Improving Hospital Culture: 5 Tips to Ensure Your Hospital Is Running Efficiently

December 21 2019 - The United States is home to over 6,200 hospitals. Providing excellent care should be one of the main concerns a hospital staff should have. Keeping a hospital running smoothing is challenging.

If you are one of the managers a hospital has, then you need to work hard to find ways to make daily operations more efficient. The longer you allow problems regarding patient care or employee productivity to linger, the harder it will be to avoid serious problems. Doing things like holding employees accountable and establishing hospital culture is challenging, but worth the time and effort you invest.

Read below to find out more about making a hospital run more efficiently.

1. Create a Hospital Culture Based on Accountability

The only way a hospital can keep patient safety and security high is by focusing on holding employees accountable for their actions. Establishing a hospital culture based on accountability is the best way to ensure this happens.

This accountability needs to be implemented in every facet of how a hospital runs. Whether an employee makes a mistake with the handling of medical records or is negligent in their duties to care for a patient, holding them accountable is crucial. If these mistakes were made due to a lack of training, then it is your job to make sure an employee gets the training they need.

Instead of coming down hard on an employee that may not know why their actions were dangerous, you need to use this incident as a learning experience. Treating your employees with respect and compassion is the only way to keep them loyal and engaged.

2. Make Patient-Centered Care Your Top Priority

Trying to avoid getting weighed down by the bureaucracy of working in or managing a hospital can be difficult. Instead of letting red tape and paperwork weigh you down, focus your efforts on providing patient-centered care. Some hospitals make the mistake of developing a one-size-fits-all treatment plan for their patients.

Doing this may lead to the patient not getting the care they actually need to get better. This is why teaching your staff to focus on what a patient needs rather than a pre-determined treatment plan is crucial.

In most cases, providing this patient-centered care will allow you to garner lots of positive reviews from the people who pass through the doors of your hospital. While it may take some time for your staff to become accustomed to this method of treatment, it will be worth the effort invested in the long run.

3. Adequately Managing The Hospital’s Resources

One of the biggest problems you will face as the managing director of a hospital is the high risk of wasteful spending. Many hospitals waste thousands of dollars a year by throwing out expired medications, using too many plastic applicators or having to throw away tons of unused medical supplies. If the members of your staff are not adequately communicating with each other, issues with wasteful spending will only grow.

This is why you need to be hands-on when it comes to what gets ordered for your hospital. Making the heads of the various departments in your hospital submit order requests is a great way to solve this problem. Once these requests are received, you need to vet them to ensure the supplies in questions are really needed.

If you simply don’t have the time to do this vetting on your own, hiring a new employee to help out is a good idea. Working with executive recruiters is essential when trying to find the right person for this job. These recruiters will have an extensive pool of talent they can pull from to fill your job openings.

4. Work on Improving Patient and Doctor Interactions

Most hospital directors want the patients that pass through their establishment to have the best experience possible. Achieving this goal will require a lot of hard work and the cooperation of the doctors you have on staff. If you start to receive complaints about the doctor and patient interactions taking place in your hospital, fixing this problem quickly is crucial.

One of the first things you need to look at when getting these reports is what caused communication to breakdown between the patient in question and the doctor treating them. Was this breakdown caused by a lack of relevant information? If so, speaking with the attending nurse may be a good idea.

In most cases, a doctor is only as good as the information they are provided. This is why having nurses who are both detail-oriented and motivated is crucial. If a doctor has all of the information they need about a patient’s ailment, they should have no problem prescribing the right treatment.

5. Creating the Right Work Environment

The efficiency and productivity levels a hospital has will be greatly influenced by the work environment that is in place. For instance, if the work environment you have created is both stressful and chaotic, it is only a matter of time before serious problems occur. This is why your main focus should be on creating a work environment that is enjoyable and results-driven.

One of the best ways to give guidance to staff members is by providing performance evaluations on a regular basis. These evaluations provide you with a chance to talk with employees about any issues they may be experiencing.

The more you know about the problems an employee is having, the easier it will be to come up with a comprehensive solution. Using these evaluations as a learning experience rather than an opportunity to bash an employee is a good idea. By making performance evaluations less stressful, you can keep your team motivated.

Increasing Operational Efficiency Takes Time

Creating a successful hospital culture and increasing efficiency will not happen overnight. Being consistent with your message to employees is imperative when trying to make real changes.

Are you looking for more advice on how to manage your business? If so, be sure to read the rest of the blogs on our website.  

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