Practical aspects of change management at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic at the University Hospital of Medical Sciences in Poznań, Poland.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Recent changes to the Polish healthcare system have forced healthcare managers and administrators to implement modern instruments for strategic and operations management. The main aim of the study was to analyze the effect of managerial decisions in the area of human resources, resulting from the adopted restructuring program, on the economic situation of the OGCH, PUMS. MATERIAL AND METHODS The research material comprised of secondary sources on finance, accounting and human resources data: financial statements, analysis of costs incurred by individual hospital departments, reports on the implementation of NHF contracts for providing health services and on hospital workforce at the time of the study, as well as the results of patient satisfaction survey at the OGCH, PUMS. RESULTS After implementation of the restructuring program all clinics apart from one - Surgical Gynecology Clinic - reached better beds occupancy rates in 2012 as compared to 2009, as well as significantly improved profit/per hospital bed. Over the course of three years, since the launch of the hospital restructuring program, a significant (20%) increase in the revenues from selling healthcare services and a simultaneous decrease (2%) of the operating cost was observed. CONCLUSIONS Inclusion of department heads into the decision making processes of managerial accounting seems to be necessary to improve the overall financial condition of a hospital. However, it requires a more flexible hospital structure, what can be achieved by implementing a divisional organizational structure, which grants individual organizational units a certain autonomy in the process of making medical-financial decisions.