Healthcare management often entails resolving communications crises and disputes. For a hospital to operate efficiently and effectively, the organization needs to cultivate and maintain harmonious relationships between governance, medical staff, administrative staff, and boards of trustees. Often it seems like these disparate stakeholders are pulling in opposite directions, but nothing could be farther from the truth. When all members of the organization are on the same page, they can work together to achieve common goals. Often the job for the administrator is to discover the common ground between disparate members of the organization and work hard to ameliorate tension. The factors that can contribute to tension between members of the organization often have to do with finances and/or budget allocations. Medical staff pushes for the latest tools, technologies, and interventions that can help patients, but the hospital may be facing a budgetary crisis. Yet financial disputes come down to differential philosophies or different interpretations of the hospital’s mission. What the healthcare institution’s official mission statement says, and what it actually does to promote that mission, are often two different things. There could be conflicts of interest when administrative staff or members of the board form strategic alliances with community organizations or partners in the private sector.

Tension also arises with regards...

For example, navigating tricky new healthcare insurance provisions can be a major source of tension for hospitals (Sultz & Young, 2011, p. 202). Ethical concerns often plague members of the healthcare organization torn between public health objectives and personal health outcomes for patients (Sultz & Young, 2011, p. 328). An effective leader aims to resolve tensions through conscientious communication and collaboration. Listening to different parties air their grievances and concerns will help all stakeholders work together as a team rather than wasting valuable resources fighting an internal war.
Organizations like the Leap Frog Group help empower consumers to make the right healthcare choices for their families. These services use survey methodologies to assess quality of care, and then make the results of the surveys available to the public. While these services promote freedom of information, and prove valuable for healthcare consumers, they also challenge healthcare leaders and hospital administrators to do better.

Using the Leap Frog Group’s survey results, patients can read about the services or issues that mean most to them and choose a hospital accordingly. This information is instructive, although it may be misleading because of the way surveys are conducted, the sample sizes, and the…