Question

CASE 2:  GHANDI MEDICAL CENTRE

Ghandi Medical University Centre is engaged in full time teaching and medical research for a medical college, dental college, nursing college and other health related professions. It is attached to university which enrolls approximately 2,000 students. It has about 800 beds in medical, surgical and psychiatric wings. It is funded by state government. It is widely recognized as top institution in the provision of medical services in the state. However, the medical center faced consistent financial problems; especially the teaching is unable to break-even.

The state government has brought Dr. Rao, previously Director of a large private hospital by offering lucrative salary and perks. Lured by an excellent salary, favourable climate and the opportunity to test his abilities, Dr. Rao accepted the post of Director of the centre.

In the post of Director, Dr. Rao holds control of administration of the teaching, hospital and the college of health related professions. He is accountable for both its management and its budget. While Dr. Rao enjoys free hand in the internal affairs of the university, all long range plans and budgets are approved by state legislature and university. The medical centre is expected to obtain approval for major programs from both the university and state it is subject to their rules, regulations and priorities. While the state favours expenditure on health care, the university prefers a budget structure supporting teaching and research.

This being the external intricacies, Dr. Rao found that the teaching and health care personnel directly reporting to him have conflicting priorities. While the former group emphasizes teaching and research, latter stresses on health care. A sluggish bureaucracy entrenched in the organization, most of the important people respect it as it provides necessary resources. However, many individuals within the bureaucracy flap well-conceived plans because they lack initiative or have interest in the effective management of the institution.

In this back drop, Dr. Rao found Mr. Das was handling all procurements, a unique personality, he being a retired military person. While purchasing, he buys exactly what every physician orders with no regard to cost. Many of his purchases are dictated by state specifications. This frequently resulted in running out of budget allocation within eight or nine months, contributing to deficit. This forced the centre to borrow supplies from local hospitals. Mr. Das, it seems neither made an attempt to change state specifications nor persuaded physician and teaching staff to order less expensive items of equal quality.

However, he is not violating the rules, but discharging his duties perfectly with the bureaucracy. Dr. Rao recognized that he is not only an exception in the centre.

Questions

1. What are the specific problems of Dr. Rao? How do you eliminate them?

2. How could you redesign the organization? Construct a chart.

3. Dr. Rao is not strong believer of bureaucracy. As such what type of leadership styles are appropriative in this case?

Answer 1

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