Which Of These Services Help In Better Availability

Community Centre Health. 2002; 15(41): 1–three.

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE PATIENT Intendance?

Monitoring Editor: Gullapalli N Rao, MD

Gullapalli N Rao, L V Prasad Center Institute, Hyderabad – 500 034, India;

Improving patient care has get a priority for all health care providers with the overall objective of achieving a high degree of patient satisfaction. Greater awareness amid the public, increasing need for better care, keener competition, more wellness care regulation, the ascension in medical malpractice litigation, and concern about poor outcomes are factors that contribute to this change.

The quality of patient care is substantially determined by the quality of infrastructure, quality of training, competence of personnel and efficiency of operational systems. The primal requirement is the adoption of a system that is 'patient orientated'. Existing issues in wellness care chronicle to both medical and non-medical factors and a comprehensive system that improves both aspects must exist implemented. Health care systems in developing countries face an even greater challenge since quality and cost recovery must be balanced with equal opportunities in patient intendance.

Non-medical Aspects

The fact that the patient is the most important person in a medical intendance organisation must be recognised by all those who work in the system. This single factor makes a significant divergence to the patient intendance in any hospital. In developing countries fiscal constraints often lead to compromised quality of care. This can exist corrected by the introduction of management systems that emphasise toll recovery. Our feel shows that a organization should first exist developed to concenter patients who can afford to pay for high quality services and such a system should then exist extended to non-paying patients. This system has the advantages of high quality intendance and good cost recovery. Some of the issues that demand to be addressed to meliorate patient care are listed below.

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An Afghan mother and child wait for eye care in Kabul, Afghanistan

Access. Accessibility and availability of both the hospital and the physician should be assured to all those who require health care.
Waiting. Waiting times for all services should exist minimised. In most developing countries, the high demand for services often makes this a huge problem. Withal, it has to exist addressed finer through continual review of patient responses and other information and using this feedback to make the necessary changes in systems.
Information. Patient information and teaching virtually all procedures, both medical and administrative, should exist made very clear. Well trained patient counsellors class an effective link between the patient and the hospital staff and make the patient's experience ameliorate and the physicians' chore much easier.
Administration. Check-in and check-out procedures should exist 'patient friendly'. For instance, for in-patients, we take instituted a system of discharging patients in their rooms, eliminating the need for the patient or the family to become to another role or counter in the infirmary and waiting in that location for a long time. This has been favourably received by patients.
Advice. Communicating with the patient and the family unit about possible delays is a gene that tin avert a lot of frustration and anxiety. The cosmos of a special 'Patient Intendance Department' with a full time Ambassador has helped our institution significantly and has enhanced our interactions with patients and their families.
Ancillary Services. Other services such equally advice, food, etc. should be accessible both to patients and to attention families.

Medical Aspects

The medical aspects of patient intendance are much amend understood by nearly health care providers. This is dependent on the quality of medical and technical expertise, and the equipment and quality assurance systems in do. The post-obit factors contribute to the improvement of patient care.

Trained Personnel. A well-trained 'Eye Intendance Team' is critical to providing high quality care with desirable outcomes. Lack of adequate personnel and lack of adequate training facilities for the available personnel are major problems. The temptation to recruit untrained or poorly trained people should exist resisted. The number of preparation programmes must exist increased, and the existing programmes must be improved. Making a uniform basic curriculum available for all grooming institutions/programmes should help bring virtually standardisation.
Quality Middle Care. There is significant concern about the outcomes of cataract surgery, and other common surgical procedures. Incorporation of quality assurance systems in every attribute of patient intendance is disquisitional. For example, adherence to asepsis in the operating rooms will help reduce post-operative morbidity and proper training of ophthalmologists in diagnostic techniques will aid achieve better control of sight-threatening diseases.
Equipment. All the necessary equipment must be in place and properly maintained. This is vital to the operation of the medical system and contributes significantly to ameliorate results. Eye-intendance equipment of acceptable standards is now available at reasonable prices, and this must be accompanied by appropriate maintenance systems.
Use of Proper Instruments. Proficient quality instruments are now available at lower costs. With the development of proper inventory control systems for a given performance, the costs can exist lowered.
Use of Appropriate Medications. Access to low price medicines is an absolute necessity for advisable care.
Use of Newer Technologies. It is important to continually employ newer technologies that improve the quality of intendance. Of course, this must be done with reference to cost-efficiencies.

Improvement of patient care is a dynamic procedure and should be uppermost in the minds of medical care personnel. Development and sustenance of a patient-sensitive system is nearly critical to achieving this objective. It is important to pay attention to quality in every aspect of patient care, both medical and non-medical.

Manufactures from Community Eye Health are provided hither courtesy of International Center for Eye Health