Riverbend Orthopedics is a busy group practice with expanded services for orthopedic care. It has seven physicians and a podiatrist, plus about 70 other employees. At its big, new clinic building, Riverbend provides extensive orthopedic care. Several technicians provide diagnostic medical imaging, from basic X-rays to magnetic resonance images.

The physicians perform surgery in their own outpatient surgery center with Riverbend’s own operating nurses and technicians. Therapy is provided by three physical therapists and one part-time contracted occupational therapist. In addition to staff providing actual patient care, the clinic has staff for financial management, medical records, human resources, information systems/technology, building maintenance, and other administrative matters. Occasional marketing work is done by an advertising company.

Legal work is outsourced to a law firm. Riverbend is managed by a new president, Ms.
Garcia. She and Riverbend have set a goal of achieving “Excellent” ratings for patient experience from at least 90 percent of Riverbend’s patients this year.
Ms. Garcia has often tried to use a rational and somewhat individual decision-making approach at Riverbend. This has caused some problems, and she wants to try other approaches. Assume that Riverbend currently has Excellent ratings from only 65 percent of its patients.
Mini Case Study Questions MCQ1. Discuss how Ms. Garcia and her management team could use tools from this chapter to make decisions and solve problems to reach the 90 percent goal.
MCQ2. Although the physicians all approved the 90 percent goal, Ms. Garcia feels that conflict might arise between her and Dr. Barr regarding how to achieve the goal.
Which causes of conflict (described in this chapter) might create that conflict?
Which conflict resolution style should Ms. Garcia use?