Studies on Hospital Management Transformation

The following sections are included:

• About the Author
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Contents

In order to differentiate the “patient-oriented” hospital culture mentioned in this book from the traditional hospital cultures, all other hospital cultures that do not advocate the “patient-oriented” value are collectively referred to as traditional hospital culture…

The definition of hospital culture shouldn’t be infinite and boundless. Some Chinese scholars understand hospital culture as being both a generalized and a narrowed concept. The generalized hospital culture is “the sum of certain material wealth and spiritual wealth created by the hospital’s subjects and objects” during its long medical practice. This is a concept easy to explain but hard to explain clearly. The narrow concept refers to implicit culture, i.e. the values imprinted with the distinct characteristics of a hospital developed during the long-term medical activities and recognized and observed by all employees. It is the sum of the hospital’s operating standards, management style, spirit, moral codes and development goals. This concept categorizes the hospital culture in ideology. However, both generalized and narrowed definitions deviate far away from “patient-oriented” nature of hospitals. All hospitals in the world are built to treat patients. A hospital would be useless if it fails to serve patients. Thus, hospital culture construction must highlight the core of serving patients, and all research and practices should be carried out based on the “patient-oriented” value.

The basic ideas for the research and implementation of hospital culture can be analyzed from three aspects. First of all, full participation; second, patient service details should be the priority; and third, there must be an everlasting determination to implement various improvement measures, making patients and their families more satisfied with the hospital’s ever-improving service level.

There is no model that can quantify and evaluate hospital culture types and guide the hospital to constantly improve its level of hospital culture construction in any academic report worldwide.

We perceive the world through the five senses from eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin, as well as the sense jointly formed by multiple organs, known as perception. This section is mainly based on the feelings of patients and their family members while seeking medical treatment. Studies have shown that 80% of a person’s knowledge and memories are obtained through the eyes — the most important organ of human beings. Every year, there are tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions of patients and their family members visiting hospitals, which makes it impossible to hide anything — good or bad — from their visitors. What people see informs their feelings and even opinions about the hospitals. Anything improper will be observed and the news will be spread.

Ears play an extremely important role in the development of feelings. People get bored or may even panic in a loud or noisy environment, especially patients who need to rest and recover in a quiet environment. When people hear words that they don’t like, they feel disgusted. Doctors need to diagnose illnesses through questioning patients, nurses need to take care of patients and patients will go through several stages during their stay in the hospital. At each stage, they will hear a variety of expressions from hospital staff, and which can influence their feelings about the hospital. Hearing has a major role in the formation of feelings; some people are fine when some words are used while others are not. Therefore, doctors and nurses must observe patients, understand their interests and hobbies and say things that they like. As the Chinese saying goes: A sentence may have numerous results, it just depends on the way you say it…

Different smells lead to different feelings. Certain fragrances make people comfortable, while unpleasant odors make them feel oppressed. If the air is mixed with various smells, it causes chest tightness and shortness of breath, and if serious, even sickness. This is what we know as smell. Hospitals are often filled with the smell of disinfectants, which is not popular among the public. Everyone likes to breathe in fresh air; however, it’s not easy for the hospital to maintain fresh air…

People need food and water, especially hospitalized patients. Whether the water is odorless or the food is delicious are what we call taste in physiology. Taste is extremely important to people. A simple truth is that no one wants to eat what they don’t like. It is not easy for patients, especially inpatients, to get food with a satisfying taste. In China, people from different regions may have different tastes in food. Therefore, it is difficult to cater to all the different preferences…

Coldness, warmth and other feelings of the skin are transmitted to the brain and create a general comfortable or uncomfortable experience in people. If a hospital is too hot in summer or too cold in winter, patients and their family members will certainly feel uncomfortable. Allowing patients and their family members to enjoy a pleasant and satisfactory temperature is indispensable for improving services.

This true story tells that patients’ good impression of the hospital or the medical staff comes from the feelings in multiple aspects.

People may form a direct judgment on something through a single sense or a mixture of senses. We call this integral cognition perception. Perception is psychological, but direct judgment is physiological. A certain opinion on the hospital formed by the patients will lead to mixed perception. The hospitals need to take great efforts in multiple aspects to give patients and residents a good impression of the institution. It is important to note that people’s satisfaction is not based on a comprehensive evaluation of a hospital in multiple aspects. Patients are not a consulting institution, and their satisfactory or unsatisfactory impression merely comes from their attention to details. For example, a patient may be very grateful or resentful towards a doctor due to one small action.

It is not easy to rapidly, relatively and accurately judge the culture construction of a hospital. For over 500 indicators to be investigated objectively, accurately and quickly, it is vital to objectively evaluate culture types of the hospital and propose feasible improvement measures and overall solutions.

The following sections are included:

• Measures — The Carrier of Responsibilities
• Improvement Measures for Convenience
• Improvement Measures for Service
• Improvement Measures for Management
• Improvement Measures in Environment Link
• Improvement Measures for Etiquette

Any great organization will definitely show a strong driving force in scheme implementation, no matter how difficult it is. The implementation of the hospital culture construction scheme first depends on the leader’s awareness of the impact of hospital culture construction on the hospital development. If hospital leaders realize that hospital culture construction is strategically a top-level design, they will unswervingly implement various measures and constantly pursue medical and health services at higher levels in the process of implementation. Otherwise, the plan will be constrained, the effects are severely weakened, the assessment is ineffective and the implementation is dispensable in the process of hospital culture construction. Eventually, the hospital culture construction begins with a vigorous start and putters out at the end. Of course, what we need is continuous improvement of the hospital culture construction, not a flash in the pan.

Hospital culture construction is by no means a process of making a show, or a complete preaching, but a solid long-term task, which needs to be long-lasting and innovative. Hospital culture construction is not something that can be displayed on a wall but is seen in the healthy and colorful activities year after year; it is not shown in the various improvements within the hospital but in the varied feelings of improvements of community residents and patients; it is not shown in the lip service of the employees but in their sincere services for community residents and patients.

The success of any service organization depends on a strong executive force. In particular, successful companies write their own development history with a strong executive force day after day and year after year. During this process, they will definitely encounter rapid imitation of this methodology by competitors, and the competitors can even exceed the original in some aspects; therefore they need to constantly change and innovate to maintain their own advantages, so as not to be eliminated by history. Executive force is needed for change and innovation, and inertia is required for sticking to traditional things. In this sense, the most critical factor determining the effect of the new ideas and practices related to future development is executive force.

A cultural improvement management assessment plan from Cengong County People’s Hospital, Guizhou, China.

The Quality Control Circle, a quality control team, refers to a team of organizing employees who are engaged in various jobs in the workplace for improving quality and people’s quality, and carrying out activities under the “patient-oriented” hospital culture construction system by centering on business strategy, policy goal of the hospital and existing on-site problems.

The following section is included:

• Index