Please review the scenario below; then discuss the issue and possible solution(s) for your team. Note: This is team effort, and every member must contribute his/her suggestions and collectively decide what is best for the offices. You are expected to offer solution ideas of your own and to respond to at least two of your teammates’ ideas.
Recently Jane was hired as an office manager for a pediatric orthopedic practice in a large city. This practice has the main site at your location and several remote sites where doctors travel throughout the week. Because Jane is the office manager at the main site, she is also in charge of supervising a team of office managers at all remote sites.
All students in this course are the team of office managers that Jane is supervising.
One of Jane’s first tasks was to create a “uniform” set of documents that each site will use for basic office tasks. One document is a time tracking document that each office manager fills out. In the past, the “honor system” was in place, and managers were allowed to fill out the form and turn it in without a supervisor reviewing their document. This process was explained to Jane as a decision made as a sort of “perk” for all the office managers, as they did not need a supervisor reviewing their work.
One day, she decided to review some of the past time tracking documents and immediately noticed that the method of adding up the total hours worked is not always correct in each document. As she continued to look through the documents, she noticed that some of the files are at least 5 years old. Even though this discrepancy existed, she wondered if the time needed to investigate the file was worth it. Jane decided to contact the office managers and inquire about her findings.
She wants the team to meet with her and provide her with some solutions that could be implemented in the future throughout the offices.
Your task as the team of office managers is to discuss the issue with the time tracking documents and create a solution to be implemented in all offices. You will submit a time tracking document at the end of the week for Jane to review and approve.
You will want to discuss the issue with the first-time tracking document and figure out ways to institute supervisory approval as part of the process.
- Create a solution to this problem by clearly defining what steps you would take to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again. Your solution might include such things as communication improvements and modified documents.
Once everyone has agreed on the process, you will create and attach a model time tracking document and tell Jane why the new time tracking document will be beneficial to all the pediatric orthopedic practice offices.
Note: You do not actually need to submit or attach a time document, as this is only the planning and brainstorming stage.
Since you will be reviewing this scenario along with your classmates, your answers may be similar; however, please keep in mind that your response cannot have the same answer as another student. Likewise a post of, “I agree with Jane, and I have nothing to add” will not be considered for grading. Please create an original response, citing sources when necessary and following APA formatting guidelines.
