INTERVIEWING SENIOR EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Me: What type of health care organization are you affiliated with?
Interviewee: I work in a psychiatric hospital where I oversee the needs of all patients in with varying mental conditions.
Me: What is your position within the health care organization?
I serve as a mental health administrator in that hospital where I oversee the behavior of all patients within the facility. As the senior most person in that hospital, I ensure that all patients are treated equally and receive the best care possible.
Me: Describe your role and scope of responsibilities.
As the head of the facility, I oversee all the business operations and patient care. I ensure that the facility is well equipped to cater for adequate patients, and all patients are served to their need. My responsibilities as a psychiatric administrator include implementing programs for mental health as well as monitoring people with a mental health condition. I also collaborate with mental health and caseworkers to come up with protocols. My other responsibility is to review public needs through individual interactions and public surveys so that all the needs of patients can be captured. I ensure that the facility has adequate resources and funding for implementing mental programs and services. The last activity I engage in is evaluating case histories to assess whether the current mental services are effective or ineffective. With such information, I develop new programs that can supplement the failing programs and services.
Me: Describe the relationship between your health care organization’s vision, mission, goals, and strategic plan.
The vision of our facility is to provide competent, holistic and wellness-focused services that will promote social-emotional development for all patients, prevent the development of mental challenges and avoid any form of social-emotion problem that prevails in the facility. To achieve the vision, we support staff training and well-being and implement effective and most appropriate mental health services for children and adults with mental conditions. The ultimate goal of this mental health hospital is to offer equitable care to all patients both children and adults with the mental condition. The hospital plan to provide an environment with the
Me: Tell me about a time your organization’s operational performance affected, either positively or negatively, its ability to deliver services and achieve performance goals.
Interviewee: There is a time when the manager commended the employees for their high levels of productivity. At that time, the employees were arriving early and leaving late. Although that was attributable to the willingness of the workers to serve, the proximity of their homes to workplace and excellent chemistry, the attained level performance was exemplary. The number of patients served increased considerably, and satisfaction was reported to be high. The fact that we deal will mentally perturb individuals on a daily basis means that spending more time with them was something treasurable. Since offering competitive services and satisfying ones alike is one of our objectives, the enhanced performance would be attributed to the high degree of productivity.
Me: Describe the process you take to deliver a particular type of service offered by your health care organization.
Interviewee: One of the major services that is offered in the hospital is psychoeducation which entails the provision of education and information to all those seeking mental health services. The process followed during psychoeducation includes identification of all patients who are newly diagnosed with a mental health condition and their family member. When the individuals are identified, they are assembled in a room where the education is offered. The educator is well equipped with information about various mental conditions, and the information is shared through tutorials and direct interactions.
Me: Describe one aspect of your business operations.
Interviewee: one aspect of my business operation is a human resource. I ensure that all the employees are well coordinated so that they can bring out the best when interacting with patients with various mental conditions. The workers assist in the implementation of mental health programs and services and offer the best intervention for newly diagnosed patients. The workers are part of the success of the business operation and play a significant role in making the hospital a success.
Me: What is the major challenge you encounter in your area of practice?
Interviewee: the greatest challenge is the misdiagnosis of patients that lead to wrong treatment. Different mental health conditions present similarly making the medical practitioners to confuse between them hence making the wrong diagnosis. The wrong diagnosis leads to medical liability, and it is my responsibility as the heath administrator to ensure that such cases are well solved and doctors are trained to avoid misdiagnosis.
Me: What are the common mental conditions that are handled in your facility?
The common diseases that I encounter in my practice include post-traumatic stress disorder, paranoid personality disorder, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, anxiety, depression, drugs-related disorders, and eating problems. Also, we have other conditions that I will not mention at the moment because they are not so common.
Reflection
The interview was successful, and the interviewee was willing to participate in the interview which can be evaluated by his aggression when responding to the questions. From the responses, I agree with the interview because as a health administrator of a psychiatric hospital, you have various roles that should be in line with delivering quality health care to all patients. The health administrator should limit any form of discrimination to ensure that all patients receive care as required. Besides, they should make sure that all patients receive individualized care because each patient has a different condition that should be handled differently. As the heath administrator, cases of misdiagnosis are inevitable especially in a psychiatric hospital where conditions have similar symptoms.
I agree that health administrators are faced with challenges that are associated with poor care by healthcare professionals. Such challenges can lead to lawsuits, and the ultimate result can be the closure of the facility of termination of certain services and programs. I would like to know any single instance that led to a lawsuit and how the administrator handled the information. I would also want to know how big the facility its and the capacity of patients as compared to the number of the healthcare workforce in the same facility. During the interview, I would have based my questions on the roles of the administrator which directly relate to a psychiatric hospital so that I can understand the areas where he has not functioned as expected.