An acute care is defined as a level in healthcare in which a patient is treated for a brief but serious illness as a result of a disease, trauma or surgery. (Hospital Today, 2000) According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are six domains in acute care. The six domains are emergency care, urgent care, short-term rehabilitation, trauma care and acute care surgery, critical care, and pre-hospital care. (Hirshon, et al., 2013) In an acute care setting there are many departments that are in place to help treat a patient. Some of the departments include a cardiology, pulmonary, primary care physicians, anesthesiology, and many others. There are doctors, nurses, technicians, and office staff that all play an important role in the acute care hospital setting.
Managerial Methods Coordination is connecting the activities of an organization to achieve desired results. There are three dimensions of coordination: horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. (Dunn, 2010)
Horizontal coordination is communication of departments on the same level, helping to resolve problems from different areas (Dunn, 2010). In the acute health care setting this method is used admitting a new patient to the setting and ensuring that all managers have the information for the resident to be able to better serve that patient which would begin during the registration process, the case manager, the therapy department, health information department, all of whom would be involved with the patients stay.
Vertical coordination is communication of different levels in an organization. The Chief Operating Officer coordinates with the Executive Director of Health Services. Delegating authority, assigning duties, and supervising and controlling are managerial functions used in this dimension. It is an effective way to communicate between managers as the agreed plans are able to be shared with