Journal article
The insights of allied health professionals transitioning from a matrix structure to a centralized profession-based structure within a public hospital setting
Journal of Organization Design, Vol.13, pp.197-212
2024
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
To manage the challenges associated with increasing costs and demand for healthcare, administrators often propose a re-structure of the workforce to gain more efficiencies. However, this can have detrimental impacts on professions such as allied health if the uniqueness of this workforce is not taken into consideration before, during and after re-structuring. In the dynamic setting of public hospital bed-based services, allied health is highly complex, consisting of diverse professionals (e.g., audiology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, pharmacy, dietetics, social work, and speech pathology), each requiring different technical expertise, training pathways, professional governance, and accountability. This case study evaluates the outcomes of a re-structure of allied health professionals working in bed-based services who transitioned from a matrix to a centralized structure of service delivery. Qualitative data were collected in a survey across three years to gain the perceptions from allied health staff about the impacts of the new structure. The results demonstrated that a centralized profession-based structure with single points of accountability was superior to a matrix structure in this context. The benefits identified included improved governance, administration efficiencies and cost-savings gained by having the budget and professional management aligned. This resulted in improved workforce planning and flexibility that delivered care to patients based on clinical priority. Further benefits included professional skills training pathways and succession planning across clinical specialties which enhanced career opportunities, all of which improved wellbeing and morale. These findings add to the sparse research pertaining to the components (structural, human and systems) to consider when incorporating allied health professionals in a proposed organizational design and the contingencies they require to operate successfully within certain contexts.
Details
- Title
- The insights of allied health professionals transitioning from a matrix structure to a centralized profession-based structure within a public hospital setting
- Authors
- Gemma Turato (Corresponding Author) - Sunshine Coast University HospitalJohn Whiteoak (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative IndustriesFlorin Oprescu (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Journal of Organization Design, Vol.13, pp.197-212
- Publisher
- Organizational Design Community
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1007/s41469-024-00178-w
- ISSN
- 2245-408X
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- All data have been de-identified and is stored in a workplace drive that is protected by username and password, which can be made available upon request.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Engage Research Lab; School of Health - Public Health
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991061397502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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