Introduction and background
Community development and welfare is a chief component of the society and healthcare and hospitals are fundamentally responsible for the development. (Lieber, 2008) The Johns Hopkins Hospital was opened in late 19th centaury, in 1889, at Baltimore, Maryland, when the medical education community of American was in a complete turmoil. After four years, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was also opened which paved a new age by making the requirements of entering into a medical institution very rigid thus, raising the standards of medical schools.
They upgraded the curriculum of the schools by giving more emphasis on scientific education along with practice research and integrated The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation or JHHS giving it the dominating name – Johns Hopkins Medicine. The massive medical enterprise is a $4 billion dollar association uniting the doctors, scientists and medical students of the School of Medicine and the facilities and professionals of the JHHS. (Fallon, 2008)
The Johns Hopkins Medicine organization
Johns Hopkins Medicine revolutionized medical education and practices all over America by becoming the first genuine teaching hospital rigorously training the nurses and doctors so that they can rapidly apply their knowledge for better care of the patients. The processes and structure of Johns Hopkins Medicine was unprecedented as it integrated patient care with excellent and innovative medical researches and education. It is defined as one of the prime leaders of medical innovation. The organization holds its vital position even today. Johns Hopkins Medicine was formed when most of the medical schools were considering medicine for granted.
This made them complacent of their position and as a result, they were decreased to a position nothing greater than trade schools. Nevertheless, Johns Hopkins Medicine improved the quality of healthcare by improving and setting a standard par excellence in a number of fields, including clinical area, education and research. Its organizational structure provides both the individual and community with a diverse environment which nurtures our intellectual innovations creating and mobilizing advanced scientific knowledge among all and medical leadership for improving our health. (Pavlova, 2009)
JHHS is an evolutionary non-profit healthcare and hospital organization with more than 16000 employees completely dedicated towards providing quality physical and mental health care to the patients. It is an academic health care organization and consists of the following:
- The Johns Hopkins Medical Management Corporation, which is a health care services and management organization responsible for managing, organizing and developing a local medical delivery service to serve the physicians of the School of Medicine and the various JHHS hospitals
- The Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corporation, which is a non-profit organization and works along with the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan for providing and organizing health care to the military veterans and retirees and also for the family members of those on active duties
- The Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, which is the biggest and major Care Group Practice in Maryland and also includes a non-profit networking system consisting of fifteen health care organizations all over the state
- The Howard County General Hospital, which is also a non-profit and community based medical association that offers the public a wide variety of Acute Care Inpatient services along with Extensive Outpatient services
- The Johns Hopkins Bay view Medical Center, Inc., which is also a non-profit association that manages the community oriented training hospital and offers a wide variety of outpatient and inpatient services along with permanent health care facilities
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is a world known medical and academic facility providing a intensive variety of modern quaternary and tertiary health care and has also been constantly accepted as being among America’s top infirmary. (Marchal, 2008)
After the formation of the Johns Hopkins Medicine, two more operational wings of the medical facility were added to cater to the ever-growing demands of the public. They were:
- The Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, which is an association that is responsible for managing and developing relations with physicians, employers, care organizations, hospitals and various other health caregivers
- The Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, Inc., which is also a non-profit organization that takes healthcare services to the homes of the patients by providing them nurses, social workers, therapists, home aides, durable equipments for respiratory or medical problems, pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services.
The demand for more accountability has helped Johns Hopkins Medicine in a positive way as it has expanded its areas of services for reaching out to the patients in an improved manner. The infrastructure at Johns Hopkins Medicine has always adapted itself to meet the safety requirements of the patients and improve its quality of care giving. As improvements in the hospital requires the support of the heads of the organization, they have a Board of Trustees and a Patient Safety Committee that sets goals for initiating better safety of patients, monitoring their progress, themselves educating the care givers and also seeing to it that these goals are maintained.
Even the staff members devote their valuable time to insure that they provide error free health care. In 2002, they also started The Center for facilitating health care system, which centers on the patient thus, developing an efficient and errorless service. They also have a Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group whose members are experts in the fields of psychology, medicine and nursing, and are responsible for refining the treatment and assessment tools of the hospital and developing scientifically feasible and valid methods for improving safety of the patients and the quality of caregivers. (Hollingsworth, 2008)
With growing responsibility, Johns Hopkins Medicine has started to involve the patients and their families more by inviting them to raise concerns for their patients by participating actively in their treatment procedures. Another major area where they have shown great progress is in reducing infection and the length of stay of the patients. Through simple standards, like frequent hand washing, has helped them reduce infection among patients by almost 75%. Their cost efficiency and reduced rate of infection has made it possible for he patients to leave for home earlier. In addition, the traditional morning rounds made by the senior doctors have been eliminated by developing temporary goals for each patient thus, increasing the amount of time the physicians can devote to the hospital. (Fallon, 2008)
Conclusion
For the 18th time in a row now, Johns Hopkins Medicine has been ranked as number 1 by the famous U.S. News and World Report. It has been given number 1 rank in otolaryngology, rheumatology and urology and placed at high positions in the others. The hospital also includes renowned centers like the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Brady Urological Institute. They also provide most of the charity care in Baltimore than all of the other hospitals in the area. (Pavlova, 2009)
References
Fallon, L. Fleming, L Fleming Fallon Jr, Eric J. Zgodzinski; 2008; Essentials of Public Health Management; Edition: 2; Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Hollingsworth, Bruce; 2008; The measurement of efficiency and productivity of health care delivery; Health Economics; 17, 10, 1107-1128; Centre for Health Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Lieber, J.G. & McConnell C.R. (2008). Management Principals for Health Professionals. (5th ed.), Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Marchal, Bruno & Guy Kegels; 2008; Focusing on the software of managing health workers: what can we learn from high commitment management practices?; The International Journal of Health Planning and Management; 23, 4, 299-311; Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine-Antwerp, Belgium.
Pavlova, Milena, Apostolos Tsiachristas, Gerhard Vermaeten, Wim Groot; 2009; Potential barriers to the application of multi-factor portfolio analysis in public hospitals: evidence from a pilot study; The International Journal of Health Planning and Management; 24, 1, 43-68; Department of Health Organization, Policy and Economics, Faculty of HMLS, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.