Risk and emergence management is very important in any setting be it in a hospital, prison, or school. In a hospital setting, emergence cases are many due to accidents and other incidences that require urgent medical attention. In fact, different patients go to hospital with different healthcare needs and some are more serious than others are. Because of this, it is essential that any hospital management should have an effective emergence department in place to ensure quality healthcare. For any emergence unit, it is important that the management should have a mechanism of prioritizing the needs of patients to minimize and manage risks. This paper will analyze a number of risk management strategies set by a hospital emergence unit to ensure quality service delivery.
Problem statement
The problem presented in this case study clearly shows that the main issue faced by the hospital is time wastage. From the case study, it is clear that patients stayed for long in the waiting room, nurses and doctors did not have an effective communication system to enhance speedy registration process, and procedures of addressing patients needs were slow and non-effective.
Case Analysis
In this section, the paper will look at each risk management strategy and assess its effectiveness in addressing problems faced by the emergence department (ED). After assessing the quality of service delivery, the hospital management recommended and implemented response management plan to improve quality care. The three fundamental risk and emergency management strategies employed by the ED (Emergence Department) are
- Training staff,
- utilizing technology (use of computer database registration),
- hiring more staff.
Training staff
One of the risk management measures that the emergence department implemented is training its staff. As such, the greeter, registration officers, nurses, and other staff members were trained in the recognition of appropriate action for time-sensitive conditions. Training of staff is effective in that it increases employees’ morale and motivation, improves work effectiveness, enhances the capacity to adapt to new technologies, and increases innovation (Strauss, 2007). Training of staff, volunteers, and contractors is a good way to minimize time wastage in the hospital emergence department. Such form of training can help employees to identify and prioritize which patients need urgent healthcare facilitating all treatment procedures.
Training is also an effective risk and quality management strategy in hospital. For instance, a greeter must receive adequate training in order to detect which patients are critical and more serious. Once a greeter receives proper training, he/ she will recognize and learn how to escort any patient complaining of chest pain to a wheelchair and then immediately to the triage nurse, bypassing registration. This will effectively reduce time wastage and prioritize treatment of patients with serious healthcare needs.
Using computers is a quality management tool
In addition to training all the hospital employees, the emergence department adapted new technology to enhance swift operations. First, the management implemented the use of wireless computers to complete registration process. The use of wireless computers is an effective tool of quality management (Nash and Goldfarb, 2006). Use of wireless computers will help in issues of diagnosis and communication. By using wireless computers, registration will be faster since once a patient has been registered, the information is sent to all the relevant departments. This means that doctors will already have all the basic information regarding a particular patient hence speeding up treatment procedures. This will eventually reduce time wastage.
In addition to this, posting of electronic messages or signs is another quality management tool. The use of electronic system of posting messages can be useful in that nurses and doctors are able to classify patients according to their medical needs (Nash and Goldfarb, 2006). On the other hand, by using such signs/ messages, patients are assured that the relevant department is aware of their concerns. This is a quality management strategy since it is able to enhance organization and efficiency.
Hiring more staff
Lastly, hiring more staff is another quality and risk management strategy. Hiring more employees is a good and effective way of improving quality service delivery in the hospital and it plays a vital role in reducing time wastage. For example, the idea of hiring “a greeter” is very essential in improving service delivery. This is because “a greeter” is able to monitor patients and he/ she is also able to indentify urgent and needy cases. Besides, warm welcome and constant monitoring of patients creates a favorable environment for clients as they wait to see the doctor for treatment.
In conclusion, hiring more staff, training all involved stakeholders, and employing technology (Electronic Health Record) are effective quality and risk management tools/measures that can help in improving service delivery in any hospital. As a quality management practice, it is very important to have an emergence response plan in any hospital to ensure that all the medical concerns of patients are addressed in timely and effective way. The opinion is that, apart from employing emergence response plan, the hospital management should also ensure that all safety and ethical standards are adhered to for quality care.
Reference List
Nash, D. B., & Goldfarb, N. I. (2006). The quality solution: The stakeholder’s guide to improving health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Strauss, L. (2007). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.