Discussion Question 1: What social and cultural barriers may have made it difficult for the doctors to communicate with Jesica’s family? What might have the doctors done to increase the chances that Jesica’s family understood the true nature of the problems in this terrible circumstance? One major barrier that would have made it difficult for Jesica's doctors to communicate with her family's would have been their nationality. As noted in Jesica's case study, her parents had smuggled her into the United States from Mexico because the doctors of their country could not treat her illness (Burns, Bradley, & Weiner, 2012, p. 184). Additionally, Jesica's mother required a translator in order to give a press conference statement. The doctors could have addressed this linguistic and cultural barrier by ensuring that a Spanish-speaking medical advocate was being utilized to accurately describe Jesica's medical situation.
Discussion Question 2: How would you organize the complex set of steps required in this transplant process to ensure that misunderstandings do not occur in hand-offs between professionals? In its discussion of communication networks, Shortell and Kaluzny's Healthcare Management: Organization Design and Behavior (ODB) describes several different organizations of communication networks (Burns et al., 2012, p. 181). One such network, known as the wheel, features a central coordinator who sends and receives information to and from various professionals. This strategy would be very effective to prevent miscommunications between different parties, and it would also allow for a centralization of information. Therefore, I would utilize a central transplant coordinator (or department) to ensure that misunderstandings do not occur.
Discussion Question 3: If you were the Duke Medical Center CEO, what general communication strategy would you put in place to