Abstract
Hospitals are very sensitive places, and there is a need to ensure that proper coordination and communication is maintained. This paper seeks to discuss some of the best strategies that can be used to improve the quality of service delivery within a hospital setting. Some of the issues that have been identified are the expansion of the waiting room, having different waiting rooms for children, adults, and patients with contagious diseases, and organizing in-service classes for the nurses. Strategies that can improve the efficiency of this facility include in-service education for the healthcare providers, improving the state of the equipment at the hospital, and increasing the number of personnel.
Objectives
Analysis of this hospital has confirmed that there is a need to make improvements in various departments within the hospitals. Patients need a relaxing environment when they visit healthcare facilities to help them psychologically. Clean, spacious, and well-ventilated rooms help them by ensuring that those with contagious diseases do not spread it to other patients. The following are some of the long-term objectives that this hospital should give focus on.
- To expand the building structure to have separate waiting rooms for adults, children, and patients with communicable diseases.
- To install an inter-departmental communication system that would enable all the departments to share patients’ information as first as possible.
- To develop a comprehensive curriculum the staff would follow for their in-service education to improve their efficiency.
To achieve the above long-term objectives, the management of this hospital must work in close coordination with the staff to understand the current needs. The following short-term objectives would help elevate the current condition of service delivery.
- To improve the speed of service delivery by improving the capacity of the current work-force, and increasing the number of employees to reduce the time taken by patients in the waiting room by half.
- To improve communication between departments by developing a clear guide in which files from one department would reach other necessary departments within the shortest time possible.
These objectives would be pivotal in ensuring that service delivery at this firm is improved to meet the needs of the patients. However, achieving these objectives requires a clear strategy that would be used by the top management to ensure that the needed success is achieved. The management must develop actionable strategies that would be used at various management levels to ensure that the set objectives are achieved as a way of improving service delivery of this facility. The strategy should be conscious of the financial and time constrain that is needed to ensure that this project can be successfully achieved. Having identified the objectives, the following strategies can help this firm achieve them within the desired time.
The first strategy should focus on how to expand the facility to accommodate the current surplus population of patients. This strategy will focus on the financial planning of this facility. The management should start by understanding the cost of this expansion. Then it should consider the sources of funds available from the proceeds and savings of this hospital. If the available funds are not enough, it can seek a grant from the government, or a loan from financial institutions to finance this project. When sourcing funds for the construction, the management should also find a way of funding the communication system that would be fitted once the construction is completed.
Once the construction is completed, the management should then commission the installation of a communication system that will enable the free flow of information from one department to another. The system should also come with a database that would be used for storing information for future use.
The management should then designate rooms for children, adults, and those with contagious diseases. When this is done, a clear program should be set for in-service classes for all the employees to improve their service delivery.
Timeline of the project
It is important to have a clear plan on how the available time will be used to ensure that this project is brought to successful completion. At this planning stage, it is necessary to draw a timetable that would define all the activities that will be undertaken in this project and the time that would be needed to complete them. Defining the activities will also help in identifying some of the challenges that can be met in the project, and how they can be mitigated. The project manager will also be able to factor in the time that would be consumed while mitigating these challenges. This research is expected to take two and a half years. The Gantt chart below specifies the activities that will be carried out in this project
Gantt chart
