HLTH 4000 Week 11 Department Management Report Example

Management Report: Patient Access at the Multispecialty Clinic After One Term of Changes, With Results, Open Problems and Three Decisions for the Practice Manager

Student Name

Walden University

HLTH 4000: Introduction to Healthcare Management

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Management Report: Patient Access at the Multispecialty Clinic After One Term of Changes, With Results, Open Problems and Three Decisions for the Practice Manager

Summary

This report reviews our clinic's nine-person patient access group over one term, roughly four months, during which the team added a half-time representative, delegated schedule template maintenance to the lead representative and moved from a desk-and-phone rotation to partial separation with a float. Morning call abandonment fell from 9% to 5%. Weekly overtime fell from 12 hours to about 3. Template errors reported by providers fell from about four a week to one. Check-in wait times stayed about the same. One representative left, and one performance concern is being managed. The report recommends three decisions: make the half-time position permanent, keep the partial separation and fund cross-training in insurance verification for two representatives. All figures are illustrative, drawn from the composite team used throughout the course.

Background

At the start of the term, the team of nine representatives covered both check-in and the scheduling phone line. Three problems stood out: phones lost to the desk during the morning peak, routine overtime had become the way peak coverage was achieved, and the supervisor spent much of the day on fragmented tasks, including template maintenance and covering phones at lunch. My Week 2 log showed front-line tasks taking about one hour in four, a pattern consistent with research describing managerial work as brief, varied and frequently interrupted (Mintzberg, 1973).

What Was Done

Staffing. A half-time representative was hired to cover 7:15 to 11:15 a.m., replacing most routine overtime. Recruitment emphasized an honest description of the job and a short job shadow, and onboarding included check-ins at 30 and 60 days.

Delegation. Daily template maintenance was delegated in writing to the lead representative, with defined decision authority and a review schedule.

Work design. After a decision paper comparing three options, the team moved to three phone representatives, five desk representatives and one float, guided by a live call queue display. The change was communicated through a planned sequence beginning with the team.

Performance. One representative's late arrivals and high transfer rate were documented and discussed, with support offered and a 30-day review set.

Results

Table 1 compares the start of the term with the most recent month.

Table 1

Patient Access Measures, First Month Versus Latest Month

Note. Figures are illustrative. The most recent month began four weeks after the phone team change.

What Did Not Improve and Why

Check-in wait times did not improve. The partial separation protected the phones, as intended, but the desk did not gain capacity; it lost one person to the phone team and gained only the float's time. Wait times holding steady is acceptable, but it means the desk is now the tighter constraint. Two other open problems remain. The representative whose performance was documented has improved her arrival times but still transfers more calls than the team target; the 30-day review is next week. And the insurance verification tool still rejects valid cards several times an hour, which generates the off-script problems that pull staff from their assigned roles.

The desk constraint is the next problem to solve. A practical first step would be to move routine insurance verification for scheduled patients to the day before the visit, done by the phone team in quieter afternoon hours, so that fewer problems surface at the desk during the morning peak.

Lessons for the Next Term

Three lessons from the term will shape how I manage the team going forward. First, the most effective changes were small and specific: one half-time position, one written delegation, one change in how roles are assigned. Each addressed a problem measured at the start, and each could be checked afterward. Second, the problems that remain are the ones outside the team's control, such as the verification tool, which means the next improvements will depend on working with other departments rather than reorganizing my own. Third, data shared with the team changed how they talked about problems. When the monthly abandonment numbers went up on the break-room board, representatives began suggesting fixes themselves, such as staggering lunch breaks, which reduced the midday dip in phone coverage without any action from me.

None of these lessons is new to management writing. But seeing them work on a team of nine, over four months, has made them practical rather than theoretical.

Decisions Requested

Decision 1: Make the half-time position permanent. It was approved for six months. It has reduced overtime by about 9 hours a week and covered the morning peak reliably. Recommendation: convert to permanent at the six-month mark.

Decision 2: Keep the partial separation. Morning abandonment has fallen below the 6% threshold set in the decision paper, and check-in wait times have not risen by more than two minutes. Recommendation: keep it, with a further review in three months focused on desk capacity.

Decision 3: Fund cross-training in insurance verification for two representatives. The verification tool's rejections remain the largest source of interruptions. Training two representatives to resolve rejections at the desk, rather than escalating to the supervisor, would reduce delays and add variety to their roles, which job design research associates with motivation and satisfaction (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Estimated cost: two days of training each, illustratively $1,300 including backfill. Recommendation: approve.

Our management text describes the manager's role in reporting results and requesting resources as part of controlling, the function that closes the loop between plans and outcomes (Buchbinder et al., 2021). This report is meant to close that loop for one term.

References

Buchbinder, S. B., Shanks, N. H., & Kite, B. J. (Eds.). (2021). Introduction to health care management (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7

Mintzberg, H. (1973). The nature of managerial work. Harper & Row.