Precise delivery of qualitative healthcare services is one of the inevitable concerns which the hospitals have been trying to deal with. There are various anomalies owing to the upsurge of population followed by various inhibitors changing disease profile/ re-emerging diseases, lack or absence of infrastructure, paucity of experts (Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics), inaccessibility of healthcare services, lack of safety measures.
Further there is a necessity for building up quality and safety initiatives pervading health care. Â Although there is an extensive expansion occurring in the healthcare industry but the expansion is not equivalent to match the appropriate standards. The effective implementation of policies and proper enforcement of standards needs to be effected.
There has been a set of guidelines to maintain various operating standards at hospitals and healthcare service providers by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH). It has been setup with the vision to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organizations. Similar framework for quality control and standard guidelines of laboratories is called the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories). These guidelines shall aid in effective and better operations in healthcare industry or hospitals.
In any hospital, having implemented operating standards shall ensure effective, safe, patient-centred, timely, efficient, and equitable functioning. The guidelines in the standard reflect on two major aspects of healthcare delivery i.e. patient centered functions and healthcare organization centered functions. One of the important cornerstones of framework is continuous improvement – to have a positive impact in improving care and service delivery, which also happens to be the foundation of Operational Excellence (OE) framework as well. OE concepts, when deployed, leads to continual improvement environment in hospitals, on top of ensuring utmost care in delivering clinical services.
OE concepts addresses various guidelines such as orienting clinical staff members on operational excellence, quality management, continual improvement, manpower productivity improvement, physical workplace and process improvement. Guidline #6 of NABH, stresses on identifying and eliminating root causes via Problem Solving Mechanisms to improve internal – external systems & processes.
Further providing appropriate and timely medication is crucial to meet patients’ needs within safety and security controls. This safeguards judicious treatment and eludes any uncertain situation pertaining to medication. Medication management as discussed in the earlier posts aids in addressing Medication Management guideline #3.
Quality health care ultimately encompasses the desired health outcomes and also requires consistent improvement of the existing management and infrastructure. Similarly more than half a dozen guidelines like Hospital Infection Control, Facility Management and Safety, etc can directly be addressed by proven Operational Excellence concepts. The crux lies in the proper implementation of various solutions which needs to be customized as per the requirement.
Needless to mention that the patients are the biggest beneficiaries, however these tools and standards also aid in receiving desired results, higher efficiencies and returns for the institution and helps to set benchmarks for progress of the health care industry. These practices and standards are accredited by International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQ) and can further boost medical tourism as well.
It is not only requirement of tomorrow but demand of today as well!
Written by: Faber Aakash Borse
Faber Aakash Borse is Director and one of the founding partners of Faber Infinite Consulting (www.faberinfinite.com), with operations in Asia Pacific, Africa & Middle East. He holds a masters degree in Operations Management with his 1st degree being in Engineering.
This article was originally published on Economic Times – ETHealthworld.com as part of Operational Excellence in Healthcare Industry series. Original link available – here
