Case Study Paper Assignment: For this assignment, you will compose a short case-study analysis of the presented case. This case looks at dynamics of managing different individuals and programs in an organization.
CASE DESCRIPTION: “When Lunch is More Than a Meal” (see reference note at the end of the description.)
You are the new Practice Manager of a busy internal medicine practice. There are five physicians in this practice. They see patients four days a week using a myriad of exam rooms, plus each physician has his/her own consultation room. On most days, three of the physicians are seeing patients in the office while the other two are doing hospital work and minor procedures. You have noticed that every Tuesday and Thursday various pharmaceutical representative provide lunch for free to the office. The lunches are sometimes quite elaborate, with filet mignon and crab cakes, and at other times more mundane, with cold cuts or pizza. These lunches are quite regular, and there is always enough food to feed not only physicians, but also the entire staff.
Recently two of the representatives have come to you complaining that even though they provide a substantial lunch a couple times a month, the use of their products has decreased by the doctors in the practice. The representatives inform you if this continues, they may not be able to continue the practice of providing lunch. When your support staff members hear of this, they become somewhat concerned because they enjoy the fact that they are getting a free lunch several times a week. On the other hand, the physicians rarely participate in lunch, do not know when and who is providing the lunch, and often they are too busy to participate in lunch.
You set up a meeting with the physicians to discuss the problem. In the meeting you tell the physicians that the staff looks forward to the free lunches. They feel it is a benefit with the job and would like the lunches to continue. Three of the physicians are unsympathetic to this problem and state that they believe the lunches are probably a conflict of interest. These physicians point out the lunches are not tied to any educational endeavor and recommend stopping the lunches, effective immediately. The other two physicians are not as adamant but state these lunches are not important to them. Bottom line, you are given a clear message by the physicians that this practice is to stop.
You know the pharmaceutical representatives usually contact the staff members, not you, to set up these lunches. Right after the meeting with the physicians, you inform everyone on your staff verbally and in writing that these luncheons are not to be scheduled in the office anymore. You take great care to explain this practice in inherently a conflict of interest, charged with legal and ethical issues that could jeopardize the integrity of the practice. Thus, there can be no more free lunches. The entire staff is in an uproar, disgruntled and unhappy about this decision.
Case Study Reference: Buchbinder, S.B., Shanks, N.H., & Buchbinder, D. (2014). Cases in health care management. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Instructions:
Using the supplemental readings, outside sources and/or the text, address the following questions in your paper:
What are the facts of this case?
What are at least three factors contributing to this dilemma?
What should the practice do, if anything, to appease the staff members, but also address any concerns raised in this situation?
NOTE: Stepping into a manager role in health care requires making decisions less on personal emotion and more focus on what will strengthen your team to provide quality patient care. Your discussion of Question #3 needs to include reasons for the decision being presented. Remember, case studies reflect real, complex situations that are not easily answered. Your answers should reflect a reasoned, rational approach to the problem that explains how the solutions were developed.
Your paper should be composed following these criteria:
You need to use information from the text and/or information from the supplemental readings in your analysis of the case.
Your paper should be 2-4 pages in length.
Your paper should be presented with all APA formatting components and requirements. Please see APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)for APA paper formatting guidelines.
And, your paper should also be a formal paper, and should not be presented in first-person language. While you are considering the case from a Practice Manager’s position, your paper should present your reflection in a formal academic paper (i.e. you should avoid using first-person terms like “I” or “My” in your paper).
Originality Review: It is expected that all work submitted for this course is original to the student author, and has not be submitted previously to another course, or to another section of this course. Each student submission will be submitted to the MSU Originality Checker “Unicheck” and a report will be provided to the student and instructor based on the originality of the work being presented. Submissions that receive a high non-originality percentage (i.e. material that is indicated as not original to the paper) will be reviewed by the instructor and discussed with the student. Situations of suspected plagiarism may be reported to the MSU Academic Misconduct committee, as described in course expectations and institutional policies (please refer to the Course Information Module for more description.)
