Amanda Silverio

Riverside Hospital Case

Comm350

Reading the case history of the accidental death at Riverside State Hospital of Horace Wilcox,
better communication and procedures can prevent accidents in the future. The Riverside State Hospital
should be found negligent in their duties and provided with the budget to make immediate repairs, as
well as receive heavy fines and/or possible closing of the facility until repairs are made and changes in
administration. A complete review of the hospital’s procedures on handling complaints or issues
pointed out by maintenance or residents should be done immediately with a plan provided on how the
procedures will be improved on. As in many organizations, the blame was passed onto the lowest level
of administration and that person or department is expected to take the punishment. This type of crisis
management will not correct the problem and will most likely lead to more events.

Hillary Hank, in charge of Resident Life, used a classic bureaucratic organization management
approach to deal with her responsibilities and employees. This type of management “is politically and
socially linked to providing information only to managers and supervisors, who in turn use it to organize
and control workers” (Eisenberg, Goodall. & Trethewey, 2016, p. 69.) Passing of information to the labor
workers was discouraged and given to the individuals on a need to know basis. Transparency does not
exist in these types of work places that use this management approach. Lower level employees are kept
in the dark, except when upper level staff need a scapegoat.

Support for the idea that Hillary Hank used classic bureaucratic organization management
approach is “the model endorses the need to foster a passive audience in the workplace” (Eisenberg,
Goodall. & Trethewey, 2016, p. 70.) Jack Handy, an illiterate groundskeeper, received the inspection
report from Blake Barrymore because he was running late for another inspection. Receiving no verbal
information from Blake, other than to give the report to Hillary and unable to read the report himself,
Jack dropped off the report without a word. Jack later stated that even if he had been told about major
issues that were stated in the report, he would not have passed on the information because “no one
listens to the groundskeeper anyway” (Eisenberg, Goodall. & Trethewey, 2016, p. 95.)

The out of date management approach used by Hillary Hank prevented the idea that lower level
employees could expect any issues communicated with the upper management would be followed up
on or even read. Nancy Ellis, Hillary’s secretary, would not feel able to tell Hillary Hank that by refusing
to personally deal with important administrative concerns she could be placing the hospital into a
potentially dangerous situation for patients and staff. Maintenance staff were largely ignored and
therefore, even if they did point out that there was repeat water damage to a portion of the building
and that further investigation should be done, it would most likely fall of deaf ears or the excuse of no
budget would be used. Hillary Hank frequently had her secretary sign all paperwork for her and her lack
of care demonstrated in the case history would lead to the belief that expecting Hillary to follow up on
building issues was slim to none

In order for Riverside State Hospital to improve employee relations, a major overhaul in
management approach will be needed. For example “the human resources approach is concerned with
the total organizational climate as well as with how as organization can encourage employee
participation and dialogue” (Eisenberg, Goodall. & Trethewey, 2016, p. 84.) If all levels of employees felt
that their opinion or communications were valued, a premature death could have been prevented.

Riverside Hospital needs to provide training exercises and seminars for management on how to
be an effective leader and promote communication in the hospital. Periodic review through surveys or
speaking with employees casually to ensure that the improved management and communication
approaches is being used consistently can ensure prolonged change.

Riverside Hospital can only benefit from improved communication and employees that feel they
have a voice on the right and wrong way to take care of issues. The lack of this in an environment where
severely impaired patients have to live compounds the occurrences of injuries. Bringing in a consultant
firm to help overhaul the way the hospital runs would be an excellent idea. This would allow unbiased
actions to be taken for the benefit of all. If after a short training period there are staff members that
cannot adhere to the new communication style and after a fair number of warnings, should be
terminated. Health care facilities should not be a place where mediocrity is allowed. It would also seem
that the state needs to see more value in health care facilities and allow enough budget to support
updated equipment, timely repairs and well-trained caregivers and administrators.

I plan to take lessons learned from this case study and watch for any type of this poor
communication method in my work place. In any large organization, there are several different
approaches to communication and not all of them are good. It will be an uphill battle, but if I come
across this type of communication I can take action against it or at the very least point it out as an issue
to worked on and hopefully promote change in my own work environment. I am transparent and have
an open door policy as much as possible with employees and they appreciate that. It allows for mutual
trust and respect and better work performance.
 Work Cited

Eisenberg, E., Goodall, H. L., J., & Trethewey, A. (2016). Organizational communication balancing
creativity and constraint (K. Schultz Moore, Ed.) (8th). Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin.