Patient Satisfaction and Hospital

¶ … hospitals profits come from the cardiology department. One key strategy the hospital should adopt is specializing for growth. Not only has the rise in specialty hospitals increased in the last few years, but it has also enabled hospitals facing stiff competition to maintain or gain new patients. A specialized care strategy must be adopted for proper implementation of strategy. Hospital administrators in this role have to take the time to examine potential or existing specialty healthcare providers within the community.

By identifying an area of opportunity, it becomes much easier put into effect a strategic plan that will gain the hospital national and even worldwide recognition. Specialty hospitals satisfy the needs of a specific population. In the case of the hospital, those are elderly patients with cardiac problems. By examining if the local demographics match this population group, hospital administrators can then focus their attention on recruitment of specialized personnel as well as dismissal of unnecessary hospital staff to cut costs and build an excellent local reputation.

Metrics needs to include the potential budget for research and data collection as well as the costs for recruitment of new doctors and what it would take to convert the hospital into a specialty hospital. A 2011 study collected data to draw their conclusions on specialty hospitals from an AHA survey. "We obtained hospital characteristics from the 2001-2005 AHA survey. We used multivariable hierarchical regression to examine the association of cardiac specialization with risk of 30-day mortality adjusting for patient characteristics & CABG volume" (Girotra et al., 2011, p. AP314).

The other strategy involves improving patient care via technology. Technology enables patients to communicate more with the doctors, nurses and other personnel They can access their health records, lab tests, and fill out patient satisfaction surveys that enable the hospital to collect useful data for research and improvement efforts. Putting health records online and creating EMRs although a daunting task at first, can increase collaboration between medical staff. Should physicians deal with more patients than usual, technology will enable them to handle the increase better.

Investment in technology in terms of medical equipment can also decrease amount of stay for patients in the hospital. Inpatient days have been among the highest in the nation with the amount remaining at 1,161 compared to 600 for the national average. Investment in new medical equipment and EMR integration can truly help propel the hospital into a more innovative and collaborative place for patients and healthcare professionals.

"Higher levels of EMR implementation indicates a more consistent accurate focus on the patient's prior history such that the participating hospital personnel are more aligned to the requirements of that patient's surgical needs" (Freeze, Vinze, Santanam, & Furukawa, 2012, p. 2906). The metrics used will be patient satisfaction and as previously mentioned, inpatient days. The goals are to make the hospital a specialty hospital and introduce technology into the hospital in the form of greater EMR implementation and investment in new medical equipment.

The first strategy will need at minimum 5 years to implement. Specialists must be recruited and non-specialty staff may be dismissed. With regards to the second goal, the timeframe would be 1 year as most technology upgrades take roughly 6-12 months to complete. Conversion to a specialty hospital takes a long time because also, the current patients for non-specialty areas must be treated.