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The health service is a dynamic and ever-changing environment. Patient flows can be unpredictable at times, and there is an increasing need to harness the latest in technology to ensure that hospitals continue to offer world-class healthcare to their patients. This article discusses three of the key traits and factors that are shared by successful hospitals. While having all of them may not guarantee that a hospital can cope with the ever-changing demands of the healthcare system, they are key components of a successful hospital.
An effective supply chain
The importance of effective supply chain management cannot be underestimated in any high-functioning hospital or healthcare provider in general. It is of paramount importance that essential medical equipment can be ordered quickly with rapid delivery when required. In addition, many hospitals require regular restocking of single-use medical equipment, such as sterile gloves and swabs, which necessitate an excellent working relationship with suppliers. Suppliers such as medical-supermarket.com offer online ordering and can deliver items the next business day. Companies such as these are vital in ensuring both the timely and regular flow of hospital equipment, without which a hospital simply could not function effectively.
Ongoing data analysis
A hospital can only understand how it is performing by continually monitoring data and statistics from its operations. Most modern hospitals will have a range of key performance indicators (or KPIs) that show a range of healthcare performance data. These can relate to lengths of stay in hospitals, mortality rates, and hospital-acquired infection rates, among a host of other variables. By analyzing this data, hospital managers can gain key insights into where improvements need to be made. Having comprehensive statistics allows a greater understanding of how a hospital is functioning, but this information must be backed up with positive change and actions taken to improve outcomes based on the intelligence gained from the data.
Effective channels for patient feedback
A successful hospital will integrate a variety of patient feedback mechanisms into its administration. This is to ensure that the organization is aware of situations where patient experience has fallen below the expected standards, and it can seek to remedy instances of poor patient care or service user experience. Most large hospitals will have a dedicated patient experience unit and will have well-established complaints procedures. Feedback to patients is imperative to demonstrate that corrective action is being taken when things go wrong, and any hospital that functions to an exceptional level will be keen to foster a culture of continuous improvement and organizational learning.
In addition to having a complaints procedure and a patient experience team, hospitals can introduce patient panels and forums to ensure that the hospital management and executive teams can listen to patients’ perceptions of the good and the bad and offer reassurance that changes to practice will be made when required. To add to these feedback channels, hospitals can also give patients survey cards that briefly record their patient experience. This is a quick method to gain a variety of patient viewpoints and can complement other feedback channels.
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