6 Tips for Improving Hospital Efficiency

Running a hospital requires a lot of planning and dedication. It is a bit different from other businesses considering the fact that it deals directly with human lives. Besides, you should also consider the fact that you need to pay bills and keep the business going.

 

Without a proper plan, you are likely to run into numerous problems. When customers or patients walk into your hospital, all they want is to get treatment and medication within the shortest possible time. Any delays or lack of medication can cost your hospital business a lot of money.

 

Capitalize on the capabilities of nurses

 

An efficient doctor begins with an efficient nurse. Doctors and nurses need to work as a team. For example, a nurse should understand the doctor together with his or her patients. This will make the work of the doctor much easier when it comes to attending to patients.

 

Try and divide doctors and nurses into different teams. Let every nurse work with a doctor that he or she is comfortable with. You can even have closed-door meetings with each nurse to get their personal views about different doctors and those they are comfortable to work with.

 

Anesthesia management

 

When a hospital reduces turnover time and improves efficiency in the operation rooms, everyone is happy including patients, surgeons, nurses, administrators, and anaesthesiologists. However, the truth is that patients often wait for a long time in pre-operative areas.

 

Inefficiency often leads to frustration and dissatisfaction among patients and even staff members. Since the main objective of the hospital is to satisfy the needs of clients, it is important to improve efficiency through proper anesthesia management. Surgeons and nurses should work hand in hand to ensure that patients don’t wait in line for too long.

 

Proper communication between the management, staff, and patients

 

Just like in any other business, lack of proper communication can result in inefficiency in a hospital setup. There has to be a proper communication channel between the management and hospital staff for all operations to run smoothly. Besides, the hospital management should also provide channels that patients can use to air their grievances.

 

For example, if there is no clear channel of communication between hospital management and employees, it will be difficult to address issues affecting both patients and employees. But with a proper communication structure, it will be easy to identify issues immediately they arise and solve them before they escalate.

 

Reduce staff turnover

 

Human resource experts agree that high staff turnover is not good for any company or business. This is because it’s costly and time-consuming to recruit and train employees.

 

Besides, you also lose experience and expertise when employees leave the hospital from time to time. This makes it difficult for the hospital to operate efficiently.

 

If your hospital is experiencing high employee turnover, you need to find out why employees are resigning. Is it because of the working conditions? Or the remuneration is not commensurate to the workload? Find out the main reason for high turnover and address it accordingly.

 

Provide the necessary resources

 

Efficiency starts by providing healthcare professionals with whatever they require to effectively attend to patients. It is not possible for surgeons to work comfortably in a hospital that doesn’t have a well-equipped surgery room.

 

The best thing to do is to provide all the medical equipment and drugs needed and leave the rest to the doctors and nurses.

 

Employ competent medical professionals

 

The other way of improving hospital efficiency is by hiring competent medical professionals. A hospital with highly-qualified and experienced medical practitioners will be more efficient compared to one that depends on intern doctors and nurses.

 

Some hospitals tend to employ unqualified and inexperienced staff so that they can spend less on salaries. However, this practice has a reverse effect of causing inefficiency and incompetence in the hospital.