Becoming a top healthcare facility is key to ensuring patients are well taken care of and that facilities retain nurses and other staff. These aspects also support a facility in building a strong reputation and brand and in being more effective, which means becoming a top healthcare facility can reduce costs and maximize impact.
This blog post outlines actionable steps you can take to help your organization become a top healthcare facility, from strengthening the organizational structure to improving healthcare quality, including patient experience and safety. Finally, we'll share our top tips on areas of improvement for nursing management, which will support your facility in becoming an industry leader in patient care.
The Key to Organizational Success for Health Care Facilities
When working to ensure organizational success in a healthcare facility, one can focus on strengthening the facility's research, leveraging technology, and improving the human and cultural aspects of the facility.
Read This Guide About Medicare Advantage Plans for Facilities
People & Culture
As a service-based industry, employees are one of the greatest resources in healthcare facilities and are undoubtedly key to their success, which is why it's essential to consider the following:
- Have a human resource strategy and set standards for the recruitment of talent by following these guidelines:
- Assessing and determining the skills and competencies required to execute the facility's mission effectively. This clarity helps the facility establish an informed human resources model and management structure.
- Hire qualified professionals through leveraging data intelligence to find the right candidates, such as utilizing databases for healthcare professionals, fostering working relationships with talent sources such as teaching hospitals and medical schools, and hiring sufficiently to cope adequately with expected workloads. To help with this last point, Nursa provides healthcare facilities across the country the opportunity to connect with per diem nursing staff.
- Focus on retaining talent by:
- Creating a nurturing work environment and culture that encourages and rewards innovation and commitment
- Building consensus between healthcare professionals, managers, and administrative personnel around the strategic vision by being transparent with employees and keeping them informed of developments and goals
- Establishing two-way communication channels, such as surveys or roundtable discussions, to be able to solicit information and feedback from healthcare employees and develop a platform to discuss success, improvements, and challenges
- Providing consistent training and professional development support
- Developing coaching and mentorship programs
- Investing in employee benefits such as dry cleaning services, a snack station, an entertainment center, or other perks
Research and Development
Successful healthcare facilities invest in research and development departments to support their patients with cutting-edge information and tools. In addition, facilities should invest in technology systems to ensure they are up-to-date and operating on evidence-based clinical and managerial practices. Utilizing insights from healthcare analytics and patient feedback enables facilities to improve quality and efficiency.
Technology
The use of technology is key in ensuring healthcare facilities run efficiently and effectively. Therefore, successful facilities focus on health information management. In today's world, it is also key to have strong online security regarding electronic health records and medical records. In addition, leveraging technology to automate various processes, such as appointment booking and remote health exams, enables facilities to run efficiently.
Ways to Improve the Quality of Care in Health Facilities
When looking to improve the quality of care in a health facility, management can focus on the following:
- Providing consistent holistic training and professional development for staff to ensure staff prioritize and acknowledge patient needs and provide care free from discrimination or prejudice
- Collecting data and utilizing insights of healthcare analytics. Information from patient feedback is useful to healthcare practitioners to make informed medical decisions and create personalized treatment plans, ultimately improving the quality of care provided
- Connecting and collaborating with other institutions to stay updated on new ways of providing quality health, making healthcare more accessible, and improving patient outcomes. Facilities should aim to collaborate strategically and learn from other institutions, such as universities or colleges, research institutes, and public organizations.
Improving Patient Experience and Safety
Improving patient experiences and safety is essential to become a top healthcare facility. One can strive towards this by creating conducive patient-friendly spaces, which involve having well-designed hygienic facilities that accommodate social distancing—particularly during epidemics and pandemics.
Mapping out and streamlining patient engagement also helps to improve patients' experiences. Top facilities assess every step their patient encounters, including waiting times, comfort in facilities, and the physical atmosphere.
Developing systems to ensure patient safety will help to prevent and reduce risks, errors, and harm that occur to patients receiving healthcare. Top healthcare facilities implement established patient safety standards and guidelines, regularly training personnel on best practices and protocols for medication, surgical procedures, injection practices, diagnostics, and more. In addition, allowing patients access to EHR (electronic health record) data and clinician notes will help prevent medical record misinformation.
Areas of Improvement in Nursing Management
Improving nursing management—including in the following ways—is an essential component needed to become a top healthcare facility:
- Staffing and employee satisfaction: Establish a clear and appropriate line of authority in the organization, and ensure adequate staffing and a positive work environment.
- Communication skills and strategies: Develop clear protocols for delegating, coordinating instructions, and providing updates to help accomplish objectives amongst nursing teams.
- Patient relations and customer satisfaction: Train and coach nurses on how to best handle patients and provide quality healthcare services for patients.
