I am expressing these views to the general manager of the Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital and share them with your readers.
Would you agree that management, put simply, is a series of systems, rules if you like, that people work within to achieve the goals of the business, institution or department as the case may be? Good management is about the smooth interfacing of those systems required to achieve a total objective.
Here’s an example: let’s get a prescription filled, paid for and take possession of it.
The systems involved at the hospital are these:
Pharmacy:
1 – One needs to phone in advance to have prescriptions filled to avoid a lengthy wait (only, of course, if the pharmacy already has your prescription).
2 – One needs to pay for the prescription prior to taking possession of it.
3 – One must pay for their prescription at the hospital administration, two floors and a lengthy walk away.
4 – One must present a hospital administration receipt to the pharmacy to take possession of the prescription.
5 – One cannot pay for the prescription at the pharmacy.
Administration:
1– One must present a current invoice to pay for one’s prescription. This is obtained from the pharmacy, two floors and a lengthy walk away.
2 – One cannot use a previous invoice as the price might have changed.
How it works:
Pharmacy:
1 – Get a phone call to fill a script.
2 – Fill script
3 – When patient arrives, prepare invoice while they wait.
4 – Obtain receipt from patient.
5 – Hand over prescription.
Administration:
1 – Receive invoice from patient and accept payment.
2 – Prepare receipt for patient.
Patient:
1 – Phone pharmacy and request prescription to be made up.
2 – Drive to hospital and find a park somewhere in the vicinity.
3 – Walk to the pharmacy and request an invoice.
4 – Wait for invoice to be prepared.
5 – Walk to administration two floors and a lengthy walk away.
6 – Present invoice and pay for the prescription.
7 – Wait for the receipt to be prepared.
8 – Walk back to the pharmacy two floors and a lengthy walk away.
9 – Present the receipt to the pharmacy.
10 – Take possession of the prescription.
11 – Walk back to car.
12 – Drive home.
13 – Take medication and know the same process will be required next month.
Of course, if someone is recently out of hospital, for the second time after two lots of major brain surgery in five weeks, there’d be exceptions made. Exceptions? These are systems in the public service, there are no exceptions!
The Alternative:
1 – Phone pharmacy, ask for your prescription to be made up and posted to you.
2 – Give the pharmacy your address and credit card number.
3 – Prescription arrives in the mail. (But not much good if you’ve been away and out of medication).
The Questions:
1 – Why can’t one simply give the pharmacy a credit card number while they are picking up their medication?
2 – Do you consider this smooth interfacing of systems, and take pride in them?