The Four Corners Health Partners (FCHP) was a company that buys up health facilities in Colorado and the company was expanding into other areas of the country. A proposal for the County Hospital to turn over the management of the hospital to FCHP prompted the county commissioner to ask the board of physicians for their recommendations. The County Hospital Director of Medical Staff, Dr. Melvin Wood, held meetings with the Green River County Hospital Board of Physicians to discuss the issue and there was a unanimous decision to oppose the privatization. Their main reasons for the opposition were: 1.) FCHP delivers on its mission of lowering costs but it does so at the expense of patient care. 2.) FCHP has been involved in numerous scandals. 3.) Their public relations and lobbying efforts is extremely effective in squelching complaints before they come to the public’s attention. 4.) FCHP is unethical (Sharp, 74). Later in the day, Dr. Wood, the hospital administrator, and a representative from the FCHP had lunch and when the hospital administrator left to use the restroom, the FCHP representative tried to convince Dr. Wood that the FCHP is a good company. The FCHP representative then offers Dr. Wood an opportunity to grow with the company with a significant increase in salary, and with stock options. That same day, Dr. Wood went to look over the Green River County Hospital accounting books and coincided with the county budget office that the hospital cannot continue with their current financial arrangements. When Dr. Wood decided to write the letter to the county commissioner, he deliberately unstiffened the objections of the Board of Physicians. The Facts Surrounding the Case To gain a better understanding, privatization is the transfer of possessions or service from the government to the private sector. …show more content…
The range of privatization is broad, sometimes it leaves very little government involvement, and other times create partnerships between the government and the private service providers where the government still leads (privatization, 2004). In case 30, Privatization of the County Hospital, the hospital was having financial problem and the county commissioner was looking at the possibility of privatizing the hospital to the Four Corners Health Partners (FCHP), a company that buys up health facilities. The Director of Medical Staff, Dr. Melvin Wood, the leader, initially had problem to make the decision with the board of physicians whether to accept or decline the proposition. On the long run the board of physicians made a unanimous decision to oppose the privatization because of numerous reasons. However when Dr. Wood was offered a significant increase in salary, the opportunity to grow with the company, and stock options, Dr. Wood decide not emphasize on the opposition of the privatization when he sent the letter to the commissioner. As leader, effective communication is crucial and efforts must be made to master the skills because a leader’s success depends on the interactions of the leader with the employees, the customers, stakeholders and shareholders (Levine, 2015). Was Dr. Wood an effective leader and did he meet the description stated by Levine? Indeed Dr. Wood was effective in communicating with the board of physicians on the privatization of the hospital to FCHP. However, he did not deliver to the commissioner the transparent message of the board of physicians opposing the privatization of the hospital. Indeed there was trust issue that could easily destroy the relationship of a leader with his employees and that of the board of physician if the staffs happen to discovered what he did. An effective communications focuses on the audience, listening, preparation, transparency, generosity and brevity; all characteristics create a positive path to an easy way of achieving a high level of success (Levine, 2015). Dr. Wood action was not generous to his employee, but simply to himself only. Moreover, there was definitely no positive path for him to achieve any high level of success if he continues to betray his employees’ trust. The board of physicians’ decisions was to oppose the privatization of the hospital, but when Dr. Wood was offered significant increase in salary, the opportunity to grow with the company, and stock options, he reacted otherwise. According to Merriam-Webster definition “ethic