Dietitians as multidepartment managers in healthcare settings

Today’s world of health care is one of constant change. Although the rise in health care costs slowed to single digits in the 1990s, costs are again spiraling out of control. Business Week (January 28, 2002) reports that the nation’s healthcare tab may rise to 16% of the US gross domestic product by the year 2010 vs 13.4% in 2001 (1). Rita Jackson (2) states that “to reduce costs, administrators use empowered team members to come up with plans that reduce the number of department heads and provided blended management specialties.” Champy (3) cites examples of departments being combined, with one individual responsible for all aspects of management. A survey by the Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management (HFM) in 1996 indicated that 21% of HFM operator members were managing foodservices and other departments such as environmental services, linen services, and engineering maintenance (4). Silverman and colleagues (5) reported that 61% of 214 foodservice managers surveyed expected change in their management responsibilities, with most anticipating the management of more departments within their hospitals. Williams and DeMicco (6) indicated that reasons for multidepartment management included organizational downsizing, consolidation of support services, and acquisitions of competitors. Multidepartment management is occurring in health care, in education, and in the operation of sports arenas (7). William Sciacca, Sr, presented a session on multidepartment management at the American Dietetic Association (ADA) national conference in 1998. He indicated that integrated services were often organized in functional sets of facilities service, customer service, and logistics service (unpublished data, October 1998). Today’s department heads have more responsibility than ever, with many taking on multidepartment and multilocation management responsibilities (8). The rapidly changing environment in managed health care emphasizes efficiency with downsized workforces and flexibility to change strategic direction. According to Williams (7), multidepartment managers have different training needs based on the scope of their responsibilities. Training needs that ranked highest were in team building, finance, and technology (9). Other critical attributes listed included innovation, calculated risk taking, strong communication skills, time management, political savvy, customer orientation, and creativity (10). The purpose of this project was to explore the prevalence of multidepartment management in healthcare operations among members of the Management in Food and Nutrition Systems dietetic practice group (DPG). Researchers sought to determine the knowledge and D. D. Canter is a professor in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management, and Dietetics at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. M. F. Nettles is an associate professor in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS. Address correspondence to: Deborah D. Canter, PhD, RD, Professor, Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management, and Dietetics, Justin Hall 104, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-1404. E-Mail: canter@ksu.edu Copyright © 2003 by the American Dietetic Association. 0002-8223/03/10302-0020$35.00/0 doi: 10.1053/jada.2003.50023