FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY

Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

SAN LAZARO HOSPITAL

BUSINESS CASE STUDY REPORT

A Final Paper in MGT1104 Organizational Behavior Course
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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Table of Contents

Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................i
List of Tables and Figures................................................................................................................ii
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the Company ..............................................................................................................1
Viewpoint .......................................................................................................................................2
Time Context ..................................................................................................................................2
Case Facts .......................................................................................................................................2
The Problem ...................................................................................................................................4
Objectives of the Case ....................................................................................................................5
Alternative Courses of Action/Criteria ...........................................................................................5
Recommendation ...........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................................11
Appendices ...................................................................................................................................12

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1. Root Cause Analysis

Table 1. Alternative Course of Action #1

Table 2. Alternative Course of Action #2

Table 3. Alternative Course of Action #3

Table 4. Alternative Course of Action #4

Table 5. Alternative Course of Action #5

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Executive Summary
Start here

Overview of the Company

San Lazaro Hospital is a recommended facility that specializes in Infectious/
Communicable Diseases. At present, it has a 500-bed capacity that caters free health care service
particularly for the underprivileged sectors of the society. San Lazaro Hospital is one of the
maintained and preserved special tertiary hospital of the Department of Health (DOH) which is
subsidized and funded by the national government. Further, it has a continuous medical training
and research program for medical and paramedical personnel. Some of its short and long term
programs are infrastructure improvement and strengthening of its frontline services (San Lazaro
Hospital, 2020).

San Lazaro Hospital aims to provide comprehensive, all-inclusive, reasonable and

accessible clinical care for all infectious and tropical disease (ITD) cases; it intends to ensure
adequate response to developing and recurring infectious diseases; it hopes to provide
comprehensive training, education and research, both local and international; and to provide
accurate and relevant information on promotion, prevention and rehabilitation of infectious and
tropical disease cases (San Lazaro Hospital, 2020).

San Lazaro Hospital is committed to be the center of excellence for infectious and tropical
diseases by providing its clients with comprehensive quality patient care, training, education and
research services delivered with compassion, competence, dedication and professionalism based
on statutory and regulatory requirements; and shall continually improve its quality management
system to the satisfaction of its clients and other stakeholders (San Lazaro Hospital, 2020).

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Viewpoint
To better scrutinize and analyze this case study, it is seen as best to use the perspective
of health workers of San Lazaro Hospital as our chosen organization.

Time Context
The situation started just a week after it has been observed that the COVID-19 cases are
gradually increasing. At present, it is becoming more intolerable as the influx of COVID-19
patients are growing tremendously. This became inevitable, hence, health workers have to work
double time.

Case Facts
San Lazaro Hospital is known as the country’s Special National Hospital Medical Center
for Infectious Diseases. It is one of the recommended facility for infectious and communicable
diseases. It is deeply committed in providing healthcare services for indigents who cannot afford
private hospital rates but certainly deserve the same quality service.

Hence, amidst the current situation, San Lazaro Hospital is one of those hospitals that
have been greatly affected by this health crisis. It is one of the government hospitals that patients
have been flocking to. In fact, it was in San Lazaro Hospital where the first case of coronavirus
was confined. Consequently, the numbers of infected continue to surge and placed the hospital
to suffer from several problems.

 The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was isolated at San Lazaro Hospital last January
31, 2020 (Viray, 2020).
 As explained by Dr. Rontgene Solante, head of San Lazaro Hospital's Adult Infectious
Diseases and Tropical Medine Section, all COVID-19 isolation rooms at the Research
Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and San Lazaro Hospital are already full. He
stated as quoted: “The San Lazaro Hospital and the RITM cannot anymore
accommodate the COVID patients because our capacity is limited. We have a lot of
other infectious diseases. Where will we put our patients with HIV, where will we put
those who have tuberculosis, where will we put our dengue [patients]?” (Magsino,
2020).
 Dr. Solante also emphasized that several medical workforce, young and old, are highly
exposed from the threats of contagion (Magsino, 2020). "There are already doctors

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

being admitted in different private hospitals, some of them are really in critical
conditions," Solante said.
 As stressed by Dr. Solante too, healthcare workers also experience stress, anxiety and
fear of getting infected by the virus. As mentioned by Dr. Solante, “When you are
dealing with this infection, when you regularly talk with health workers, there’s always
this fear and uncertainty that they may be having the infection... the fear that they
cannot go back to their homes and see their families” (ABS-CBN News, 2020).
 Last March 29, 2020 - Three healthcare workers from San Lazaro Hospital have tested
positive for COVID-19 (ABS-CBN News, 2020)
 Healthcare services in Metro Manila hospitals have gotten more powerless against
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with stocks of personal protective equipment
(PPE) running out because the quantity of suspected and affirmed cases keeps on
rising.
 As stated by Robert Mendoza, AHW National President, health workers of San Lazaro
Manila are ordered to work 12 hours for seven days straight without any additional
compensation and benefits which worsened their current situation (Casas, 2020).

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

The Problem

Figure 1. Root Cause Analysis Model

From the analysis of the culled data and information, it was observed that due to the
shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), health workers became more exposed and
highly susceptible to acquiring the virus. They have possibly made interactions with the patients
without protective gears to protect themselves. Thus, a big number of frontline workers had been
placed in quarantine and had been infected by the virus. Moreover, due to the continuing
coronavirus outbreak, the number of patients flocking to the hospital continued to balloon.
However, the number of health workers available to accommodate this increasing rate is seen to
be inadequate. This disparity has caused what seems to be construed as the main problem of this
case study – that the health workers of San Lazaro Hospital are placed in a perennial situation
of being overworked.

After thoroughly scrutinizing the circumstances, it can also be deduced that the main
problems may have also resulted to two (2) sub-problems: a.) health workers are demotivated
which can negatively affect their productivity, efficiency, and performance; and b.) they are
more likely to experience task overload, role conflict and high level of stress which could also
lead to burnout or fatigue.

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Objectives of the Case

Generally, the case study intends to determine possible measures and solutions to
address and lessen the burden of workload experienced by the health workers as well as the
disparity of the increasing number of COVID-19 patients vis-à-vis the availability of the required
health workers.

Specifically, it seeks to:

- Gather relevant information and data on the disparity.

- Determine the impacts and effects on handling and managing COVID-19 patients.
- Assess and analyze the best and necessary measures to address the main problem
- Suggest or reinforce necessary solutions or measure to ease the dilemma and burden of
handling the COVID-19 cases.
- Lastly, to possibly come up with recommendations to adopt the needed hospital working
schedules and other processes.

Alternative Courses of Action/Criteria

Table 1. Alternative Course of Action #1

Alternative Course of Action Advantages Disadvantages

1. Adopt Flexible Work
Arrangement specifically
the “nine-eighty” work
schedule.
Under this arrangement,
an employee works a
traditional schedule (8
hours, 5 days) one week
and a compressed
schedule the next, getting
every other Friday off.
By alternating the regular
and compressed
schedules, the
organization is staffed at
all times, even with small
- It puts emphasis on the
work-life balance of the
health workers.
- Knowing they have a day
off every other week also
helps boost productivity
because employees are
less likely to experience
burnout.
- The flexibility in schedule
might lead to increased
productivity. When
people have more
control over their
working schedule, it
- It can also be difficult to
maintain high energy
levels for 9 hours
- Each health worker will
experience shorter
evenings, giving them
less time to wind down
after work and spend
time with family

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

workforce, it can still give energizes them and

employees two additional boosts their productivity.
full days off each month.

Table 2. Alternative Course of Action #2

Alternative Course of Action Advantages Disadvantages

2. Alternative Workplace
through Virtual Teams
The use of telecommuting
or working from home
may be one possible
solution to accommodate
the increasing number of
patients and minimize the
task of available health
workers. There should be
virtual teams composed
of Medical student
volunteers and some
health workers who were
placed in quarantine after
being tested. The virtual
team will be in-charge of
monitoring those patients
who were sent home and
instructed to self-
quarantine after showing
mild symptoms.
- The use of technology - Since the ways of
will be maximized. Video monitoring the patients
calls, phone calls and text are instructional and self-
will be the primary checking, it might create
means of monitoring the miscommunication.
conditions of patients.
- It will lessen the
exposure of our health
workers and volunteers
to the patients who were
proven to be positive.
- It will also help in
ensuring that the limited
PPE would be enough for
on-duty doctors.
- The use of Intranet – a
centralized information
clearinghouse will be
utilized by virtual teams
for recording medical
records virtually.
- It will lessen the task of
the on-duty workers.
- It will minimize the
number of patients
admitted to the hospital.

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Table 3. Alternative Course of Action #3

Alternative Course of Action Advantages Disadvantages

3. Job-Sharing for Doctors
from other Department
as well as the Medical
Student Volunteers
A job share may be one
good solution to ease the
burden and current
situation of the health
workers. It takes place
when two employees
particularly those doctors
from other department as
well as some medical
student volunteers
cooperatively share the
same job. Their
responsibility includes:
encoding of medical
records, checking and
attending to the patients
and front desk tasks.
- More patients will be - This may be an added
accommodated and cost or expenses.
monitored thoroughly. - More doctors and
- The workload of health volunteers will be
workers will lessen. exposed to patients with
- It will also encourage and positive cases.
entice volunteers to
augment the manpower
complement.
- Health workers as well as
the volunteers are likely
to experience increased
motivation, positive
work performance, and
effective coworker
relationships.

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Table 4. Alternative Course of Action #4

Alternative Course of Action Advantages Disadvantages

4. Meal and Rice Subsidy for - One good way to - It is an additional budget
the families of Health compensate the health for the government.
Workers workers for their -
To help the sustenance of sacrifice as well as the -
supplies of basic stress and burden they
necessities needed by experience.
their families. -

Table 5. Alternative Course of Action #5

Alternative Course of Action Advantages Disadvantages

5. Provision of Overtime - Motivation will be - Additional cost for the
Pay instilled and boosted for employer and for the
Most of the time, due to they would feel that they government as a whole
increased COVID-19 are being paid well.
patients, health workers
are forced to work double
time or extended hours.
The provision of overtime
pay is not only lawful but
also humanitarian.

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Recommendation
After a careful analysis of the suggested alternative solutions, it is being recommended
that Alternative Solution #3: Job Sharing for Doctors from other Department as well as the
Medical Student Volunteers be adopted. Aligning this alternative solution using Organizational
Behavior (OB) concept, Job Sharing is one special form of variable work schedule under the main
concept of flexible work arrangements which intend to enhance employee motivation and
performance by giving the employees more flexibility about how and when they work (George &
Ng, 2010). Through this alternative solution, it is seen to be the best solution due to the following
reasons:

a.) Efficiency will be further enhanced and achieved because task are defined clearly and
distributed accordingly. Likewise, teamwork will be cultivated as all of the health
workers will have a share on the overall work setting to achieve maximum service
delivery.
b.) At one point too, reduction in the number of hours of health personnel will be
attained to optimize sustained work schedules among all the medical staff and other
health personnel.

Conclusion
In this case study, San Lorenzo Hospital was the chosen organization. This being classified
as one public and government hospital is usually the common destination for majority of the
people under the underprivileged sector. It is also a recommended government hospital
especially for infectious and communicable diseases. With the sudden outbreak of the pandemic
coronavirus, there was an influx of COVID-19 patients that grew rapidly making it unavoidable
for most health workers to extend working hours to accommodate the needs of these patients.
As the cases grew in number, the current number of health workers became of urgent need –
the reason why those few remaining health workers have to work 24 hours a day and seven (7)
days a week, leaving them to be exposed not only to fatigue, anxiety, depression and fear to be
infected by the pandemic virus. With this, as a root cause of this problem, the process in the case
study analysis have suggested several measures or alternative courses of actions to mitigate if
not solve the problem. Most of the listed alternative solutions can be adopted to help in effecting
changes in the current health crisis.

However, looking and weighing the advantages and disadvantages as well as considering
the need to examine the benefits and advantages of all the recommended measures and /or
alternative course of actions, the situational analysis of the identified organization as aligned on

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

the concepts of organizational behavior would provide venue for good and harmonious working
relationship between and among health workers which could also lead to a sustained teamwork
to attain the sustained delivery of health care services. Moreover, the clear delineations of
specified tasks coupled with sharing of jobs can be a good training ground for all health workers
to be adept in all facets of the work setting. Likewise, as they are exposed to learn other aspects,
there will be no work that could be left undone – thereby leading to a high sense of commitment
and efficiency.

Given this premise, the analysis of the case study hope to call or urge the government to
implement such measure to attain maximum and attainable service delivery.

Therefore it is highly recommended and concluded that the best and recommended
solution is Alternative Solution #3.

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

References
3 San Lazaro Hospital health workers infected with COVID-19. (2020, March 29). Retrieved from
ABS-CBN News: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/29/20/3-san-lazaro-hospital-
health-workers-infected-with-covid-19
Casas, W. (2020, February 14). ‘Black Hearts Day’ for health workers. Retrieved from Manila
Standard:
https://www.manilastandard.net/mobile/article/317342?fbclid=IwAR1fh3QwZwp_iLB6k
gAfisoFa-5WolnZtlVDP0a7WFF-N2DQM8DB_2GZO8k
George, E., & Ng, C. (2010). Nonstandard Workers: Work Arrangements and Outcomes. In S.
Zedeck, Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (pp. pp. 573–596).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Magsino, D. (2020, March 21). Magsino, D. (2020, March 21). COVID-19 protective equipment in
NCR hospitals running out -PCP exec. Retrieved March 21, 2020. Retrieved from GMA
News Online: https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/730701/covid-19-
protective-equipment-in-ncr-hospitals-running-out-pcp-exec/story/
Quezon City Local Government Website. (2019). Retrieved from Quezon City Local Government
Website: https://quezoncity.gov.ph/index.php/about-the-city-
government/departments/161-quezon-city-general-hospital
San Lazaro Hospital. (2020). Retrieved from San Lazaro Hospital Website:
http://slh.doh.gov.ph/transparency/about-san-lazaro-hospital
Viray, P. L. (2020, January 31). First confirmed nCoV patient isolated at San Lazaro Hospital.
Retrieved from Philippine Star:
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/01/31/1989283/first-confirmed-ncov-
patient-isolated-san-lazaro-hospital

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 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

Appendices

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