Topic Description
The topic chosen for the analysis is the care from doctors, particularly the doctors’ treatment, the communication process, the hospital environment (i.e., the cleanness of the wards, the background noises, etc.). Although often underrated, the identified aspect of healthcare services is essential to the improvement of patient outcomes. To embrace the specified aspects of care (i.e., cleanness, focus on patients’ needs, etc.), one will have to meet the quality standards in a range of domains, including the hospital infrastructure, the communication process, etc. (“HCAHPS survey,” 2015).
Rationale
The reason for choosing the identified topic is that the hospital environment defines patient outcomes to a considerable degree (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2016). Communication and positive patient treatment are essential to the successful management of the target population’s needs. Furthermore, the issues related to patient movement need to be managed efficiently. Patients may occur in a setting that is very cluttered (Chari et al., 2016).
Thus, the duration of the hospital stay and the development of nosocomial diseases may become a possibility (Dvorak et al., 2015). Furthermore, the cleanness of the healthcare facility is crucial to the well-being of inpatients. Unless sanitary conditions are provided, the threat of negative patient outcomes remains consistent (Siddiqui, Wu, Kurbanova, & Qayyum, 2014).
Information Review
Maintaining a connection with the target population, including inpatients and community members, is essential for meeting the needs thereof (“Hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems,” n.d.). A closer look at the current situation with patient-doctor communication will show that it leaves much to be desired (Siddiqui et al., 2014). The short amount of time that therapists offer to patients during their visits leads to mismanagement of the patients’ needs (Armony et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is essential to make sure that emotional intelligence (EI) should be used as a means of determining the patient’s condition and choosing the correct diagnosis (Stawicki et al., 2015).
The issue of clutter and inappropriate hospital infrastructure should also be deemed as an important issue. According to a recent study, patient falls occur in the cluttered environment and the areas with poor infrastructure more often (Chari et al., 2016). Therefore, the design of hospital wards will have to be reconsidered.
Recommendations
As the overview of the existing studies shows, it is crucial for doctors to maintain consistent communication with patients to promote education thereof. Moreover, the management of the hospital space must be improved. Therefore, it is strongly advised that the lengths of patients’ visits to doctors should be increased.
In addition, the reasonable usage of the hospital space, including the removal of the clutter and improvements in its infrastructure, is necessary. As a result, patient falls and other accidents can be avoided successfully. Consequently, the development of nosocomial diseases will be prevented efficiently.
The promotion of support and assistance to inpatients in navigating the hospital environment should also be viewed as a necessity. Furthermore, it is recommended that the tools of maintaining communication with the hospital staff should be introduced into the facilities. Thus, the issues of poor communication and mismanagement of patients’ needs will be addressed.
Finally, it is imperative that ethical standards should be improved in hospitals. Doctors and other staff members need to treat their patients with dignity and respect. As a result, an increase in positive patient outcomes can be expected. It should be noted, though, that the introduction of new ethical standards may trigger resistance among the staff members. Therefore, an efficient leadership strategy that will motivate the staff will be required (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2016).
The tool that will be developed based on the recommendations above will be used to improve the organization of the hospital. Furthermore, the values of the staff will be redesigned. Thus, patient-centered care will become a possibility.
References
Armony, M., Israelit, S., Mandelbaum, A., Marmor, Y. N., Tseytlin, Y., & Yom-Tov, G. B. (2015). On patient flow in hospitals: A data-based queueing-science perspective. Stochastic Systems, 5(1), 146-194. Web.
Chari, S. R., Mcrae, P., Stewart, M. J., Webster, J., Fenn, M., & Haines, T. P. (2016). Point prevalence of suboptimal footwear features among ambulant older hospital patients: Implications for fall prevention. Australian Health Review, 40(4), 399-404. Web.
Dvorak, M. F., Noonan, V. K., Fallah, N., Fisher, C. G., Finkelstein, J., Kwon, B. K.,… Fehlings, M. G. (2015). The influence of time from injury to surgery on motor recovery and length of hospital stay in acute traumatic spinal cord injury: An observational Canadian cohort study. Journal of Neurotrauma, 32(9), 645-654. Web.
HCAHPS survey. (2015). Web.
Hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems. (n.d.). Web.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2016). Triple aim for populations.
Siddiqui, Z. K., Wu, A. W., Kurbanova, N., & Qayyum, R. (2014). Comparison of hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems patient satisfaction scores for specialty hospitals and general medical hospitals: Confounding effect of survey response rate. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 9(9), 590-593. Web.
Stawicki, S., Uchino, R., Yanagawa, F., Weigand, B., Orlando, J., Tachovsky, T., & Dave, K. (2015). Focus on emotional intelligence in medical education: From problem awareness to system-based solutions. International Journal of Academic Medicine, 1(1), 9. Web.
Thiroux, J. P., & Krasemann, K. W. (2016). Ethics: Theory and practice (11th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.