·        Changing national and international policies and regulations etc.

TYPES OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN ORGANIZATIONS
The change management can be continuous or dis-continuous.
Let’s illustrate it.

Let us look at a right angled triangle.
If A is the initial state of an organization and C the final changed state, we can arrive from A to C through 2 pathways. Either we can go along the sides of the triangle, i.e. from A to B and then from B to C or we can go along the hypotenuse of the triangle- directly from A to C.
For such a triangle, AB + BC > AC
AB + BC represents discontinuous change, AC represents continuous change.
We find that through continuous change we can achieve the objectives faster than through a discontinuous change. This forms the principle of Total Quality Management (TQM) through which organizations strive to achieve continuous improvement by continuous change.
NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED BY THE CHANGE MANAGERS OF THE ORGANIZATION. TO IMPLEMENT A CHANGE, THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS FIRST
3 ASPECTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change management deals primarily with changing 3 aspects:
1. Content               
2. People
3. Process
An example to illustrate it has been given below:
Change management for establishing computerised HMIS in a hospital
Changes should be smoothly and successfully implemented to achieve lasting benefits. For a systemic change management various models are followed, most popular of which are discussed below.




CHANGE MANAGEMENT & AESOP’S FABLES
The seeds of management can be traced back to the morals of Aesop’s Fables. Following are various stories whose morals teach us a thing about change management.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITALS
Hospital processes have not dramatically changed over the years as to impact over-all patient satisfaction. It is common and ironic to see out-of-date management practices mixed with state-of-the-art medical equipment and sophisticated information technologies.
Factors initiating change in hospitals-
·        Changes in the hospital's operating environment and stakeholders

·        New government regulations.

·        Implementation of new technology in the hospital such as HMIS etc.

·        The increase in insured patients.

·        The high turnover of medical staff particularly nurses.

·        The increase in new hospitals in the country: increased competition.

·        Operating costs - salaries, supplies, and utilities - have continuously gone up.

·        Hospitals stakeholders - patients, their employers, doctors, nurses, - have likewise become more demanding and have raised their expectations from hospitals.

 Few objectives a hospital would like to achieve through change management
·       Inculcate the hotel component in the hospital.

·       Management staff becoming more proactive rather than reactive.

·       Increasing patient satisfaction by reducing waiting times.

·       Reduce costs.

·       Reduce length of stay of patients.

·       Improve quality of services etc.   


Dr. Sugata Pyne
MHA-Hospital Administration
2012-2014 Batch
TISS,Mumbai