Case of Lincoln Hospital

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." - Albert Einstein

INTRODUCTION

The study of this case described the impact of a third-party intervention in an operating room (OR). The results show significant levels of improvement in group effectiveness, honest communication, comfort discussing organizational problems and interpersonal trust.

BACKGROUND

The president of Lincoln Hospital, a for-profit hospital that had 400 hundred beds to fill faced a crisis.

One specific challenge was the conflict between the hospital's OR director and the chief surgeon who enjoyed hospital privileges. Mary, the strong-willed OR director was a conservative, no-nonsense administrator, who strictly followed all the hospital's polices and procedures and after 13 years history of trust from the administration, was respected by the nurses and at least some of the physicians. Other physicians, however, disliked Mary for what they saw as inflexibility.

Don, the chief surgeon was articulate and had access to the president as his large practice provided him with professional security. The president, while recognizing Don’s professional competence, had strong misgivings about his generally abrasive manner toward professional staff. While the nurses' reaction to Don was fear his peers valued him. Finally, Don shared the other physicians’ dislike of Mary and wanted her removed as OR director.

The president himself was unwilling to remove Mary from her position. Satisfied with her performance generally as he observed it, he had concluded that responsibility for the problems in the OR rested on the surgeons as well as the nurses, not just on Mary alone. Furthermore, finding a new OR director would not be easy. Therefore, he directed Mary and Don to come together and resolve their problems; the status quo was simply not an alternative.

Accordingly, Don and Mary agreed to have three hospital...