Review of DHA Operations Management Practices
Operations Management Issues Involved with Volunteer Services
Volunteering is common in most hospitals where well-wishers opt to assist in the operations management of the hospitals through the volunteer services. The volunteer may be given roles to play in different units in the hospital. However, the overall purpose of volunteering is to help in the effective operations management in the health care organization while saving on cost. As per the statistics given by the U.S.A Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are many individuals who are involved in volunteer services in the American hospitals. Between September 2009 and September 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported five million U.S citizens being involved in the hospitals volunteering (Rogers, Rogers, & Boyd, 2013). Volunteering is a tradition in most parts of the world where the volunteers consider this as an ideal way of giving back to the society. Hospitals have incorporated this practice since the old age with the mixture of paid workforce as a way of ensuring efficient operations in the health care organizations. In addition to the volunteer services, the hospitals depend on small-scale fundraising as a way of seeking external finances that can help with the expansion of the services in the hospitals and improving the services. With the many numbers of volunteers, most of the hospitals hire professional administrators to manage the volunteers.
Although some of the volunteers have professional knowledge on the field they opt to operate in; some do not. As such, there is a need of a professional guidance to instruct the volunteers on the roles they are expected to play. This mitigates the many challenges of having unprofessional volunteers in the working stations. As per this assertion, every hospital in the U.S has a department for the recruitment and management of the volunteers. However, this does not wholly tackle the challenges brought about by the volunteering. Different volunteers have varying intentions for volunteering. Furthermore, volunteering services are only for a short duration of time thus need a close follow-up by the authorities to ensure that the services are delivered as per the mission and objectives of the hospitals. Moreover, this mitigates the chance of volunteers who are driven by the wrong motive from accomplishing their ambitions. Another challenges experienced in the volunteering across the U.S is the change in the demographics of the individuals who decide to volunteers.
The changing trend illustrates younger individuals volunteering more than the older volunteers. In the past, older individuals were the common volunteers to come across in hospitals. Perhaps this is because it is the age they considered to be the most appropriate in giving back to the society. Such individuals reflected more commitment since they were aware of their motives and adhered to the instructions given gladly. Another challenge is the duration of time that the volunteers opt to adopt. Most of the volunteering take a short duration of time. As such, the volunteers may not even have got used to the working schedule of the hospital. Longer volunteering will yield more productivity since the volunteers will have a chance to interact with the professionals in the department they have been allocated a role to play. With the guidance from such professionals, the volunteers will be in a position of effectively playing their roles as expected (Rogers, Rogers, & Boyd, 2013). On the contrary, shorter durations of volunteering lead to the volunteers accomplishing their roles based on their perspective rather than from the perspective of the health care organization as viewed and understood by long-term volunteers. As previously pointed out, different volunteers have varying reasons as to why they opt for the volunteering services. Some high skilled volunteers may be driven by their goals to accomplish rather than being of help to the institution as it would be expected. As such, these volunteers will either perform their roles with a scheme in mind thus if they may help the organization, they possibly would do this based on their professional goals,
The key challenges as pointed out by the study Rogers, Rogers, and Boyd (2013) are discussed herein. Volunteer recruiting and retention is one of the major challenges pointed out in most of the health care institution. The changing demographics of the volunteers is one of the challenges that alters the workforce. The majority of the individuals who were used as volunteers as per the case study are the aged and the retired. Such individuals have prior experience in the different field thus they gladly cooperate with the volunteer managers. Therefore, most of the health care organizations used to rely on these type of people for the workforce. However, one challenge associated with these type of volunteers of late is that they work for pay in their 70’s. Rather than opting for the volunteers’ services, they opt for the high paying jobs since they have the necessary experience that is needed in most of the employment domains. As compared to the elderly generation, the middle-aged and the young group of volunteers are reported to have posed several challenges to the administrators in the health care organizations. These age group does not possess the interest for volunteers’ services as compared to the previously described age group. When this age group participates in volunteering, they do it for their gains rather than the traditional motive of volunteering services, which is giving back to the society.
The volunteers who are still pursuing their educational goals face a challenge of a short duration of volunteering. As such, they are not able to fulfill their volunteering requirements as expected. Furthermore, these group of volunteers involves in such services as a way of gaining work experiences. Others pushed to engage in volunteering in the health care organizations because it is a requirement in the fulfillment of either their diploma or degree program (Rogers, Rogers, & Boyd, 2013). This is a challenge since the volunteers do not play their roles based on personal urge but only because they are expected to do it thus the services provided are not as per the top notch quality that would be expected from the determined and dedicated volunteers. Finding volunteers with specific skills that suit the services needed to be accomplished in the health care organization is another challenge faced. As such, a volunteer may be available but does not possess the appropriate skills necessary for him or her to be embraced in a particular unit in the hospital.
The director of volunteer services is one of the executives who is less motivated to accomplish his or her task. The study reveals that these managers are not acknowledged as other leaders in the hospitals. Rogers, Rogers, and Boyd (2013) assert that not only is their salary low but also they face many challenges in administrating the volunteers. Since the volunteers are not paid, the director of volunteer services faces a hard time ensuring that the volunteers accomplish the responsibilities allocated. Most of the time, the administrators are held responsible for the ineffective work done by the volunteers. A decline in the economy status of a country affects the volunteer services in the hospitals. As noted by the volunteer administrators, unemployment leads to an increase in the number of volunteers in the health care institutions. However, these volunteers are driven by the motive of securing a job slot in the institution.
Some of the volunteers are driven by the thought that by volunteering, there are high chances of the organization employing them in case a job opportunity arises. However, this may not be the case because some of the organizations consider different aspects before employing. As such, the hospitals cannot have a stable expectation on such volunteers since they might get a new job and leave the volunteers services. Some hospitals opt to look for the volunteers to fill in the position of the employees since they do not demand a high remuneration as compared to the permanent employees (Rogers, Rogers, & Boyd, 2013). Although there are such challenges linked to volunteering, there are several opportunities associated with volunteering in hospitals. The outcome of the impact of the hospital in the community is realized more with the efforts of the volunteers. By providing the services and adhering to the programs of the hospital, the volunteers have an opportunity positively satisfying the visitors and the patients. Volunteering gives the residents of the neighboring community an opportunity to interact with the hospital hence creating a good rapport. Volunteering gives the volunteers an opportunity for utilizing their skills or learning new skills.
Functions of the DHA Health Regulatory Department
The Health Regulation Department (HRD) plays the role of issuing of health care facilities the license to operate in one of the categories under the main categories listed by the HRD. Some of these categories include outpatient care regulation, hospital regulation, day surgical center regulation, dental laboratory regulation, optical center, oncology services, home healthcare, and school clinic and community pharmacy regulation among others (“Pages – Regulations, 2017). The hospital regulation which is one of the roles played by HRD has a potential role in enhancing operations management in other health care centers through giving of an outline that the organizations should adhere to. This regulation evaluates the proposed program of the institution hence allowing it to operate under the expectations.
Before building any of the health care institutes, all the building mapping and strategies should be as per the requirements of HRD (“Pages – Regulations,” 2017). As such, the site plan, boundaries, ambulance routes, number of patients and cars per standards among other aspects are considered. The operations are enhanced through ensuring that they adhere to these regulations hence meeting the operational standards. The school clinic regulations apply to all the education institutes in the Emirate of Dubai. This regulation ensures delivering of world-class health care services to all the pupils. To increase efficiency in the future operations, the regulation is regularly amended under the authority of DHA and referred to the school clinics (“Pages – Regulations,” 2017). By giving a common regulation to adhere to, there is potential for enhancing management operations in these institutes. The clinical regulation gives requirements for the safety of the clinical laboratories and the licensure under the DHA. With this regulation in practice, the laboratories are expected to be ethical in their future operations. New laboratories can only be opened under the consent of this regulation hence ensure a close governance of all the practices. Similarly, all the regulations serve as a platform for the future health care practices to be established upon. By reflecting on these previous regulations, the management operations will be better since they will be established based on a perspective of making the health care operations even better.
Through forecasting, the regulations can be altered by DHA to suit the future expectations. For instance, if upon establishment of new laboratories will lead to more remedies to the diseases in future, the laboratory regulation can be altered so as to give such opportunity to the laboratories. Forecasting can help shape the future of health care service Providence since it will project the best way of proceeding with disseminating of the health services. Through evaluation of the health regulations, weaknesses associated with these regulations can be pointed and strengthened for the future of the health facilities. Similarly, appropriate approval of the sites for the health facilities can help ensure recommendable relations between the community and the facilities. As such, volunteering can be more effective because good interaction will be ensured by the strategic position of the health facility. Besides, strategic positioning can be of the essence in maximally benefiting the society by bringing the health care services closer to them hence saving lives that succumb to the long distance while seeking treatment or the poor amenities in the hospitals.
References
Pages – Regulations. (2017). Dha.gov.ae. Retrieved from https://www.dha.gov.ae/en/HealthRegulation/Pages/Regulations.aspx
Rogers, S., Rogers, C., & Boyd, K. (2013). Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare Volunteer Management: Insights from Volunteer Administrators. Hospital Topics, 91(2), 43-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00185868.2013.806012
