Express Healthcare‘s interactive FAQ section titled – ‘Ask A Question’ addresses reader queries related to hospital planning and management. Industry expert Tarun Katiyar, Principal Consultant, Hospaccx India Systems, through his sound knowledge and experience, shares his insights and provide practical solutions to questions directed by Express Healthcare readers
Question: We are coming up with 200-bed multi-speciality hospital. How do we plan for the equipment that needs to be placed in the hospital?
– Dr Parineeti, Pune
Answer: A hospital is an institution that provides treatment to patients through specialised staff and equipment. Proper planning and implementation of equipment is one of the most important aspects of operating any hospital.
Equipment planning should be done according to the requirement of hospital and the expected number of patients. You should always concentrate on quality while purchasing and installing equipment to enhance the quality of patient care.
Question: What is the importance of HIS in a hospital?
– Aditya, Administrator, Bijapur
Answer: Most professionally run hospitals and clinics now rely on hospital information systems (HIS). It helps to manage all medical and administrative information.
An effective HIS also delivers benefits such as:
- Enhancing information integrity
- Reducing transcription errors
- Reducing duplication of information entries
- Optimising report turnaround times
These computers are programmed to collect, process, and retrieve patient care and administrative information ensuring better quality and delivery of service. If the hospital authorities have more relevant information they can make better decisions.
Question: Please help me out with the hospital marketing planning.
– Leena, Bilaspur
Answer: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large. It’s a process for getting a company’s product or service out to customers. Hospital marketing is done to promote and inform people about a hopsital’s services.
Hospital marketing has five components. Knowledge of all five components of the mix is helpful for managers who are developing the marketing strategies.
The five components are as follows:
- Product-service mix
- Presentation mix
- Communication mix
- Pricing mix
- Distribution mix
Question: What are the healthcare trends we can see in the coming years?
– Dr Usmaan, Aligarh
Answer: As per my understanding, we will see many new trends and developments in healthcare. Out of many, few of them are:
- Chronic care will become a focal point
- More and more providers will employ health coaches
- Healthcare will move to the home
- Employee incentives for healthy behaviour will become more popular
- Private exchanges are on the rise
- Big healthcare policy changes lie in wait
- Big data will become more open
- Partnerships will expand to facilitate new approaches to care delivery
Question: What should we understand from hospital planning and commissioning?
– Shruti Agarwal, Bhopal
Answer: Commissioning is a strategic process used to turn new hospital facilities into dynamic, functioning organisations that provide a planned and improved service to any organisation.
The commissioning process structures the design to enhance quality outcomes.
The successful realisation of the commissioning process will ensure a smooth and efficient transition to full operation so that complete potential of the hospital can be achieved.