Introduction
Performance management is a way in which steps are taken to ensure that objectives are constantly met in a well organized manner. Bench marking simulation software can be used to achieve this procedure. Nosocomial infections are infections that develop as a result of treatment in a hospital or a health unit. This type of infection is also known as hospital acquitted infection. The nosocomial infections have been found to be rising at Lenity Hospital for Advanced Care (LHAC). The rising rates have been caused by several factors in the hospital which need to be addressed urgently. If this issue is not addressed, then it would be no better to go to such a medical institution to seek treatment as one may end up acquiring a worse infection instead.
Lenity Hospital for Advanced Care (LHAC) is experiencing an increased amount of nosocomial infection. The increase in nosocomial infection has been caused by Lack of equipment sanitization. This is caused by miscommunication within the departments of the hospital and lack of enough nurses to implement equipment sanitization. The miscommunication has made it difficult to implement an efficient system which can manage all the incoming and outgoing equipment and check their status. This later on leads to increase in rate of nosocomial infection in the hospital. The organisms which cause most of the nosocomial infections may come from the patients own body but usually propagated by mishandled equipment. The equipment coming into the hospital and leaving the hospital need to be checked thoroughly and proper sanitization measures are taken in the interest of the patients.
There is need to improve equipment management at LHAC and they involve both the management and the junior staff at LHAC. The best ways of improving equipment management is through computerization of services and personnel training. Computerization of services will ensure that equipment management is achieved. Computerization will ensure that the status of equipment into and out of the hospital are properly taken care of. One problem which resulted into lack of proper equipment management was the inadequate number of nurses to look into issues of entry and exit points of the equipment. With the presence of computerized equipment management, sanitization of the equipment is to be done through an integrated system which has functionalities that surpasses those of an ordinary human being. This will ensure the return of sanity in equipment management thus eventually reducing the rates of nosocomial infections. Another way identified to be of great help in equipment management is the training of personnel. Untrained personnel even with the best equipment in the industry may prove to be futile. It is therefore important to train all the personnel involved at different points in equipment management. This ensured that there is proper monitoring of all the equipment used thus reducing the rate of nosocomial infection at LHAC.
The benchmarking partner is a partner that I chose was one that we shared a common interest with. We opted for a similar institution so as to obtain optimum results. With an institution possessing similar interests and goals, it was easy to establish the common causes of the problems that we faced and ways to solve them. It enabled us to have different implementation procedures and establish which one was best for our case. The outcome was good as we saw an improvement in the results that we got.
Process improvement strategy is an initiative of an institution to achieve operational excellence. It facilitates improvement of process efficiency and quality. The process management strategy in the case of LHAC involved assessing the current state, establishing the loopholes and devising ways in which we could improve the current state of affairs in this institution. In this case we took a look at the problems being faced in LHAC and we realized that the main problem was the increased rate of nosocomial infections. We established the causes of these infections and compared with those for my partner. We realized that they were similar. The first step that we took was to stop the entry of any new equipment into the hospital. We then took the already existing equipment and ensured that they were properly sanitized. After sanitizing the equipment, we then took a step of ordering for more equipment that lacked at the hospital. The new equipment were properly scrutinized and care was taken than no equipment was to gain access into the hospital without proper screening. Once we were through with the procedure, we realized that the state of the hospital improved greatly and few discharged patients were readmitted into the hospital.
Summary and Conclusion
LHAC is a big medical institution but does not get enough funding from the government. This has led to substandard services being offered at the institution. Equipment being used in this hospital are substandard and there is no proper sanitization standards are observed during their handling. The lack of proper sanitization has led to provision of poor post admission responses. The rate of nosocomial infections has been on the rise as a result of this. A measure has to be taken in order to reduce the rate of these infections in the hospitals. It was realized that the best way was to automate the services at the hospital and train the medical personnel as patient safety should be the first priority. The functional strategy should be based on business level strategy which ensures competition thus improvement of services at the institution.
The application of this simulation helped in determining the possible effects that implementing a given strategy can have in a given institution. A SIM acts like a model which forecasts on the outcomes of a situation and gives the possible outcomes. Through this, one can establish whether a given action is worth while
The application of this kind of approach is very important in my current job. I can easily use this kind of SIM and establish the causes of a given situation and devise ways to control it. It can give me a chance to test the results before implementing the whole procedure.
REFERENCES:
Arrow, K. (1963). Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care. American Economic
Review, 53:941-973.
Phelps, Charles E. (2002). Health Economics 3rd Ed. Addison Wesley. Boston
Williams A (1987) "Health economics: the cheerful face of a dismal science" Health and
Economics, Macmillan: London
