HCS 321 Week 2 Business Communications Example

The Clinic Is Moving Across Town: A Staff Memo, a Physician Email and a Patient Letter Written for One Change, and Why Each Reads Differently

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HCS/321: Business Communication for Health Care Managers

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The clinic, its move and its documents are composites written for a model paper; writing guidance comes from the sources listed.

A composite pediatric clinic with 6 physicians, 22 staff and about 9,000 active patients will move on March 3 from a leased space downtown to a new building three miles north. The practice manager must tell staff, physicians and patients within one week. The news is the same; the documents cannot be. This paper explains the principles behind business messages in health care and presents the three documents with commentary.

Audience and Purpose

Every document starts with two questions: who will read it, and what should they know or do afterward? Staff need dates, tasks and changes to their routines. Physicians need to know how their schedules will change. Parents need to know where to go and whether anything else changes for their child.

Direct and Indirect Approaches

The move is mostly good news: more space, parking and a pharmacy on site. Good and routine news calls for the direct approach, which states the main point first. The one unwelcome detail, a two-day closure during the move, is placed after the main point and paired with how urgent needs will be handled.

Plain Language and Health Literacy

Federal plain language guidelines advise writing for the reader, using short sentences, common words, active voice and headings (Plain Language Action and Information Network, 2011). For patient materials, the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit advises treating every patient as someone who might struggle with health information and writing and speaking so that anyone could follow (Brega et al., 2015).

Choosing the Channel

Because the move changes routines, the richer channels of conversation back up the written documents (Daft & Lengel, 1986). Staff receive a memo posted in the break room and sent by email, discussed at a huddle. Physicians receive a brief email and a mention at their monthly meeting. Parents receive a mailed letter, a portal message and a text reminder the week before.

Document One: Staff Memo

To: All clinic staff. From: Practice manager. Date: January 20. Subject: Clinic moves to 4100 North Oak on March 3. Our clinic opens in its new building at 4100 North Oak Street on Monday, March 3. The downtown office closes at noon on Thursday, February 27. Packing: each team will receive boxes on February 17 and should pack nonessential items by February 26. Closure: the clinic is closed Friday, February 28, and staff will help unpack that day. Parking: staff park in the north lot using badges issued February 24. Questions go to the practice manager at extension 210.

Commentary on the Memo

The subject line carries the main point. Dates and tasks are grouped in short labeled paragraphs so staff can find their part. The memo gives a single contact, which prevents rumors.

Document Two: Physician Email

Subject: Schedule changes for the March 3 move. The last clinic session downtown is Thursday morning, February 27. There are no clinic sessions on February 27 afternoon or February 28; on-call coverage continues as usual. Please do not book procedures for March 3 morning, when we will open at 10 a.m. Your new office assignments are attached.

Commentary on the Email

Physicians receive many messages, so this one is short and limited to what affects their schedules. It omits details that belong in the staff memo. Leaving things out is part of writing well: an email that includes everything forces a busy reader to find the one line that matters to them.

Document Three: Patient Letter

Dear parent or guardian, Our clinic is moving. Starting Monday, March 3, please come to our new building at 4100 North Oak Street. It has free parking and a pharmacy inside. Your child's doctors, nurses and phone number stay the same. We will be closed Thursday afternoon, February 27, and Friday, February 28. If your child is sick on those days, call our number and a nurse will help you. The new building is three miles north of our old office, next to the library. Questions? Call us at the number on this letter.

Commentary on the Letter

The letter uses short sentences and everyday words, states what changes and what stays the same, tells parents what to do if a child is sick during the closure and gives a landmark instead of complex directions. It is also sent in Spanish, the second most common language among the clinic's families.

Consistency Across Documents

The manager checked every date, address and phone number across the three documents. A mismatch, such as a different closing time, would generate calls and erode trust.

Tone

The staff memo is friendly and practical, the physician email crisp and the patient letter warm. All three avoid words like unfortunately at the start, which would frame good news as bad.

Privacy

No document names a patient or includes clinical details. Text reminders carry only the clinic's name and new address, since text messages can be read by anyone who picks up a parent's phone.

Anticipating Questions

The manager listed the questions each group was likely to ask and made sure the documents answered them before anyone called. Staff would ask about parking and lockers; physicians about exam room assignments; parents about whether their child's appointment time changed. Front desk staff received a one-page script with answers to the ten most likely parent questions, so calls in the weeks before the move would be handled the same way by everyone.

A Reusable Checklist

Before sending any announcement: name each audience and what it must do; lead with the main point; put dates and actions where readers look first; use plain words; choose the channel each audience actually reads; check facts across versions; and name one contact.

Conclusion

One clinic move required three documents because staff, physicians and parents needed different information in different forms. Leading with the main point, adapting detail and tone and writing in plain language turned a routine announcement into communication each reader could act on.

References

Brega, A. G., Barnard, J., Mabachi, N. M., Weiss, B. D., DeWalt, D. A., Brach, C., Cifuentes, M., Albright, K., & West, D. R. (2015). AHRQ health literacy universal precautions toolkit (2nd ed., AHRQ Publication No. 15-0023-EF). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://www.ahrq.gov/health-literacy/improve/precautions/index.html

Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554

Plain Language Action and Information Network. (2011). Federal plain language guidelines. https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/