I expect some professionals from healthcare to respond to this message from Nithi Ratnam -

I would like to know what activities Quality as a support function can control and measure in a Service Industry which is aligned towards health care.

I am new to this industry and would appreciate some inputs and suggestions from experienced people of similar background.

Thanks & Regards,

Nitin Rathnam.

DATE: Tue Nov 11, 2008

Dear Nitin,

 

I am Sudhir Ketkar an ex IAF officer of medical branch. Application of quality system has ample scope in HCOs. One should first determine the processes which are pretty much the same in HCOs.  The basic idea is process improvement to achieve optimum efficiency. starting from registration to outpt consultation, in-patient care, admissions, discharges, Operating room, rehabilitation, health education etc provide ample scope for application of quality as support function.

 

Measure their efficiency of each process by means of patient satisfaction/ feed back, costing, time motion studies, incidences of errors etc. In medical practice, check lists have found to be a great use.

 

Investigations of sentinel events and corrective actions can lead to immense improvement. FMEA on non-sentinel events in processes like hemodialysis, catheterization laboratories, pathology laboratory, identification of patients, etc can serve a great deal.

 

The statistics say that nearly 90000 people die in the USA every year on account of medical errors. In India, it is not a tradition to record/ accept medical errors hence rate of occurrence is hard to determine. Hospital acquired infection is one of the causes. More emphasis, stream lining the CSSD work can reduce the HAI.

bringing the air exchange rate in the operating room can reduce the HAI to a great degree.

This is only a few salient points that I have given if I have got your question right.

 

I personally believe that in our country bringing an era of quality in HCOs is an absolute must.

 

with regards

sudhir ketkar

Dear Mr. Sudhir,

 

Thank you very much for your valuable inputs. This has been very useful to me.

 

I would like to brief you up about the work that I am involved into, I work for an NGO where our organization runs MMU's (Mobile Medical Units) which go to villages that are far away from PHC's (Primary Health Care Centers) and provide service to ANC, PNC, and Chronic Patients. This program is a tie up with the state govt who supplies free medicines to the beneficiaries. Our employees do a normal check up to the patients and give required drugs to them which are sufficient until the next visit.

 

The objective of this program is to monitor ANC and PNC death rate and try to reduce the same. We have a set up of Counter 1 - 6 which involves:

1. Registration
2. Height and Weight check up
3. ANC / PNC Check up
4. Lab Technician
5. Chronic patient check up
6. Pharmacist

 

I would like to understand where and how could I incorporate the Service Quality Plan in such a set up so that I would ensure that my employees who are authorized for each counter are ensuring a defect free transaction.

 

I have already done Time and Motion studies and CSAT surveys. Would appreciate some valuable inputs from you regarding the same.

Also, any Doctors can please give their suggestions.

 

Thanks & Regards,

Nitin