Background Statement
The case is all about Allison and her health care career which she began by establishing a general dentistry practice. For the beginning, she started with only one dentist that is Dr Gable then later another new dentist was added. A consulting firm which was much expensive was hired to addle all the other specifics including the hiring of new staff. In the beginning, Alison used to monitor the general process in her dentistry practice closely, but later after the new dentist was hired, her input was no longer required hence been forced to step back and watch the process. After the partnership, Alison thought that she would be managing a hugely successful practice which was later confirmed not to be true. Later things started getting into a mess after she notices various negative factors with the newly added dentist such as lack of experience and increased revenue. In a short while, several issues came up including expenses exceeding profits, lack of motivation within the new dentists and deterioration of the morale of the office. As the general manager, Alison was then expected to fix the situation without any of the dentist willing to accept the responsibility of the situation hence leaving her unable to decide how to address the situation.
Role Identification
In this case, I would assume the role of an outside consultant hired to come to an advice Alison on what steps to take to revive her established general dentistry practice which is currently in a big mess. There are various advantages of hiring external consultants including the addition of skills and capabilities that the internal team never had, helps facilitate decision making as well as reducing internal competition, access of knowledge from other firms as well as industry best practices, focus on organisation long-term commitment among others. Some of the disadvantages associated with hiring outside consultants include time-consuming for consultantsto understand the business, outside consultants have limited stake on outcomes and recommendations, and consultant may lack skills that you are looking for among others.
Diversity Issues and their Impact in this Case
Allison’s established general dentistry practice deals with diversified patients from the community hence needs all its staff to wee understand the aspect of diversity. The diversity issue, in this case, is that the discussion between the two dentists and the consulting firm never precisely indicated how the new dentist would market himself to the diverse community of patient. Dr Gable has already a large number of patients who he has been able to acquire from the diverse community. The new patient needs to work closely with Dr Gable to be able to note what the patients from the diversified community expect hence be able to market himself more precisely.
Major Problems and Secondary Issue
The major problems, in this case, include expenses quickly exceeding profits and deterioration of staff morale. Increased staff for the new dentist meant that more salary expenses including the salary for the new dentists without a corresponding increase in business. To help mitigate this problem, no new equipment needs to be purchased, but repairsare done on the existing equipment. Additionally, the number of staff for each dentist need to be reduced to the minimum level, and all requested to help in marketing their dentist to create more business. On the other hand, staff year-end bonuses should remain in existence to help increase staff morale. Lack of motivation to seek for new patients by the new dentist can be precisely classified as a secondary issue.
Organisational Strength and Weaknesses
The main strength of Allison’s established general dentistry practice is that there is no close competition; hence they can acquire as many patients from the diverse community as possible. The weakness is the lack of better strategies to market the dentists especially the new dentists.
Alternatives and Resolution
I think Allison need to consider hiring a marketing staff for each of the two density which is proficient in diversity to help market the dentist to the community members. Additionally, they can have the two dentists serving at different bases each targeting a particular population in the community to increase the practice business. Lastly, the dentist needs to keep Allison up-to-date with the process and ensure theta her input is felt.
Evaluation
Since the primary purpose is to increase the company revenues to be much more than the profits, improving employee morale and increasing the new dentist business, the financial statements of the practice need to be produced every quarter to see the progress that is taken in looking for more businesses.
Reference
Shanks, N. H. (Ed.). (2016). Introduction to health care management. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
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