Discussion Response – Kotter vs Feinberg
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It is true that Feinberg and Kotter have different approaches to bringing change to the healthcare system, though, in some areas, they do seem to agree. For example, a sense of urgency needs to be created, but Feinberg goes a step further and takes immediate action to resolve pressing issues. This was exemplified by his decision to turn a conference room to cater to the fast-track patients while other changes were still on the drawing board. Between the two approaches, I believe Feinberg’s approach was more realistic, simplistic, and achievable. Feinberg made the changes revolve around the patients. Every decision, strategic move, and action was founded on increasing patient satisfaction. Feinberg understood that the customer is king and that a customer can make or break one’s business. Healthcare is all about the patient and getting the best possible outcomes. When lives are saved, the in-stay period is reduced, the cost of care is minimized, and the staff are satisfied with their jobs, then a healthcare system can be deemed successful. Feinberg and his team successfully balanced all these elements by focusing care on the patient and maximizing patient satisfaction. Additionally, Feinberg and his team were considerate of the staff at UCLA as they recognized that employee satisfaction results in better work output and improved patient satisfaction. This was exemplified when Feinberg saw to it that the air conditioners were in good working condition for the benefit of the employees and the patients and also when Men in Black were recruited to help in turning patients to avoid back injury of the nurses. Involving the leadership throughout the change process and also ensuring that the staff embraced and lived the new mission of the healthcare facility played a major role in its turn-around success. Hence, it can be said that Feinberg’s approach to change is more ideal and likely to have a longer-lasting impact.
Reference
Feinberg (2011). TEDxUCLA – David Feinberg – One Patient at a Time.mov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ5u7p-ZNuE
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Question 
As you review Kotter’s eight steps for transforming an organization, compare this with the teaching of Dr. Feinberg at UCLA and discuss the differences and similarities. Is there anything you would add to Kotter’s steps to improve the process after assessing these two models?
Discussion Response – Kotter vs Feinberg
These two have very different views on what health care is and their perceptions during the transformation of the organizations. Dr. Feinberg felt that many hospitals were not providing the proper customer service and genuine leadership skills that were necessary for the patients to want to have a positive experience within the organizations. Kotter feels that if a team leads by example and follows simple steps with good communication and a clear vision, patients can have a positive experience within any organization. “Kotter understood a sense of urgency in shared leadership with an open-minded vision for leaders to communicate and empower their employees with different steps and goals to help them improve by making changes for different approaches within the company that can help to build a better organization” (Nash & Clarke & Skoufalos & Horowitz, 2012 p. 347- 349). These steps enabled hospitals to identify different types of opportunities to develop strategies to achieve goals and remove different obstacles that would otherwise impede improvement by working together as a group. “Leadership understands the direct change is recognized by planning and structuring policies with new behaviors and employee encouragement” (Nash & Clarke & Skoufalos & Horowitz, 2012, p. 350). Dr. Fienberg believes that it is important to listen to consumers and understand their needs through compassion. “To ensure the patient satisfaction is being met, leaders need to take a stand to accommodate the patient’s needs” (Feinberg, 2014). The organizations need to put more focus on the patients and exercise patient-centered care.
If leaders put themselves in the role of the patients and understand that it could be their family member or themselves in that position, how would they want to be treated? “The command is that you should love one another as I love you” (John 15:12, NIV). Dr. Fienberg relates to having huge hospitals and high demands on nurses and doctors with big salaries but extremely low referral rates for patients and employees. This means that we are not accomplishing our goals as organizations. On the other hand, Kotter believes that if we follow these eight steps, the organization can achieve patient satisfaction and satisfied employees. “Dr. Fienberg sees things from their perspective on how we connect with our patients and their families to how well they are treated during their stay this can make a difference on their illnesses to the outcomes in the long run” (Feinberg, 2014). Kotter could focus more on patient needs and individuals as a whole. This would help the patient and the family to feel more satisfied with the services being received through the organization.
Even though these two have a different opinion on the way situations should be handled within the health care system. They both make sensible arguments. Both have valid points that patient satisfaction and employee needs should be met throughout the organization. They may go about these in a different way. The important thing is that the processes involve good communication and a positive educational and learning experience for all of the members involved, with the patients being the top priority. If you had to look at these two differences of opinion, which one would you feel would be more beneficial to the healthcare system? Explain why they would be beneficial to the health care system and why this one would be better than the other one.
References
Feinberg, D. T. (2014). To serve patients is our greatest privilege. Patient Experience Journal, 1(2), 4-5. doi:10.35680/2372-0247.1044
Nash, D. B., Clarke, J. L., Skoufalos, A., & Horowitz, M. (2012). Health care quality: The clinician’s primer