Issues In Hospital Case Study

Issues/Challenges There are various issues and challenges affecting the hospital today, especially since it is a non-profit hospital. One of the more significant issues is the rate of unemployment at CHSB, which is at 16.6%. This means that an alarming amount of the patients being treated at CHSB likely have little to no income, or are simply living off of social security, supplemental security income, welfare or small pensions. Of course, this increases the likelihood of high-risk issues such as: homelessness, hunger, drug use, crime, etc. Sometimes patients come to the hospital to obtain case management services. Of course, this causes huge issues for the hospital, because patients who are not in need of hospital beds are being admitted …show more content…
There is no policy or procedure that states a social worker is required in the emergency room at all times. Even though, Z. Byrd and R. Sai have been advocating for this, for many years; but it has been to no avail. The emergency room is self-sustaining when it comes to social service needs. On a rare occasion, emergency room staff may call a social worker on one of the other floors, if they are having major issues. According to R. Sai and Z. Byrd, there is a consensus that a permanent social worker is needed in the emergency room at all times, but every time the issue has been brought up to management, it is not taken into consideration due to budget (personal communication, November 5, 2014). Even though, it may seem that “Social workers in hospital emergency rooms perform myriad tasks, many of which are not sufficiently recognized because of their non-medical nature. These contributions include assessing the social service needs of patients and families, counseling, and finding suitable referrals. Their mandates are to help triage patients based on social service needs as well as to help reduce hospital costs by reducing unnecessary admissions (Auerbach & Mason, 2010).” In other words, having a social worker in the ER could potentially reduce spending for the hospital. According to Z. Byrd and R. Sai having a social worker in the emergency department could “reduce the risk of lawsuits, it would allow other staff to focus on tasks within their scope (personal communication, November 5, 2014).” For example, nurses could focus more on patient care; instead of spending there, time doing tasks a social worker should be doing such as finding placement, and other basic resources. Having an emergency room social worker, would allow social workers to screen patients for social service needs and therefore deter staff from admitting patients when it is not medically