Change Management in Dynamic Health Care Systems

1. The healthcare system of United Kingdom has been characterised with a sense of active component of the public sector. The care services of public healthcare are usually complemented with the suitable care services and quality of private sector. Ash Grove Care Home is situated in London and provides appropriate care services to the Dementia, Alzheimer’s, challenging behaviour, obesity and Parkinson’s disease patients.

The two key factors affecting the status of healthcare services of UK include the cost of health care and the changing behaviour of patients about the chronic diseases, which is related to health. As a major number of folks of UK suffer from obesity, therefore, it is the primary concern of the policy makers. According to Best et al., (2012), obesity enhances the risk of various chronic conditions, for instances, high cholesterol, hypertension, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The

The forecasts, costs and prevalence of obesity suggest an extrapolation of existing trends in UK. The department of health of UK government has adopted obesity and health relating policy in this current year in order to reduce the obesity level in UK. From the recent study, it has been reflected that at least 64% adult and 39% children suffer from obesity. According to the implemented policy, the government of UK helps the inhabitants to be active and consume healthy and nutritious food. This policy also suggests that the care homes of UK should support an obese individual to lose weight with proper dieting and exercising process. The government of UK has adopted a positive step to include changes in the recent policies of food taxes, prices, subsidiaries products. Sadiq, Marjanovic & Orlowska (2012) have mentioned that the taken policy also provides a thorough knowledge of rules and regulations of nutrition of every consuming food, such as the banning of Trans fat. The government of UK concentrates improvising the policies that are related to socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare settings. The social policy of UK government has resolved issues regarding socioeconomic differences and inequalities in health and social care services. Socioeconomic components determine the fundamental influences on the living standards and chances of an individual's lifestyle. Socioeconomic inequalities in disability and ill health gradually create social gradient involving the higher socioeconomic group with perfect health condition than lower groups. NHS plays a vital role to reduce the socioeconomic inequality in health care services as the higher level of the socioeconomic group mostly enjoys benefits from different interventions. Swanson et al., (2012) has sugveested that a healthcare system restructures and reforms the constant requirements to manage the new acquired competencies and skills for reframing the traditional methods and approaches to the management of health care services.

2. Change management theory involves a particular systematic approach for handling constant changes in healthcare services. This theory performs the role of coordinator in between the individual and organisation as the theory suggests the different aspects of change, such as adaptation of changes, controlling and affecting it. As the factors change in the health and social care services of UK, therefore, Kotter’s Change Management Theory provides huge incidence of numerous preventable medical wrongdoings. John Kotter’s three stage dynamic model is effective enough to address the unique adoption procedures of the innovations regarding technological developments. As opined by Chambers, Glasgow & Stange (2013), Kotter’s transformational change management theory initially offers a suitable creation of climate for transformation that involves setting a perfect notion of urgency. After enabling and engaging, an organisation with proper communication of the vision there is the last phase suggesting sustaining and implementing of changes. The care managers are accepted to perform the assigned roles and responsibilities with following this particular change management theory, as it is potential to include both the situational and emotional components (Lorenzi & Riley, 2013).

Ash Grove Care Home deals with the transformation at more individual and granular level engaging a drastic transition from previous identity to a completely new identity. As there are various changes that determine the implementation of important, health related policies, therefore, Kotter’s change management theory play a crucial role for deciding the apt implementation of mentioned changes in the health and social care services. Kerzner (2013) has referred that the selection of best theory would help the care workers of Ash Grove Care Home to implement the planned changes in proper and adequate manner. Such implemented changes develop the workplace and ensure the fact that care workers should be involved in their maintenance of creativity and innovations while providing appropriate care services to the patients. Kotter’s change management theory discusses the approaches of various problem-solving in order to implement the planned transformation in Ash Grove Care home of London. This particular theory provides a perfect level of understanding of the change theory and it is useful for the care workers and registered nurse of care homes and hospitals in UK. This theory also influences the care workers, as they have to play enormous responsibilities in the correct directions for solving problems within the healthcare organisation (Straus et al., 2013). The care workers are clear and transparent about the performance of tasks and are solely committed to providing adequate care services to the care service users. The restraining and driving forces determine the change agents of the healthcare organisations of UK. Kotter’s change management theory also promotes the behaviour of care workers for adopting the influence of implemented changes in health and social care services.

References

Best, A., Greenhalgh, T., Lewis, S., Saul, J. E., Carroll, S., & Bitz, J. (2012). Large‐system transformation in health care: a realist review. Milbank Quarterly, 90(3), 421-456.

Cafazzo, J. A., Casselman, M., Hamming, N., Katzman, D. K., & Palmert, M. R. (2012). Design of an mHealth app for the self-management of adolescent type 1 diabetes: a pilot study. Journal of medical Internet research, 14(3), e70.

Chambers, D. A., Glasgow, R. E., & Stange, K. C. (2013). The dynamic sustainability framework: addressing the paradox of sustainment amid ongoing change. Implementation Science, 8(1), 1.

Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Lorenzi, N. M., & Riley, R. T. (2013). Organizational aspects of health informatics: managing technological change. Springer Science & Business Media.

Sadiq, S. W., Marjanovic, O., & Orlowska, M. E. (2012). Managing change and time in dynamic workflow processes. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, 9(01n02), 93-116.

Straus, S., Tetroe, J., & Graham, I. D. (Eds.). (2013). Knowledge translation in health care: moving from evidence to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Swanson, R. C., Cattaneo, A., Bradley, E., Chunharas, S., Atun, R., Abbas, K. M., ... & Best, A. (2012). Rethinking health systems strengthening: key systems thinking tools and strategies for transformational change. Health Policy and Planning, 27(suppl 4), iv54-iv61.