The following objectives should be met by the end of this first module:
- Understand the importance of coordination in both intra- and interorganizational situations
- Understand the concept of interdependence in healthcare organizations and its impact on coordination within these organizations
- Know a menu of possible mechanisms managers can utilize to achieve intraorganizational coordination in healthcare organizations
- Be able to categorize various types of interorganizational relationships
- Understand the role of negotiation in achieving successful coordination in interorganizational relationships
These notes are intended only to supplement your readings. The best way to ensure each module is absorbed is to complete all the readings prior to reviewing these lecture notes. I will try to highlight what I believe to be the most important topics from your module readings. If you have any questions or concerns or there is something you do not understand, please ask me. You can either post on the webboard the question you have (that way others can benefit from the response), or you can e-mail me if you want a more private response. Either way it is extremely important that you have a complete and thorough understanding of the material for the module. Good luck and have a great semester!
This is the last module in the section of health administration skills. This module focuses on healthcare coordination. The classic definition of healthcare coordination pertains only to coordination within an organization. But, in healthcare today coordination consists of not only intraorganizational exchange but also interorganizational exchange. A better more modern definition is given in your text as:"the articulation of elements in a service delivery system so that comprehensiveness, accessibility, and compatibility among elements are maximized"The reading for this module begins with a discussion of areas that are common for both inter- and intraorganization coordination then covers topics limited to inter- or intraorganizational coordination. Coordination itself in healthcare is made complicated by three elements. These include differences found in coordination at various levels of the organization, the concept of interdependence, and finally difficulties with coordinating healthcare professionals.
A contingency approach to coordination is essential for success. This means that different approaches work in different situations, not one solution works all the time. In fact sometimes, a mixture of approaches is required. Approaches used for coordination within the organization include:
- Litterer's Categories of Mechanisms
- Mintzberg's Categories of Mechanisms
- Hage's Categories of Mechanisms
- Committees
- Integrators
- Quality Circles
To understand interorganization coordination we must first define the relationships between organizations. In healthcare today there are many possible interorganizational relationships (IOR) that exist. The three categories include market transactions, voluntary and involuntary relationships. Setting up formal rules and regulations, having board members from other organizations, multi-organizational task forces or committees, and information sharing are a few methods used for coordination within IOR. Skills required for managing IORs include negotiation and other skills such as recognizing the strategic importance of each individual relationship are needed.
This topic will become more important in healthcare as we progress in the United States. As we learned in our previous module corporatization of healthcare seems to be on the rise. As long as mergers and acquisitions increase so will our need for coordination.
That is it for notes for module #11! Let me know if you have any questions.