You are the administrator of a local long-term care facility, and your regional administrator has asked you to participate in a healthcare team policy assessment group culminating multiple facilities and department managers. The group will be assessing the current admissions policy process regarding Medicaid patients. As this will be your first time serving in this capacity, you must research implications for problem solving in a team setting.
McLaughlin and McLaughlin (2023) suggest “multidisciplinary groups will be better able to work together cooperatively if they discuss the following questions early on in their work” (p.58).
Describe how the group can express personal assumptions and vision and incorporate them into intellectual discourse that respects others’ points of view.
Define two notions of social equity and social change processes that should be considered when developing and implementing a health care organization's policy change within their strategic plan process.
Describe a reasonable objective for social change and how this objective could improve the equity of patient admissions in long-term care facilities.
Explain how the group can cooperate if they cannot agree on specific assumptions and visions and how they can best cooperate on limited objectives despite their disparate viewpoints.
Full Answer Section
- Focus on Shared Goals: Emphasize the common goal of improving the admissions process for Medicaid patients. Ground the discussion in data and evidence, not just personal opinions.
- Seek Clarification: Encourage members to ask clarifying questions to ensure they understand each other's perspectives.
- Use Active Listening: Members should practice active listening to understand the view points of others.
- Use a Mediator: If the group is having a hard time communicating, it would be beneficial to bring in a mediator to help facilitate the conversation.
2. Notions of Social Equity and Social Change Processes:
When developing and implementing a policy change, the group should consider:
- Distributive Justice:
- This focuses on the equitable distribution of resources and opportunities. In this context, it means ensuring that Medicaid patients have fair access to long-term care facilities, regardless of their socioeconomic status or other factors.
- This would involve looking at the fairness of the admissions process, and if there are any biases that would keep someone from being admitted.
- Procedural Justice:
- This emphasizes the fairness of the processes used to make decisions. It means ensuring that the admissions policy is developed and implemented in a transparent and inclusive manner, with input from all stakeholders.
- This includes ensuring that all patients are treated equally during the application process.
- Social Change Processes:
- Incremental Change: This approach involves making small, gradual changes over time. It can be less disruptive and easier to implement, but it may take longer to achieve desired outcomes.
- Transformative Change: This approach involves making fundamental changes to the system. It can be more challenging to implement, but it can lead to more significant and lasting improvements.
- It is important to consider which of these processes would be most effective when implementing any changes.
3. Reasonable Objective for Social Change and Improved Equity:
- Objective: To reduce disparities in admission rates for Medicaid patients by implementing a standardized, transparent, and equitable admissions process.
- Improvement: This objective would improve equity by:
- Eliminating subjective criteria that may lead to bias.
- Ensuring that all applicants are evaluated based on the same objective criteria.
- Providing clear and accessible information about the admissions process to all potential applicants.
- Tracking and monitoring data to identify and address any remaining disparities.
4. Cooperation Despite Disparate Viewpoints:
Even with disagreements, the group can cooperate by:
- Focusing on Common Ground: Identify areas of agreement and build upon them. Even if members disagree on broad assumptions, they may agree on specific, practical steps.
- Prioritizing Data and Evidence: Rely on objective data and evidence to inform decision-making. This can help to depersonalize the discussion and reduce the impact of personal biases.
- Compromise and Negotiation: Be willing to compromise and negotiate to find solutions that are acceptable to all members.
- Phased Implementation: If there is disagreement on a major change, consider a phased implementation, starting with smaller, more easily agreed-upon steps.
- Documenting Dissent: Allow members to document their dissenting opinions in the meeting minutes or a separate document. This ensures that all perspectives are recorded and acknowledged.
- Developing Contingency Plans: Prepare contingency plans for situations where disagreements may arise. This can help to ensure that the group can continue to function effectively even when there are disagreements.
- Creating Subcommittees: Creating subcommittees that focus on specific tasks, will allow people to work on the things they agree on, and to focus their energy on the things they are passionate about.
By embracing these strategies, the healthcare team can navigate complex issues, build consensus, and ultimately improve the admissions process for Medicaid patients.
Sample Answer
Expressing Assumptions and Vision in a Respectful Discourse:
To foster a productive environment, the group can:
- Establish Ground Rules: Early on, create clear guidelines for respectful communication. This includes active listening, avoiding interrupting, and using "I" statements to express personal views.
- Structured Sharing: Use a round-robin format where each member shares their assumptions and vision without interruption. This ensures everyone has a voice.
- "Parking Lot" Technique: If a discussion becomes heated or tangential, "park" the issue for later consideration.