Facilitating Change in Health and Social Care

Key factors that drive change in health and social care

Change can be termed as the process of transformation in which modifications are made in the process, strategies, operations and policies of an organization. The main reason behind change is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of businesses.Some of the key factors which drive changes in health and social care are discussed below as:

• Economic: In current scenario, the cost of providing health and social care is increasing day by day. Further it is not possible for organizations to lower down their profit margin. As per the given case scenario, it has been observed that one of the branch in East London located in Tower Hamlets is under performing. therefore, it is required to make some changes and cut down the overall cost.
• Technological: The branch is using some of the old and less effective tools and machinery to deliver health care services. Further it has been analysed that it is one of the main reason why very less people prefer to use the care services of the branch. It is required by the branch to adapt the changing technology and stay up graded. One of the main advantage of this is that the branch will be able to deliver fast, accurate care services to the patients in a cost effective manner. The use of latest machines and equipments will lower down the overall cost of organization and will enhance itravel-and-tourism-samplets profit margin.
• Demographic and culture: Other than economic and technological factors there are some Demographic and cultural factors also which drive change in organization. The branch of health and social care is under performing and one of the reason behind this can be the public awareness and aging population. At present there are only few people which are aware about the care services which is offered by the East London branch of health and social care.
• Government policy: The changing rules and policies of government is also one of the factor which drives change in health and social care . Thus, it can be stated that the branch is required to compile with the changing rules and policies which has been defined in Acts such as Health Act 2006,NHS and Community Care Act 1990 etc.

Challenges the Key Factors Bring to the change in Health and Social Care

At the time of implementing the required changes it can be stated that there are some challenges and issues which the branch will face. One of the major challenge among them will be related to adopting the changed and revised policy of government. The branch will be required to changes it structure in order to compile with the government policies. Further it will not be an easy task and will require a lot of time and efforts. The management of heath and social care needs to be very careful at the time of making modifications in its existing practices and bringing some new practices . At the time of implementing the latest technology and machines the branch will also face issues regarding employees. It has been observed that most of the time workers are not able to cope up with the change and because of which they gets so frustrated that they end up by quieting their job. Therefore, the management of health and social care will also require to take care of the issues and challenges faced by the employees. The management will also face challenges while making the people aware about the services offered. It will be very challenging for the health care organization to change the perception of people and encourage them to use the services of health care. Further most of the individual's do not prefer to use the services until and unless they are suffering from any kind of serious disease. Therefore, to convince these people and change their mentality will be very challenging. Thus, it can be stated that the organization will be required to make changes in its machines, operations, overall strategies and will have to change the perception of people.

Strategy for the Measurement of Change

Strategy can be termed as the action plan for accomplishment of the aim and objectives. In order to implement some changes a strategy has been developed and some of the key features of strategy are mentioned below as:

• Regulatory inspections- A team of personnels has been created which inspects all operations and activities of the health and social care organization. Further the team is also responsible to ensure the fact that all the changes have been made in desired and in the best possible manner. The inspection will be carried out at regular basis which will assist in determining the progress of the organization.
• System of quality assurance- As per the strategy a system of quality assurance has been developed which takes care of quality of services provided to staff at each and every level. It can be stated that one of the best way to create high degree of customer satisfaction is by delivering best and the most accurate services to the patient. Thus, a system of quality assurance has been developed.
• Feedback and comments- According to the strategy, the feedback and comments are now taken from the patients regarding the quality of services which has been delivered. One of the main advantage of this is that it helps in identification of the level of service and what are the changes which can be done to improve the services. The reviews and feedbacks are not only taken from the patient but are also taken from the family members of the patient.

Measurement of the Impact of Recent Changes

Some of the measurement using which the impact of recent changes are be evaluated are mentioned below as:

• Checking the sales- one of the branch of health and social care is underperforming and the changes have been made to overcome the same. To measure the impact of the change, increase or decrease in sale of care services is one of the parameter. Further decreasing sales will be the termed as the negative impact of the change. On the other hand, if the sales is increased then, it can be stated that the change has positive impact. After implementing the changes, it has been observed that there has been almost 25% increase in the number of patients.
• Checking death rates- The impact can be also determined by analysis of the death rates. Further it has been found that the death rates has been declined after the changes which is sign of the fact that service quality has been improved and high degree of customer satisfaction has been achieved.
• Feedbacks- The feedbacks which has been taken from the patients highlights the fact that the services of the health and social care organization has been improved to a great extent. In addition to this, by the feedback and reviews of the patient, it can be also stated that they are satisfied with the quality ,speed and accuracy of the care service.

Impact of the Changes

It has been found that the changes has impacted various activities and operations of the health and social care organization. Further it had both negative and positive impact on the operations. In terms of positive impact it can be stated that the workers have become more productive and efficient. Some modern tools and machines are implemented in the organization and training regarding the use of same has been provided to all the workers. Thus, it can be said that now the employees are well up graded with the latest technology and have become more productive. Another positive impact of the change is that it has improved the overall service quality of the health and social care. The number of visitors has been increased drastically and there has been a significant increase in the patients. The service delivery has been also improved and the patients are now delivered with some fast, accurate and modern services. In addition to this, all the services are now well organized and thus, the staff members do not find it difficult to deliver care services. The patient are treated well with care and proper guidelines are provided to them regarding the precaution which needs to be taken care after any kind of operations. On the other hand, there has been some negative impacts of the change. Some employees are not been able to cope up and adopt the change and it has lower down their overall productivity. Further, the cost of has been increased as huge amount of financial resources has been invested in the purchase of modern tools and machines.

Appropriate Service Response to Recent Changes

The service response to the change can be observed by the fact that the entire policies and procedures has been changed in the health and social care organization. Further earlier the employees were not involved in any kind of decision making process but now the things has changed. The staff members of health and social care are encouraged to give their views and opinions regarding how the services can be improved and high degree of customer satisfaction can be achieved. It can be also stated that the employees are the one which comes in the direct contract with the patients and thus, it was required to encourage them to give their views and suggestions. The health and social care organization has also developed some leader which leads people from the front and encourage them to give their best. One of the main advantage of this is that it will help in future changes and a leadership which facilities change has been developed in the organization. The changes has helped in creating high degree of satisfaction among both customers as well as employees. In addition to this, it can be stated that the benefit of this will be that it will assist the health and social care organization to grown and develop easily in long run. It has improved the service quality and now the organization is able to deliver fast and accurate services to the patients. The level of satisfaction among customers has been enhanced to some extent.

Key principles of Change Management

Change management is defined as the process in which deals with the management of transformation within organization. At the time of implementing any kind of change, businesses are required to develop appropriate process of managing the change. For this aspect various management models can be used such as Kotter eight 's model.

The key principles of change management as per the Kotter eight step model are mentioned below as...

• Create urgency- In order to make the required changes in health and social care organization, first the manager needs to create urgency. Further it can be stated that the change can be successful only when the entire organization really wants it. Other than this, the organization can also identify some opportunities regarding the change which can be exploited. The health and social care organization can also request customers and its other stakeholders to give their valuable views, opinions and suggestions.
• Forming a powerful collision- As per this step the organization will be required to convince the staff members that the change is necessary. During this stage strong leadership and support from the key people of health and social care organization. The organization will be required identity key and most effective leaders. Further it will be also required to ask these people to give their emotional commitment and best efforts t regarding implement and management of change.
• Creating a vision for change- The organization will also required to create a vision for change which will state what the health and social care organization ultimately wants to achieve . The organization will need to develop an effective strategy in order to accomplish the vision regrading change. In addition to this, it will also need to determine what are its short term and long term goals regrading the transformation within organization.
• Communicating the vision- After developing the vision for change, the organization will be required to communicate the same to each and every employees. One of the main advantage of this is that it will help the workers to cope up and adopt the change. Further the most important thing which needs to be taken care of is that in this stage, the health and social care organization will be required to address the queries and doubts of its staff members. It may happen that some people react very negative regarding the change and thus, it is required by companies to discuss the reaction of people at the time of change. While dealing with people, the management needs to make sure that all the doubts and queries of are resolved in best possible manner. Further, organizations needs to ensure that the employee do not have any kind of negative feeling or perception regarding the change.
• Removing obstacles- In this strategy, the organization will be required to develop some effective leaders who will be responsible to implement and manage change. Further it can also reward and recognize its employees for making the change successful. The benefit of this is that it will help in creating high degree of employee satisfaction.
• Creating short term wins- The organization needs to create some short as well as long term goals. One of the main reason behind this is that when short term goals will be achieve as sense of motivation is going to be developed in employees. Further, this will results in accomplishment of the long term goals easily.
• Build on the change- As per this step, the organization will be required to build on the change deeply. It has been observed that most of the change become complete failure because people starts celebrating its success too early. What the organization can do is that after every short term win, it can analysed what areas the one which still needs improvement.
• Anchoring the change in corporate culture- it can be stated that in order to make change permanent, the organization in health and social care will be required to make the change as one of the core part of its management. Further at the time of hiring new people it will be required to communicate the change ideals and values to them so that the new employees can become aware about the same.

From the above model, it can be concluded that organizations are required to provide lot of efforts and time in implementing and managing change. After creating urgency, it is required to from a collision in which all the staff members are required to be communicated about the requirement and need of change. A vision of change needs to be developed and it should be communicated at regular intervals. Further one of he most important part of the entire process is that the queries and doubts of the employees are required to addressed and resolved in best possible manner.

How change is planned in health and social care

Change can be termed as the process in which an organization make modifications in its process, strategies, management, policies in order to improve them. In health and social care organization the plan for change is provided below as:

• Recognize the need for change- The plan for change begins with identification of the need of change. The organization in health and social care needs to identify that what are the areas which needs to be improved. In modern era, every business is required to stay up graded so that it can survive in stage of intense competition. There can be some internal as well as external factor which can force organizations to implement change.
• Determining the goals and objectives- After identification of the need, the management of health and social care organization are required to determines its core goals and objectives behind the change. This will assists in determining effective strategies and implement the modifications in best possible manner. Other than this, the organization is also required to take care of the development needs of its staff during the time of transformation.
• Developing action plan- It is termed as one of the most important stage of any kind of change plan. The organizations in health and social care needs to determine an effective plan using which it will implement change in its management. In aspects of this, it can take opinions and suggestions from managers and employees. Further consultation from agencies which deals with change management process can be also taken.
• Implementing the change- The implementation of change begins after the development of action plan. It can be stated that, in this stage, the organizations of health and social care can develop a team of people which will manage the entire change. This team will also support other employees to cope up and adopt the transformation.The process of observing progress of something over a given period of time is termed as monitoring. In addition to this, it can be stated that the process of monitoring is one of the most important factor which determines the success or failure of change. Most of the transformations fail within organizations because people are not been able to observe the progress of the same. As per the provided case, the health and social care organization was going through decline as its sales were dropping continuously.

Monitoring of the changes applied in Health and Social Care Organization

The changes have been made in operations and some of its activities so that high degree of customers satisfaction can be achieved and sales can be increased. One of the main objective behind change was to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization . Thus, in order to monitor the same, efficiency of organization can be measured. In this aspect, cost benefits can be one of the parameter which can be measured. Further cost benefit is termed as the process in which the cost effectiveness of a particular process, activity or operation is analysed. The result of this will be that the organization will be able to determine whether the change has provided desired results or not.

Other than this, referral rates can be also checked which will help in determining the degree of customer satisfaction. The increase in rate will be the sign of high degree of customer satisfaction. Time taken to complete one case, waiting and response time are also some of the parameters which can be measured in order to monitor the change.

On the other hand, the health and social care organization can also carry out survey at staff level to determine whether the employees are satisfied with the change or not. The workers of any organization are considered as its biggest and most valuable assets. When changes are implemented in businesses, it has been observed that most of the employees are not able to cope up and adopt them and they finally end up by quieting their job. Thus, the survey will health and social care organization to monitor and determine the positive or negative impact of change on its employees. In case of negative impacts, it will be required by the organization to take corrective steps and make it convenient for the staff members to cope up with the transformations.

Conclusion

From the above report, it can be concluded that change are very important for every business. The competition in health and social care industry has become so intense that it is not possible for organization to grow and survive easily in long run. From the above study, it can be also evaluated that there are some external as well as internal factors which encourage business to make changes. As per the provided case scenario, one of the branch of health and social care located in east London is underperforming. Thus, it is required by the management to take some corrective measures and make changes in order to enhances its performance. It can be also concluded that at the time of implementing the change, there will be some issues and challenges faced by the organization which will be required to overcome. It can be stated that the impact of change is that this will help the organization of health and social care to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. Other than this, it can be also evaluated that monitoring of the entire change will be also required in order to get the desired and best possible outcomes. Organizations also need wait for the response time which is the time of taken for change process to get completed. The waiting time for response also includes the time which an employees take to cope up with the change. On the other side of this, the referral rates can be also taken into consideration for monitoring the changes applied in health and social care organization. Furthermore high referral rates will mean that the changes are done in positive manner and it has improved the activities, process and efficiency of all the workers.

References

• Christensen, C. M. and et. al., 2006. Disruptive innovation for social change. Harvard business review.
• Dickinson, H., 2006. The evaluation of health and social care partnerships: an analysis of approaches and synthesis for the future. Health and social care in the community.
• Munn-Giddings, C. and Winter, R., 2013. A handbook for action research in health and social care. Routledge.
• Oven, K. J. and Holden, R., 2012. Climate change and health and social care: Defining future hazard, vulnerability and risk for infrastructure systems supporting older people’s health care in England. Applied Geography.

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