What Lies Ahead for Paul Levy Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Prior to Paul Levy’s, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BID), leadership BID has faced financial difficulties as a result of the need to effectively manage physicians and employee relationships, communicate hospital plans, and manage the medical center’s operations through a changing environment. The medical center needs to reengineer its business processes. ... (Thompson & Strickland, 306) Paul Levy, as the new CEO of BID, will have to cure the problems of the hospital that are most responsible for pulling overall performance down. Levy will have to set forth the causes underlying BID’s weak performances and diagnose the medical center’s particular resource strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. ... I assume from this evaluation the strategic options Levy has for turning the medical centers diversified business are as follows: · Selling or closing down a portion of the medical center. ... Levy’s task will be to convert his personal strategic plan into action and get on with what needs to be done to achieve the vision and targeted objectives he desires. It will be easy for Levy to decide where he wants to go with the hospital, but getting the staff members to act on the new priorities will not be easy. ... In the 1990s, when the Partners Healthcare system was formed, Beth Israel’s President Mitch Rabkin thought the best thing for the Beth Israel Hospital was to assemble its own network of hospitals. ... As a result, the CareGroup System was formed and the Beth Israel hospital partnered with the Deaconess Hospital. ... Among these lessons was the realization that managing the newly combined medical center’s operations is very different from managing its people. ... (Thompson & Strickland, 346) Every manager has an active role in the process of executing the medical center’s strategic plan and all employees are participants. ... I think that the managers, in this case the medical leaders, did not communicate the plans for organizational change as clearly and persuasively to medical center members as needed. ... As Levy takes over as CEO, he will need to review the lessons learned from the downfall and redesign the relationships of staff members accordingly. Levy has significant work experience that proves him to be a successful leader. ... I think he will do an excellent job restructuring and helping put the medical center back on track. Levy was 100% correct in declaring that the issues in BID have virtually nothing to do with medicine and health care. ... In deciding a future strategy, I believe Levy needs to evaluate the hospital’s overall economic value to the CareGroup and to Harvard Medical School. Some things I would consider in evaluating the medical center’s value would be: · BID’s financial performance (net income, cash flow); · Deficits related to BID; and · Administrative responsibilities & health system mission-related activities. It would also be useful to review the non-economic value factors such as the political value of staff members, patient access to the medical center, and clinical coverage (nursing & physician care). For example, a physician may have political value to the medical center as an important medical staff leader whose attitude can significantly influence that of other physicians. ... Following the assessment of the medical center’s value, I would chart a strategy that illustrates a decision process that may be used to evaluate the future relationship with the medical centers leaders. ... The first branch of the decision tree addresses the importance of a future relationship with a physician and/or other medical leaders. ... As the two medical centers merged, each center had its share of leaders. ... Levy, while trying to implement his new strategy for BID will have to determine whether there is still a need for that employee relationship. ... Prior to Levy’s leadership, BID lost some of their best surgeons due to their dissatisfaction of their working environment. ... Levy will have to determine a way to recruit new surgeons and develop a positive reputation for BID amongst those in the medical field. As the case mentioned, the Deaconess Hospital once placed greater emphasis on surgical specialties and the delivery of high-quality care. ... Recruitment in the medical field has become increasingly competitive. Levy must establish a systematic recruitment approach that includes determining BID’s recruitment objectives, using various recruiting sources, assessing the skills and fit of all candidates. Surgeons, physicians, nurses and other medical staff can be recruited through various means. ... He added that the high demand for primary care physicians, surgeons, and nurses has caused provider organizations to rely on innovative recruitment methods, including buying solo practices, recruiting them early in their training, cultivating the interest of medical students, and even retraining or sending current staff members to further their medical schooling.