Month: May 2018

Why Offer Scheduling of Online Appointments For Patients?

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The online scheduling of appointments and examinations in hospitals, diagnostic centers, and laboratories is no longer a complete novelty, and it has been created with the aim of giving more practicality to patients and reducing costs. It is the way for any company in the health sector want to improve your profit margin, improving the level of patient satisfaction and your credibility in the market. So, how have some hospitals presented unpredictable results? The difference in performance between one institution and another is explained by the quality of the system implemented and by the way in which this new dynamic is integrated into the routine of health institutions.

Most claims against health institutions are generally complaints about inadequate care, wrong information, and long wait time on the phone to schedule an appointment or an exam. The curious thing is to perceive that in the middle of the information age, many hospitals, diagnostic centers, and laboratories insist on carrying out the agendas manually.

Observing that many health institutions still do not have health care equipment planners and appointment scheduling online or use the tool through low-quality solutions, we decided to write this article. We will show the advantages of implementing the system, the errors that should be avoided so that the institution perceives the difference of results of that initiative directly in its monthly financial statements and demonstrations. Come with us:

What advantages do these systems usually bring?

We can start by advancing what an online scheduling system offers:

  • End of the long waiting time for agendas;
  • Flexibility for the patient to schedule their appointment in any of the 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
  • Better overall patient experience;
  • Reduction of costs with the payment of third-party customer service (contact center) or payroll telemarketing attendants when directly supported by the institution;
  • Elimination of scheduling errors;
  • Removal of scheduling of 2 appointments for the same doctor, at the same time due to the failure of communication between employees;
  • Reduction of absenteeism rates with the facilitation of the scheduling flow and availability of alert modules to patients;
  • Credibility and professionalism conferred on the institution.

In practice, we talk about something much more significant than the simple electronic scheduling of medical appointments. That’s because, generally, that functionality is only an integral part of a complete health management system that many state-of-the-art institutions already use. In a broad panorama, we have a robust performance management software that is constituted, a global IT solution in health, whose scheduling of online appointments and exams is only one of its utilities.

Modules of online exam results eliminate a good part of the rows in the reception of the institutions, guarantee operation 24 hours per day, in addition to better management of the flow and variations in the demand and sending of SMS messages as a reminder to the patients regarding the scheduled procedures. Several advantages justify the need of top healthcare consulting firms in India. All without trying the dashboard developed based on Business Intelligence, which presents indicators, data crossing, and issuance of graphical reports beneficial for strategic decision making.

Quality Management: Guarantee of Hospital Accreditation

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The success of a hospital that holds quality certifications, such as accreditation, is fundamentally related to its ability to provide continuity to the best practices in care and administrative management. Manage using quality management tools is what prepares the organization to conquer accreditations. Therefore, we are going to discuss the challenges of hospital administration when we seek to implement a management model aimed at certification.

But first, we require knowing a little about what are the main factors involved in improving the quality of care and how the criteria for hospital accreditation are capable of guiding quality management. Therefore, do not stop reading.

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Focus on quality management

The demands for health services are growing sharply, and prospects are continuously expanding. Consequently, the costs of the institutions for their efficient maintenance and investments also increase. But those costs almost never evolve in the same proportion of the available resources. With this scenario, the real challenge of hospital management is to achieve quality standards that are necessary for the adequate care and to provide better competitive conditions and differentiated remuneration for the institution.

It is necessary to emphasize that the methodologies that will be applied so that the hospital is thriving in the implementation of new standards and the improvement of the processes must attend to the particular needs of the institution. The objective should be quality management so that the value is highlighted not only by patients but by the professionals who act in the hospital.

The role of these methodologies is to change habits, promoting the revision of operational processes and reducing vulnerabilities. In this way, it is possible to transform the positions and expectations so that the entire context can effectively contribute to raising the quality of the care services offered by the hospital.

Hospital accreditation process

An accreditation program aims to standardize processes that promote the improvement of the quality of care perceived by the patient and demonstrated through objective evidence. We emphasize that indicators measure the development and the perception of progress. In practice, it is the hospital certifications and accreditations that show for patients and hospital management consulting company that the hospital operates with methods previously defined by international or national bodies aimed at guaranteeing patient safety and care outcomes. In Brazil, instruments and quality standards for certification are established by NAO – National Accreditation Organization.

Accreditation is an evaluation method of management whose realization is motivated by the initiative of the institution itself. It is not about auditing or licensing; it is a way to check the quality of the organization attributing credibility.

The accreditation process requires the institution to comply with hospital and health infrastructure standards that have a high level of standardization of care processes, guided by best practices and clinical protocols, and that have process indicators, continuously monitored and improved cyclically.

It is necessary, therefore, that an organizational culture of improvement be implemented through training programs and continuing education, anchored in technological solutions to guarantee the efficiency of hospital management.

Hospital management consultancy services helps the hospital to conquer and maintain high levels of quality, and the patient will be the primary beneficiary in that process through the increase in safety and efficiency in the execution of the assistance procedures. As an example, we mentioned the implementation of a pre-surgical checklist so that the name of the patient, the preparation of the surgery, is carefully verified, avoiding any failure.

Importance of Effective Management of Hospitals

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Most large entrepreneurs are likely to agree that in private sector companies the results of work are directly dependent on the effectiveness of management methods. At the same time, the relationship between hospital management methods and the effects of clinical treatment is still a matter for discussion.

And, in the end, the main decisions for the care of patients are taken by the attending physicians, and not the heads of the hospitals. Also, many people are convinced that the effectiveness of medical institutions depends primarily on the availability of the necessary financial means and that increasing funding automatically improves the quality of medical care. Thus, there is still no consensus on what practical application of effective management methods can bring.

In a thorough analysis of the data, we identified five factors that affect the effectiveness of management practices in the hospital and the results of its work. These factors are mostly similar to the parameters that determine the efficiency of production companies. In this regard, we believe that when developing reforms in the healthcare industry, these factors must necessarily be taken into account.

Size of hospital

There is a clear connection between the size of hospitals (based on the number of employees) and the effectiveness of healthcare management consulting in India. In particular, in medical institutions with a large number of staff, the management effectiveness indicators were higher than those of others. Hospitals with less than 100 employees generally demonstrated the lowest results.

Level of competition

The effectiveness of management also depended on the number of competing institutions located near the hospital. The rates of hospitals that did not face competition were significantly lower than those of institutions that had several competitors. At the same time, linear growth of standard performance indicators was noted as the number of competing establishments increased.

There are several reasons why competition can increase the effectiveness of hospital management. In all healthcare systems, managers of health facilities are ready to work more actively with strong competitors, because they can achieve more significant advantages in their environment.

Ownership structure

In all countries covered by our study, private clinics (both commercial and non-profit) in general demonstrate higher management effectiveness than state hospitals.

As a result of careful analysis, it became clear that private hospitals use much more effective methods of personnel management. A possible reason is that such hospitals, unlike public medical institutions, are not required to comply with certain personnel restrictions. For example, private hospitals have greater freedom in hiring professionals and working with staff, as well as in choosing incentives to encourage the most effective employees.

The degree of independence of managers

Is the efficiency of some hospitals because the supervisory authorities carefully monitor their activities? Or have they been successful because their leaders are given the freedom to make independent decisions?

Hospital management consultancy services can help hospitals improve the quality of care and improve financial performance. Thus, the introduction of these methods should be the central element of any programs aimed at controlling overall costs in the healthcare system.

How To Assess The Management of Services in The Hospital?

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Over the last decades, cost control has been the subject of business discussions, mainly in the health sector, since it depends on high investments in equipment (many imported), high-impact logistics organization and technological implementation for monitoring and control of information. But in recent years, it was perceived that treating cost and quality as two incompatible elements was a massive error in the management of services, explaining even the financial collapse of many institutions.

The successful experiences of some reference hospitals in India show that cost is an attribute of quality. That is, the financial chaos that attacks many hospitals, diagnostic centers, diagnostic imaging sectors and health plan administrators originates in the misconception that saving on technology and generating value for the patient is a way of leaving accounts well. In practice, that is giving a certificate of death to the institution. Do you want to know how to attribute more value to the hospital management consultancy in India? Come with us:

The detail that makes any difference in the control of functions

Adding value is not lending the same level of assistance to the health of the competition and charging less for services. It is also not to improve what is already perceived as excellent by patients. It’s not about adding services to add prices. Generate or add value is to advance in relative quality in the services provided by the hospital. Either using subtle reorganizations in the logistics of internal processes or technological implementations that return the most rapid attention, the most personalized care and the full accompaniment, related to the image of the hospital to an entity with empathy and responsibility concerning their patients. That can appear in the midst of small change

The computerization that avoids errors and gives agility to billing

Transformations promoted by technology in the routine of a hospital increase the level of patient satisfaction, strengthen the image of the institution and improve its financial results.

The link with the administrators generates opportunity

Some hospitals began to adopt a holistic view of health, with a focus on emergency care, but also on the whole process of developing and monitoring the health of potential patients. This work can be done much more efficiently with the operators of health plans. The improvement in the link between operator and institution can accelerate the processes of availability of exams, implementation of biometric verification to avoid fraud, as well as joint prevention actions.

Strategies based on health promotion, prevention, recovery, and rehabilitation are excellent for patients (who want to avoid diseases), for the hospital (which can provide much more services) and also for the operator (as the healthy beneficiary reduces the rates of accident rate). If everyone is victorious, why not start with this initiative?

Generating value in the hospital consultancy services is much more than exercising medical knowledge in the treatment and cure of patients. It is the differentiation next to the market, offering something more, whether speed in the attention or permanent accompaniment through IT resources in health  (such as monitoring the health of patients outside the hospital environment with wearable devices for example), in addition to the encouragement to health professionals with the exercise of humanized care. Always developing the quality, of the necessary the unexpected, surpassing the expectations of the patients.

Hospital Management System Optimizes Annual Strategic Planning

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Hospitals are complex organizations that need advanced management methodologies to guarantee levels of excellence. One of the most important concepts, in that sense, is the strategic planning that allows us to draw paths so that the objectives are achieved, helping to make the decision. However, in the era of data and digital transformation, the construction of that plan depends, fundamentally, on technology. The use of a hospital management consultancy in India which keeps a tremendous amount of information generated daily, optimizes the preparation and execution of planning, facilitating access to essential information.

The first step to prepare a plan is the definition of the purpose of the company, defining the reason for its existence. Then, the manager must be guided by the vision (where does the institution want to go?), by the mission (what is its reason for being) and by its values (what are the principles that guide it). And concepts that allow the anticipation of scenarios both to mitigate threats, as well as to embrace opportunities.

Taking into account these factors, it is best to carry out planning that allows embracing the whole year, contemplating actions that the managers must accompany each month. Thus, it is possible to have an interdepartmental and horizontal vision, always prioritizing that activities are aligned not only with the purpose of the institution, its goals, and indicators but also with each other, reciprocally.

Data

The planning must consider the implementation and use of the management system, since it is the data stored by it that helps in the execution of the proposed objectives, determining the directions that must be copied, as well as the necessary corrections of that route. Automating administrative routines, for example, can result in back office economics. Besides, adding intelligence to the management of hospital processes, with analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) tools, provide excellent results.

With technology, hospital management distinguishes in various aspects, especially in the improvement of data quality and in the extraction of insights that serve as support in decision making – a fundamental factor for Health managers. It is also possible to add indicators in systems that can be applied at any stage of the hospital process, facilitating monitoring and tracking progress – and also identifying and correcting errors in the route.

In this context, strategic IT is essential, working together with planning. That is what provides the data that will be evaluated throughout the 12 months, to know if the proposed objectives are being effectively achieved.

Relationship

The hospital management consulting company still allows us to monitor how annual planning impacts the perception of the quality of care by the patient. By optimizing processes with the use of technology, the institution can manage a more individualized medicine, with access to information that makes all the difference in diagnosis and treatment. The greatest assertiveness corresponds to the needs of the person receiving the care – an increasingly demanding client concerning health care.

There is still a change in the perception of the market about the hospital that uses these tools and teleology, which can be a differential in these times of economic crisis. Therefore, planning is the solution to stay active and, more than that, to stand out in this unstable scenario.