The following is an analysis on the Nashville hospital that has Jewish owned Private Hospital whose case study has been provided in the Goldfarb’s and Nash book on Quality Solutions for improving healthcare. The scope of this analysis shall delve into the issue of healthcare and risk management and how healthcare institutions manage the various risks, which they expose their customers to, and how they contain the risks.
Healthcare refers to the systems that govern the provision of health services. Health is the physical and mental well being of a person and it can be described as wholeness. Failure to be whole is to be unwell or sick physically or mentally. Institutions that were founded to cater for humans beings when they are unwell can be described as health facilities. These institutions have been prone to various risks (Wolper, 2010).
Some of these risks as indicated from the case study are clinical risks where the hospital can be a breeding ground for other diseases especially when there is no proper mechanism to separate people who are suffering from various diseases. In this hospital, there has been proper separation of patients as soon as they are diagnosed. The clinical risk comes in because of the hospital not taking enough care for the patients and thereby causing the infectious diseases to spread to the other patients who may be suffering from other diseases (Nash & Goldfarb, 2005).
The other risks which as shown in the case study that the hospital was contending with have to do with instruments. This refers to the fact that various instruments if they are not professionally used and disposed can be risky to the patients as well as the doctors. Needles, razors, scalpels, are some of the simple tools, which if they are mishandled are very risky, and they can make the customer to contract diseases. Once used such equipment should be disposed professionally by throwing them away to places that are out of reach of human beings and they should be boiled before they are disposed (Nash & Goldfarb, 2005).
The Nashville Hospital also faces another risk that is faced by any other property or building, which is used by humans, and it is the risk of fire. This risk requires one to be aware that fire can destroy property. This can be fire from the kitchen as well as from any malfunctioning electrical appliance in this hospital (Nash & Goldfarb, 2005).
The other risk although it has nothing to do with human lives is the financial risk which the hospital can experience either because of the lawsuits which usually curb the hospitals for negligence or for lack of patients (Wolper, 2010). Both are great risks because they affect the business side of the hospital and the hospital cannot continue with its operations if there is no cash flow to sustain its operations.
It is therefore important to understand how these risks can be contained in such a hospital or what the hospital can do to contain the risks. One of the ways to contain the risks is to have a well-managed organization in terms of having a well-structured operations management that includes risk management. Most of the hospitals do not have risk managers who asses and keep track of potential risk and ensure that these risks are contained. The manager should be in charge of risk assessment, which is very important, as, most of the companies do not assess their risks and ways of safeguarding their hospitals from the prevalent risks. They prefer to operate in ignorance, which is costly (Wolper, 2010).
Risk assessment involves doing a survey or a check on the hospital and assessing the kind of diseases, which it treats looking at how infectious dieses can be contained and whether they have a quarantine room for patients suffering from such diseases. It also involves examining the electrical systems to ensure that they are well controlled and that fire alarm systems are in place. It involves having an inspection of the emergency doors to ensure that they are well marked and that they cannot be a threat to anyone (Nash & Goldfarb, 2005).
Concerning the financial risks, the company or the hospital should be insured to ensure that it could be compensated in case it has patient compensation lawsuits. The insurance is crucial to the hospital as it is also a business venture and it should be insured from losses. Most of the hospitals previously did not seek to be insured until they became victims of massive compensation to patients who had sued them. In this case, study the hospital is insured by the Jubilee insurance that gives it an edge (Wolper, 2010).
The other way of containing risks is having the clinicians or the practitioners well trained on how to handle and dispose the used equipment such as the syringes, the scalpels and other personalized equipment that can cause infections if other people use them. This sound ordinary but it may not be common; several hospitals have been sued for using second hand equipment to treat their patients. It also requires that the workers in the hospital adhere to the stipulated code of ethics and failure to adhere to these ethics should be highly penalized. These ethics promote professionalism as well as quality of the health care provided (Wolper, 2010).
The government policies and requirements about health facilities should be adhered. This is because the policies are meant not only to safeguard the patient but also to safeguard the hospital from malpractices, which can result into very costly lawsuits. Some of the policies stipulation is that the hospital should have qualified medical doctors who the relevant boards have approved. They should also adhere to the set out safety precautions to ensure that the risks are contained. The government also mandates that the drugs administered to patients should be from the approved pharmaceuticals in order to protect the patient from being administered drugs, which are not up to the standard (Wolper, 2010).
The hospital of Nashville has been up to par and has adhered to the government’s regulation and that is why it is among one of the best hospitals. For a healthcare facility to provide the best services, it must ensure that it has controlled the various risks that it can expose to its patients. This is because quality comes from controlling the risks, which the health facility can expose the patients to as well as those who are working in that facility. Once these risks are contained, the healthcare facility can confidently go ahead and offer treatment to those who are in need.
References
Nash, D & Goldfarb, N. (2005). The quality solution: the stakeholder’s guide to improving health care. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Wolper, L. (2010). Health care administration: managing organized delivery systems, 5th edition. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.