CASE STUDY Interwest Healthcare Corp Interwest Healthcare is

CASE STUDY: Interwest Healthcare Corp. Interwest Healthcare is a nonproft organization that hospital administrators and staff members from the corporate financial office to a retreat at a resort. The Vay Singh, Interwest\'s chief financial officer, and the trators the ptoblems with the data entry and to stress Singh is deeply concerned because the hospitalwas acrimonious. The hospital people accused Singh s ten hospitals located in three western states. Qnthia Manzoni is Interwest\'s chief executive officer. purpose was to communicate to the hospital admínis- inistrators of the ten hospitals report to Manzoni. the importance of doing a better job. The meeting of services. Singh accused the hospital staffs of not being a bureaucrat who did not care about patient understanding the importance of accurate reporting management reports such as those relating to thehad a commitmenr by the hospital administrators to ss are not being careful when entering data into firm\'s management information system. This data olves information on patient intake, treatment, release. The information system is used to com- By the end of the meeting, Manzoni thought that she f various treatments. Also, the system is usedincrease the accuracy of data entry at their hospitals. nment under various grant programs. Singhproblem ia as bad as ever. entially misleading. Singh is worried about the compile reports that are required by the federal However, six months later, Singh claims that the problem is as bad as ever. sons that without good information, the manage-Manzoni has hired you as a consultant to analyze nt and government reports are less useful and nagerial implications and the potential loss of dits Interwest and might discontinue aid if the Singh has convinced Manzoni that a problem 3. What actions míght you recommendto ncrease the problem and to make recommendations that might improve the situation Discussion Questions I. What are the potential sources of the problem? 2. What information would you want to nalye deral funds. The federal government periodically ports are deemed inaccurate. the accuracy of the data entry? exists. She also realrzes the importance of an accurae system for both management planning and maintain ing federal aid. Six months ago, she invited the 4. How does your view of behavior affet how you might address this consulting as gn ment?

Solution

The potential source of the problem that is occurring and has been occurring over the past year at Interwest Healthcare is centered on the miscommunication of effectively managing. Due to this miscommunication, management has been unsuccessful with implementing the importance of needing to attain accurate data for then processing accurate reports. Another potential source was the way that Cynthia Manzoni, the CEO of Interwest Healthcare, tried handling the situation. She tried to take the employees on a retreat leading the wrong message to the staff and they developed the feeling of Vijay Singh, the CFO, of not caring about the patients. Vijay then “accused the hospital staff of not understanding the importance of accurate reporting” (Brickley, Smith, & Zimmerman, 2016).           

When dealing with an issue it is never a smart attempt to go accusing your employees when needing the issue to be resolved. The problem was that Vijay was not sensitive to the employee’s priority of the patients come first, and that is why they do not understand the importance of data entry. In order to resolve the issue, the staff needs to know why it is important and not just by having someone tell them they need to have accurate data entry on a retreat. These sources all play into the problem that Interwest Healthcare is facing if they were to be audited.

The information that needs to be analyzed are the reports in order to target and identify where the inaccuracies are coming from. Once we know what part of data that is being construed, we can then trace back to try to correct and resolve the issue at hand. Another aspect of information that Interwest healthcare would want to analyze is the systems at which the data is entered into. See if an upgrades and or orders that need to be taken to further prevent these discrepancies. The management will then know what information will need to be over looked and or edited in order to prevent inaccurate reports in case of an audit. Showing the employees the mistakes and the affected reports, will help the employees with a better understanding of why they need to be more careful and accurate when entering such data.

It would be helpful to look into when the employees enter this information, if its rushed in between seeing patients, then the staff will not think of data entry as such an importance since patient care is their main priority. If the opportunity cost of the time of entering data correctly, constrains with time to care for patients, then the company should look into shifts for only data entry position that way the staff can continue their focus on patient care.

Interwest Healthcare should look into when the employees enter this information, if its rushed in between seeing patients, then the staff will not think of data entry as such an importance since patient care is their main priority. If the opportunity cost of the time of entering data correctly, constrains with time to care for patients, then the company should look into shifts for only data entry position that way the staff can continue their focus on patient care. I would also recommend having someone in a position to go back over the last several reports to make sure they are 100% accurate and to do this this position will entail reentering the incorrect data. This way Interwest Healthcare will be in complete compliance with the federal funding and will not lose any aid. If data entry continues to be adding incorrectly, implementation of a new strategy needs to be added to ensure that the data entry accuracy problem is resolved, and the reports will no longer be misleading. According to Infinit Datum, there are five simple ways to prevent inaccurate data entry. Provide a good working environment for data entry employees, hire enough staff, double check work, regularly update automated systems, and outsource to the right company (Datum, 2015). If you have each one of these aspect, discrepancies in data entry will be very unlikely.

Having happy employees entails more productive and effective employees. The “happy is productive” model will need to be kept in the back of Mrs. Manzoni and Mr. Singh heads. If they do not present that patient care is also a priority to themselves then their staff will not want to make sure their data entry skills improve. Keeping the patient care the first interest over the data entry will keep a happy work environment for the satisfied employees. If Interwest Healthcare needs to add a data entry position in order to not compromise the staff providing care to their patients, then they will implement to not compromise the opportunity cost of taking time away from patients and affecting their happiness. “When people aren’t happy with their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less and their work quality suffers” (Tam, 2013). If adding another position to prevent this unhappiness, Interwest should not even second guess if this is what they need to resolve their data entry issue.

References:

Brickley, J., Smith, C., & Zimmerman, J. (2016). Managerial Economics and Organizational          Architecture (6th ed.). New York.

Tam, M. (n.d.). A Happy Worker Is a Productive Worker

5 Ways to Prevent Inaccurate Data Entry. (n.d