Case Study
Background information:
The Sydney Community Hospital (SCH), a 110 bed community hospital situated in the outer northern suburbs of the Sydney, has provided general acute medical, surgical, obstetric and emergency services to the local community. Over the last 15 years the population of the area has increased significantly to include a much larger proportion of young families and a significant number of retirement villages with nursing homes attached. The hospital has reviewed the needs of this growing community and is changing its range of services in response to that review.

To deal with these changes the Government has allocated resources to redevelop the hospital facilities and restructure the organisation to provide a focus on the health needs of the growing population and to provide a number of specialty services including cancer, paediatric, cardiovascular, renal services, trauma services, aged care and community services. The bed numbers will increase to 200, with an increase in the capacity for community clinics in the specialties.

• The Vision statement of the hospital is to “Provide positive health experiences for the community”.
• The stated mission of the new, larger hospital is “to provide highest quality, specialist health care in partnership with patients, carers, the community at large and other health care providers”.
• The overall strategic goals of the new organisation are “to develop high performing, multidisciplinary teams within the specialist services in order to provide high quality, patient-centred care that is effective, efficient and able to respond to the changing health needs of the population”.

The existing hospital has a traditional, functional (bureaucratic) organisational structure but the management team is currently reviewing alternative organisational structures which might better suit the changing internal and external environments of the organisation and have the potential to improve communication and collaboration across teams and accountability for resource utilisation, quality of care and patient outcomes.

Essay instructions:

After reading the case study above and using the course materials and essential readings, develop a short , critical essay-style discussion paper.
Within the essay, ensure that the following four (4) key points are part of the discussion.
1. Analysis of the advantages and limitations of the existing hospital organisational structure for the current health care environment and changing health needs of the population.
2. Identification of an alternative organisational structure that might be suitable for the new health service; describe the features of such a structure and identify how that structure might better facilitate the achievement of the new mission and strategic goals of the organisation.
3. Identification of the key lines of authority and responsibility for achieving the overall organisational goals within the suggested structure (compare this with the key lines of authority and responsibility in the current functional structure) and discuss how this might enable this new hospital to achieve their stated objectives.
4. Critical analysis of the advantages and limitations of the suggested type of structure in relation to the changing health care environment and what the organisation wishes to achieve for patients, carers and the community.