Assignment: Application: Systems Theory. Health, Medicine, Nursing

Application Systems Theory
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Application Systems Theory
Health care is getting more and more complicated as the demands on physicians increases. As a result, physicians need to understand how their practices relate to the healthcare system (Johnson, Miller & Horowitz, 2008). Systems theory has been advanced to help in understanding how different hospital departments work. According to Glenister (2011), systems theory implies the study of things and how these things interact with other things. The emergency room (ER) is perhaps one of the most important yet complicated departments within a hospital setting. The ER is supposed to be able to respond meaningfully to several complicated cases without warning at any time. Consequently, chaos and complexity is a standard way of life. In this regard, the ER department needs to be able to cope with the complexity and the chaos.
The ER Department from System Theory Terminologies
System theory takes into account how activities flow (Meyer & O’Brien‐Pallas, 2010). Inputs in the ER refer to the flow of patients. The flow of patients within the ER is very difficult to control. Throughput within the ER refers to the emergency processes that affect the flow of patients. The factors include staffing, triage, IT resources, surgical scheduling, and availability of specialty. If any of them is disrupted, there can be a backlog within the ER and a high chance that some of the patients may not be seen in due time by the physicians. Output is the ability to discharge patients from the ER. The discharge can be putting them in admission or releasing them for a later follow-up. In terms of cycle of events, when patients are able to be treated and they leave the ER, more will be discharged and this will create room for new patients. Thus, the cycle will continue. Within the ER, negative feedback would be on the inability to attend to new patients in time due to overcrowding and inadequacy of physicians to attend to all cases in time.
The Problem of Overcrowding within the ER
In the ER, the pictures that one is constantly faced with are long waiting lines and crowded rooms. The emergency rooms are constantly overcrowded limiting the ability to effectively handle emergencies. The overcrowding is normally attributed to a large number of inputs of patients while there are normally limited numbers of hospitals equipped to deal with the emergencies. But even in the hospitals supposed to deal with these emergencies, the ratio of doctors to patients is normally large. Therefore, it becomes difficult to attend to all patients without some having to wait for long. The implication of this overcrowding can be very serious and it can create a harmful situation that can be deadly. The overcrowding is detrimental to the patients and employees alike. The patients face the likelihood of leaving without being treated while the employees may be dissatisfied with their jobs. Overcrowding potentially increases the cost of health and can lead to negative feedbacks especially on the issue of negligence.
Using the systems theory, the problem exists in the cycle of events. There is no right balance between inputs and throughputs. This is the main cause of the overcrowding. Whereas...