Patient’s Perspective

In any type of business environment, the patient's perspective is vital to the survival of the organization.  This is specifically even more true in health care organizations.  Medical facilities generally have a strategic marketing plan.  However, word of mouth is usually just as effective in attracting high numbers of patients, if not more.  One family may share their account of the experience with another family, and that will either positively or negatively affect whether or not they choose to visit the health facility.  Failing to listen to a patient's account of an adverse incident, is basically ensuring that your organization receives negative feedback.

Different people can take offense to different situations.  If a patient complains about one of the attending health professionals, it is imperative to console the patient and correct any problems they are experiencing immediately, even if the medical professional did not intentionally inflict any kind of physical or emotional harm.  If something was interpreted wrong, and the proper actions were never taken to address the issue, then the medical facility becomes at risk for negative publicity, and even worse malpractice suits.  For example, imagine for a moment that an elderly woman is a patient in the hospital due to her extremely high blood pressure.  If a medical attendee makes a mistake while helping the older woman, and she decides to complain, then it is imperative for the hospital to acknowledge her claims, because if she is ignored, she will more than likely either sue as mentioned before, talk to a higher authority within the hospital, or ensure that none of her friends and family return to the establishment.  

Learning how to properly communicate with patients to effectively decipher whether an adverse event has actually occurred, is extremely important and should be included in employee training.  If a patient complains, they could have a completely valid argument or they could have taken something a medical employee did or said in the wrong way.  Whether or not either of these is the case, nothing a patient says should be taken lightly or ignored.  The employees must listen to the patient's allegations, and work towards calming them down if they are over-heated and upset.  The job of any health facility is to provide optimum medical services.  If the patient does not feel that they received that level of care, then they have every right to complain.  However, for minimal issues, sometimes a kind word will cause an overheated patient to relax and drop their argument or qualm.  Recognizing and dealing with these problems is the key to running a sucessful health facility.  

Actions Taken By Hospitals to Improve Quality and Lower Costs

On June 2 of this year, the New York Times reported that many hospitals are successfully improving their overall quality, and surprisingly still managing to reduce their costs.  The article gives examples of several health care facilities who are learning how to master their short comings by finding efficient solutions.  For instance, at the Virginia Mason Medical Center, a facility previously recognized for its costly services, has  reduced the usage of allergy related CT scans by 27 percent and headache related MRI scans by 23 percent.  This was simply because of a newly enacted regulation within the hospital which required all providers to enter appropriate explanations for requesting scans for each patient in the computer.  It obviously forced providers to think twice before issuing a costly test without sufficient reasoning.   The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center now heavily relies on computer technology to regulate their bed capacity, which is working to reduce current costs.  There are many other hospitals who are working together to find ways to improve their medical facilities individually, and our health care system as a whole.  The article also mentions that health insurers are beginning to shift their focus to quality by basing the funds allocated to health providers on quality of service instead of the number of patients the health professional can see in a specified amount of time.

This article was certainly a glimpse of hope in this seemingly never ending dilemma of finding both quality and low costs.  There is no question that Americans need better access to health services.  It is baffling to think that numerous U.S. citizens are fearful of their future because of our health care system's lack of stability.  Although these different health institutions have proven that it is possible to improve on all levels, this progress did not come without hard work and dedication.  Other health care facilities need to follow suit and  implement regulations that ensure accountability.  All health professionals must be properly informed that careless mistakes, ordering unnecessary tests in excess, and failing to provide the utmost in quality to each patient, simply will not be tolerated.  The consistent reinforcement of these policies will undoubtedly help to sustain positive results.  Requiring health professionals to take their time and think before they make decisions is critical in the health care field.

We certainly have a long road ahead of us.  However, if more hospitals will take a few days each month to brainstorm, provide quality care workshops for employees, and cut out unnecessary spending, we will begin to see continuing progress.  Learning how to effectively communicate with health professionals and patients is vital and will only lead to a more positive outcome and hopeful future.

Reference:

Treating you better for less. New York Times . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/treating-you-better-for-less.html