Health Care Services and Patient-Friendly Environment
Healthcare is a comprehensive package of preventive, promotive, curative, and rehabilitative health services provided to people by health professionals. Healthcare includes both clinical and nonclinical care. The function of health care services is to improve the population’s health status. Research studies have devised several solutions to address the patient’s concerns about healthcare facilities and services. Some include enhanced communication skills, counseling, staff accountability, time management, cleanliness, accessibility, and safety (Ahmad & Din, 2010). Improving patient care has become a priority for all healthcare providers with the overall objective of achieving a high degree of patient satisfaction. The quality of patient care is determined by the quality of infrastructure, quality of training, competence of personnel, and efficiency of operational systems. The fundamental requirement is the adoption of a system that is ‘patient-oriented’. Some suggestions are discussed below to make healthcare services effective and patient-friendly:
Non-Medical Aspects Essential for a Patient-Friendly Environment
Access
The hospital and physician should be accessible and available to all who require health care.
Reception desks
These are the first point of contact for most patients. Their first impression, formed in the reception area, influences their attitude toward the entire organization. However, reception areas are often busy; reception staff deal with phone and in-person queries and must also welcome incoming patients. Ensuring someone is available to greet patients properly may help separate the reception area and the task of welcoming patients from the registration area. If separating the areas is impossible and registration staff are too busy to provide a personal touch, volunteers could help greet and provide essential information to patients. It can be beneficial for these volunteers to learn about the various hospital services. Hence, they have a better understanding of patients’ needs.
Waiting
Waiting times for all services should be minimized. In most developing countries, the high service demand often makes this a huge problem. Nevertheless, it must be addressed effectively by continually reviewing patient responses and other data and using this feedback to make the necessary system changes.
Information
Patient information and instructions about all medical and administrative procedures should be clear. Well-trained patient counselors form an effective link between the patient and the hospital’s staff and make patients’ experience better and physicians’ tasks much easier.
Administration
Check-in and check-out procedures should be patient-friendly. For example, for inpatients, a system of discharging patients in their rooms eliminates the need for the patient or the family to go to another office or counter in the hospital.
Effective Communication
Communicating with the patient and the family about possible delays can avoid frustration and anxiety. Patients should be well–supported and treated with dignity and respect throughout all interactions with the healthcare system. Patients who feel acknowledged and their concerns are listened to are more likely to respond to treatment than those who do not. That is why it is essential to encourage providers to improve their bedside manner through effective communication.
Confidentiality
The physician or psychologist should ensure that the patient’s data and information remain confidential.
Use Scribes
Scribes can help doctors improve bedside attention and ensure documentation accuracy for more thorough patient care and satisfaction.
Promote productivity
Supplying valid data, strong leadership, and incentive alignment can promote productivity and, in turn, improve provider satisfaction and patient satisfaction.
Ancillary Services
Other services, such as communication, food, etc., should be accessible both to patients and to attending families.
Medical Aspects Essential for a Patient-Friendly Environment
Trained personnel
A well-trained medical personnel team is critical to providing high-quality care with desirable outcomes. The lack of adequate personnel and training facilities for the available personnel is a significant problem. The temptation to recruit untrained or poorly trained people should be resisted.
Physician’s behavior
Communication and warm behavior, including empathetic listening, affect patient satisfaction levels.
Equipment
All the necessary equipment must be in place and adequately maintained. This is vital to the performance of the medical system and contributes significantly to better results and enhanced patient satisfaction.
Use of and access to low-cost medications
Access to low-cost medicines is an absolute necessity for appropriate care.
Use of newer technologies
It is important to employ newer technologies that continually improve the quality of care. Of course, this must be done concerning cost-efficiencies
Conclusion
Problems regarding healthcare services in the government and private sectors should be re-examined, and settings should be made according to patients’ well-being and satisfaction levels so that health systems can be improved.
References
Ahmad, I. Din, S. (2010). Patients’ Satisfaction with the Health Care Services. Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences 8 (1).
Rao, N. (2002). How Can We Improve Patient Care? Community Eye Health Journal.
5 Ways to Improve Patient Care – Cost Efficiency | SCP Health. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.scp-health.com/healthcare-executives/blog/5-innovative ways-to-improve-patient-care-cost-efficiency-in-201
