Imagine walking into a health care facility and being instantly
greeted with a pleasant yet subtle, vanilla aroma. The office is immaculate. The front desks and patient chairs in the
waiting area are regularly wiped down with disinfectant cloths, and even the
trashcans are kept tidy and out of plain sight.
The office staff is friendly, available for assistance with paperwork,
and makes an effort to ensure comfort to each patient in the waiting room. The clinical staff is as equally
effervescent. The physicians actually listen
to inquiries from patients and make an effort to communicate with each
individual and their families. Unfortunately,
many Americans would find this description of a quality ridden health clinic
polar opposite from their own personal, less than perfect experiences.
Providing high quality care and service should never be an
option, especially for a health care facility.
As a former Marketing Director for an urgent care, I have seen how
quality and the lack thereof can make a substantial difference in the number of
recurring patients to any given facility.
In my own personal experience, I have found that patients need to feel
secure. Cleanliness, a friendly staff,
and a substantial amount of time spent with the physician, provide patients
with that necessary security.
As a preventative health enthusiast, I am always trying to
remain my healthiest to avoid visiting the doctor for anything other than a regular
check-up. Visiting my primary care
physician is a necessary action to ensure healthiness, but my number one
concern is becoming contaminated with someone else’s germs while I’m in the
waiting area with other patients, or through shared medical equipment. Everyone gets sick, but we all go to the
doctor for different reasons at different times. This is why it is vital for
health clinics to have an organized and deliberate office layout to ensure
efficient wait times and to prevent cross-contamination. Cross-contamination happens recurrently. Last year, the New York Times reported that
nine patients in Alabama lost their lives because of an intravenous supplement
that had been infected with deadly bacterium.
My own desire for sterile conditions significantly helps me target these
problems to ensure success in avoiding them in the future. Many
of the aforementioned steps to quality were required at my former jobs, and
will most certainly be performed at my facility when my dreams come into
fruition and I become the owner of my own wellness center.
Obtaining high quality in any business operation requires
diligence, especially in medical facilities.
However, with dedication and teamwork, it is very possible to
achieve. Patients want complete peace of mind that they are in capable hands. They require a certain standard of
quality. If a health clinic is willing
to provide that standard, then they will begin to see the fruits of their labor
when more patients increasingly return with their family and friends.
Sack, K., &
Williams, T. Deaths of 9 alabama patients tied to intravenous supplement. New York
Times.Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/31intravenous.html
Times.Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/31intravenous.html