McKiney’s 7s Framework on Daisy Hill Hospital

MCKINEY’S 7S FRAMEWORK ON DAISY HILL HOSPITAL
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McKiney’s 7s Framework on Daisy Hill Hospital
An effective policy is one that provides enough details and directs behavior towards a specific objective but are not extremely detailed to discourage people from following it. It is one that has a maximum number of policy benefactors and a minimum number of policy troubled individuals. A harmful or an unfair policy that affects the most vulnerable groups in a population is perceived to be unfair because it negates the equity concepts. Therefore, all the policies that are present have a degree of fairness that satisfies a majority of the people. Such policies are achieved by following appropriate developmental stages, beginning with Prof. Akubue’s matrix of Meeting, Analysis, and Promotion or Proposal. This review paper analyzes a public health policy using McKiney’s 7S framework.
A health policy refers to a set of overarching principles and goals that shape care delivery. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the policy defines a vision for the future which in turn assists in establishing targets and reference points for both the short and the medium term (Anon, 2020). Policies can, therefore, be perceived as political, managerial, financial, and administrative framework designed to attain specific goals. There are different types of health policies: global health, public health, pharmaceutical, financing, mental health, health equity, insurance, and health care services policy. A public health policy is a framework established through consultations, negotiations, and research designed to provide a plan of action that is designed to facilitate the attainment of specific public health goals.
The McKinney’s 7S Framework
The McKinney’s 7s framework is a management model developed by Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and Tom Peters in the 1980s and helps in the analysis of an organization or a policy’s design. The purpose of the model is to assess the effectiveness of a policy in an organization through the interaction of seven key elements: structure, strategy, skill, system, shared values, style, and staff (Helmold 2021). The effectiveness of the public health policy should, therefore, be assessed based on its structure, strategy, the skills utilized in its formulation, the system within which it operates, the shared values, its style of operation, and the staff involved in its implementation. All of the seven elements of the framework applied in the organization have to be in harmony with each other and point to the same direction. The policy or the organization will be perceived as being effective if each of the elements supports the others.
Application of the Framework
Structure
Structure refers to the relationship patterns and the work roles among the different individuals operating in the organization. The role of a structure is to divide work among the organization’s members and hence ensure effective co-ordination of their activities to ensure that they are all directed towards achieving the same goals and objectives. A more effective structure is one that has less hierarchies, better networking that leads to easier access of information, proper coordination among the participants, follows a decentralized approach in handling its roles, and ensures speedy communication. According to LaMarco (2018), some organizations fail because of their inability to balance among their various parts. Therefore, organizations with fewer structures are better placed at responding to arising issues more swiftly and hence are more effective.
Daisy Hill hospital has a relatively complex organizational structure that features different departments, with each department further classified into other smaller compartments with leaders in each of these departments. The organization is headed by the office of the chair and the chief executive, who are responsible for the overall oversight of the organization’s processes. All the other departmental heads have to report to the chief executive and the chair like in many other institutions around the world. For example, the directorate of acute services has an assistant below him. Below this assistant director are the operational support lead, the personal secretary, and various departmental heads. Such a complex system may impede quicker communication in the event of an emergency.
Strategy
Strategy refers to an action that managers take to achieve one or more of the organizational goals. it also refers to a general direction that a company takes and its various efforts designed to achieve a desired state in the future (Chubbs, 2020). It entails the means that an entity utilizes to develop revenue generation or obtain alternative sources of funds. Businesses approach both private and public institutions to request for funds or deliver their services. Therefore, any decision that an organization takes should be strategic in the sense that it brings on board other players to help it in achieving its goals. Organizations perform differently because of the different strategies that they use to serve their stakeholders.
Daisy Hill hospital has consistently revised its strategy to serve its customers. In 2018, the institution came under sharp criticism following a shortage of ED doctors. The stakeholders who were at an immediate threat, the local community, reacted explosively to the news, amounting to a massive public outcry. There were mass rallies and public meetings as well as political pressures that threatened the organization’s image. The management of the institution had to come up with a short term strategy to reduce the impact of the issue as they worked on a long term approach. The short term strategy was to recruit locum consultants to cover the vacuum and eliminate the threat of reducing the opening hours. Despite the loopholes associated with rushed decisions, the organization has managed to reduce the impact of some of the medical challenges that resulted from staff shortage.
Systems
A system is the general environment in which people coexist. Therefore, everyone belongs to a system, whether they are at home, at work, or at school. Similarly, organizations classify their individuals and processes into systems. There are systems that deal with content delivery, those related to information collection, update, and verification. There are also systems that involve monitoring and evaluation of the information delivery process. Such systems ensure that the information is kept securely and only accessed by relevant personnel. Then there are also systems that deal with creating databases and managing the information that passes through these database equipment.
Daisy Hill hospital has a complex system evident through its various departments. It has a system that governs acute services, there is also one that deals with nursing and midwifery services, it has another department that serves children and young people. There is a section that deals with mental health and disability, one that deals with finance and procurement, another that deals with performance and reform, a system that deals with human resources and organizational development, one that serves older people and provides primary care, and finally the medical directorate. Each of these systems are further broken down into different subsystems for better service delivery. All these systems have to work together to achieve the organization’s goals. However, the staff challenges reported in the organization shows an inefficient system that needs to be reassessed.
Style
The concept of style refers to the management’s participative style. It refers to the formation of networks and entails how the different departments interact with each other in their daily operations. It, therefore, includes different organizational processes, such as the leadership styles, the organization’s culture and the overall conduct of the managers in managing their time and dealing with their subordinates. The way the managers handle their juniors, the approaches they use to measure quality and success and how they correct their mistakes significantly determines the attitude of the employees towards them. A management team that does not show any concern for the work sends a wrong message to the employees, who in turn, will not take their jobs seriously.
The hospital’s management style is evident through the staff’s performance and dedication to their work. The temporary closure of the emergency department because of staff shortage might pointed to an inefficient management style. A reputable hospital of Daisy Hill’s calibre should have enough staff and austerity measures to cushion the patients against unfortunate incidents such as staff shortage. However, the fact that the institution waited for the public to strike and demand accountability to take appropriate measures shows some challenges in the management style (BBC News 2017). However, the recent recognition of the staff for their commitment in the fight against coronavirus paints an image of an improved management style...