The employees of the HIM department in Midwest Community Hospital, a 100-bed facility located in Des Moines, have just returned from a meeting. Their director, Gary Smith, announced that the hospital was recently acquired by a large integrated delivery system, Hometown Health Systems. Hometown Health Systems has just implemented an electronic health record system and intends to ensure that the HIM department employees receive the necessary training to be prepared to assume their new e-HIM roles. Gary has been with the organization for 30 years and has indicated his intention to retire when the facilities merge, which is scheduled to occur in about six months. Hometown's corporate director of health information systems, Jane Winters, will assume responsibility for managing the department, with an assistant director to be appointed at Midwest who will assume day-to-day supervisory responsibilities.
Jane knows that three employees at Midwest might be qualified to assume the position and would like to fill it through promotion. All three candidates have positive and negative factors, some of which could be remedied with training. Gary and Jane plan to discuss the best approach to selecting the new supervisor and Gary has been asked to assist in the process by preparing the selected employee for the transition. After returning from the meeting, Gary begins to review the three employees in his mind.
Bob has worked in the ROI area of the department for three years and recently obtained his RHIT credential after attending a local community college program. He is enthusiastic about working in the department and has frequently suggested new procedures, which has led to some friction with Gary, whose motto is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Bob has been frustrated by the lack of available technology in the HIM department. Now that he has the credential, he has mentioned that he may want to begin looking elsewhere if his ideas are not appreciated at Midwest.
Sherry is a coder who has worked at Midwest for about one year. She began her employment at the hospital in the outpatient registration area. Six months after completing AHIMA's online coding program, she assumed the coding position in the HIM department. She is a single parent who is a self-proclaimed workaholic. In her spare time, she works at home as a coder for a physician's office to increase her income.
Linda currently works as the lead file clerk in the department. Of the three employees, she is the only one with supervisory experience, although she has had no formal management training. Gary had promoted her to the lead position because of her excellent attendance record and seniority. However, her employees have complained frequently to Gary that she "takes over" and corrects their work without explaining what they did wrong. Gary also knows that she does not feel comfortable disciplining employees and that she finds doing the job herself easier than working with the employee responsible for the job.
Gary will meet next Monday with Jane and is still unsure how to solve this dilemma.
Questions:
1. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of promoting one of the employees to the assistant director position?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages of selecting someone from outside the hospital?
2. What would be your approach to solving the problem?
3. Develop a training plan to prepare each employee for the supervisory position. For each employee, discuss the needs, objectives, curriculum, best delivery mode, and method to assess his or her readiness for the position. How could a virtual world environment be incorporated into the training plan?
4. Review the e-HIM roles discussed in the chapter. Select an appropriate role that each of the two employees you did not recommend for the supervisory position might assume, taking into consideration their current areas of knowledge and skills. Develop a training program to prepare each of these employees for their new roles.
5. Describe an appropriate succession plan for Gary after the candidate has been selected.