Problem
Marion Reilly is the Manager of Medical Data Services at Kingswood Physicians and Surgeons, a large multi-specialty physician practice. She is responsible for coding, medical record filing functions, and transcriptions. She has been asked to lead a task force to improve the turnaround time for supplying medical records to the practice's fourteen offices. Members of the task force include her immediate supervisor (the Director of Operations), a plastic surgeon, a general surgeon, an internist, two of her file clerks, fer file unit supervisor, and the Manager of Patient Billing Services. Marion has held one meeting so far. At that meeting, after everyone was seated, Marion said, "There is a problem in getting patient records to the offices quickly enough. The offices are not giving us enough notice before a patient comes in for an appointment." Immediately one of the physicians began to voice her complaints. The others joined in, and almost half of the meeting was spent in this way. When Marion was able to speak again, she stated, "I'm sure we are all aware of the problem. We have to find ways to improve the situation." Her file unit supervisor then began a long, involved, and repetitive explanation of all the things that could interfere with getting records to physician offices in a timely way. Her file clerks also added several comments of their own. Marion took notes. Other task force members began to fidget. Suddenly one of the physicians stated, "It's the end of the hour - I have to get back to my patients." The meeting quickly broke up. Marion has scheduled another meeting for next week. She realizes that she needs some advice to make this next meeting more productive, and has come to you (her supervisor, the Director of Operations) for help.
Task
A. What two documents should Marion prepare before the next meeting?
B. Who should take notes at the meeting? Provide a reason for your advice.
C. What other problems do you see with Marion's performance at the meeting and as leader of the task force that you should advise her about? List three
D. Give one suggestion to help Marion control the discussion at the next meeting. Critique your suggestion by giving one positive and one negative opinion about it.
E. What are two performance problems demonstrated by Marion's file unit supervisor at the meeting that should be discussed with her before the next meeting?
F. Why didn't the director of operations help Marion out at the meeting?
G. If meetings continue like the first one has, how long will it be before the physicians no longer attend? What can Marion do about this possibility?