Beth Israel Case

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Beth Israel Case

Date 09-02-2011

Beth Israel

Beth Israel Hospital (BI) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a hospital with a three-faceted identity. First of all it is a hospital for patients from Boston and the surroundings. The second role is as a research institution and the last role is as a trainings institution where Harvard Medical School faculty members can be trained.

Despite the hospital is one of the best, some people called the organization “an unruly mob”. Malcom Weinier, vice president of clinical and support services, told that the BI hospital has a structure that’s typical for a hospital. “It is part hierarchy, part team, and part matrix, but more team than anything else.” It works like a strong triangle, a nurse, an
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This is what it makes it so difficult to judge and manage quality at Beth Israel from an objective perspective on the top layer of the organization or as outsider. As seen in the case the JCAHO standards are just barely being met and are seen as compulsive and bureaucratic.

So the big challenge at Beth Israel is to create a system that makes it possible to measure and compare quality at and between the different departments at Beth Israel. Also a moral change need to take place, the staff of Beth Israel needs to realize that quality measurement is needed to achieve the goal of offering better and better patient care.

Recommendations

It is of great importance that Beth Israel understands the importance of a clear and sensible communication towards their employees regarding how to deal with quality measurement/management. Currently there’s a lack of integration among the different departments from a quality measurement, quality management and information system point of view. There is also little to no coherence among the different departments concerning points of evaluation and incentives which causes a conflict of interest towards both BI and the customers. This also causes the difficulty to properly maintain and improve the quality of the care delivered.

So what we recommend to Beth Israel is firstly to organize a meeting with the executives of the different departments and decide together with them what universal quality measures