Erica Kovarik 1

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The organization I work for is Regional Health Services of Howard County.

RHSHC is a rural health facility that is located in Cresco, Iowa. It is an affiliate of

MercyOne. RHSHC offers a full scope of health care services from bringing new life into

the world, caring for patients through illnesses and emergencies, providing health care

services for individuals in their own home, offering long term care options, and finally,

offering physical, emotional, spiritual and social support at the end of life. This

continuum of care is provided by dedicated health care professional staff who look

forward to taking care of patients and their families (Regional Health Services of Howard

County: IA). My role is that I am the supervisor of the Business Office. As the

supervisor in the business office, I look over registration for outpatient and the billing

department. The business office handles claims, insurances, revenue, and charges. If they

have any questions or concerns, they can come to me directly.

The situation I am having to handle over the next five modules is that we had a

patient that had complained to our head of board with RHSHC. This patient was upset

because someone in the business office had broken HIPPA regulations and gave out

confidential information. The patient did not know who did it though. Per the head of

board, the patient stated, “they knew that it was from the business office and it was a

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woman. I am not exactly sure what woman it was, but she leaked information about me

that should never have been leaked. I am very upset and hope that you take care of this!”

With this, there are two biggest concerns because the patient did not give us exactly what

team members did break HIPPA regulations and that all the team members in the

business office are female.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

The human resources of RHSHC made a big impact within the situation. Human

resources wanted to get down to exactly how and who leaked the information within the

business office. They wanted to make sure that this patient was happy and that this situation

was taken care of. When it comes to the human resources within RHSHC, we have set steps

that we have to follow when a situation arises like this. But in this situation, it is a lot tougher

because the patient was not stating who broke HIPPA and exactly what that women did.

This week’s text addresses that Argyris believe that organizations often treated workers

like children rather than adults (Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 6). One thing that our human

resource department does is treat some employees as children. When they started questioning

the business office team members, they consider if one person resists or becomes defensive,

that confirms that person is at fault (Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 8). This really impacted the

situation and how this was handled because they went based of the person reaction, rather

than knowing if it was the truth or not.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of

action regarding your case.

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I feel the way that RHSHC human resource policies handle this situation is not right.

When they just try to get the situation taken care of right away and not look into it in more

detail it can cause more harm. To avoid detection, they pile subterfuge on top of camouflage.

This generates even more uncertainty and ambiguity and makes it difficult or impossible to

detect error (Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 8). By following these polices, they are causing more

harm within. Just because someone’s gets defensives or questions when you ask, should not

just be accused of doing something. That person could have not been the one that broke

HIPPA at all, but in the end gets the blame for it.

An alternative course of action that I would recommend for this situation is to not just

trying to pinpoint the exact person that broke HIPPA. I feel that this situation should have

been taken as a time to reflect and learn how important HIPPA is. This is a learning

experience. Since the person that broke HIPPA did not get mention, you should not put the

blame on just one person. I would use this time to be inform and learn how important HIPPA

is and that we need to follow HIPPA guidelines. This practice is not perfect but good enough

(Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 7). Even though this may not be the perfect way to handle the

situation, I think this is the best way to handle this situation because no one knows exactly

who or what HIPPA information was leaked about this patient. I think we need to take the

approach that Wegmans takes. At Wegmans, they believe that good people, working toward

a common goal, can accomplish anything they set out to do. In this spirit, they set their goal

to be the very best at serving the needs of customers. Every action they take should be made

with this in mind. They also believe that they can achieve their goal only if they fulfill the

needs of their own people (Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 7). I feel taking this approach really

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allows the employees satisfaction and confirms them that they are being treated fairly and

correctly. This is very important when it comes to an organization.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned

about this frame.

This situation that I am dealing with is a case where I would change the policy and rules

of how we would approach this situation to come to a conclusion. Our end goal is to be able

to provide the patient with confidence that we have acted on this situation and that it will not

happen again. At RHSHC, we want to provide the best care we can give to them. We want

patients to know that we take confidentiality very seriously and make sure this patient is

happy with their actions. The only way we can do that is by changing our policy and

procedures to make sure that this is handled in a serious manner. We also do not want to

punish the wrong team member as well.

The human resource frame highlights the relationship between people and organizations.

Organizations need people, and people need organizations, but their respective needs are not

always well aligned. When the fit between people and organizations is poor, one or both

suffer (Bolman & Deal, 2017, ch 6). I feel that when you punish the wrong people in your

organization, this really impacts the organization in a positive way. You need to assure to

your employees that they are not going to be accused of something they are not doing. This

frame really shows that you need to make sure your practices are set in place and will not

cause issues within the organization and the people that work there. You need to find the best

policies that work for your organization.

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References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (6th ed.) [2017]. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved 2020, from
https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-481-org-leadership-pro-seminar-i-2020-fall-
b/9781119281849?chapter=f01

Regional Health Services of Howard County: IA. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2020, from
https://www.mercyonenorthiowaaffiliates.org/rhshc/