Within the state of Maryland in the U.S, is a hospital known as the John Hopkins Hospital. The John Hopkins Hospital has several functions. First, the hospital is used for biomedical research by students in the School of Medicine in John Hopkins University. Secondly, the hospital is also used as a teaching hospital by the John Hopkins University. Finally, the most important function of the hospital is the fact that it provides medical services to a large number of people in the U.S. The hospital ranks as one of the best hospitals in the U.S in terms of offering quality services. This paper seeks to analyze the appropriateness of the questionnaire used by the department that deals with breast cancer treatment in John Hopkins Hospital to determine the views that people have concerning the quality and effectiveness of its services.
The Mission and Goals of the John Hopkins Breast Cancer Treatment Department
In a bid to obtain a clear understanding of whether the questionnaire designed by the John Hopkins Hospital is appropriate in determining whether the hospital meets the required operational standards, it is important to start by analyzing its mission and goals for breast cancer treatment. First, it is important to note that the department responsible for the treatment of breast cancer in the John Hopkins Hospital is referred to as the Avon Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to ensure that the hospital provides the highest quality of breast healthcare to its patients. In addition, the hospital seeks to influence the standards of breast health care worldwide by leading other healthcare institutions in its quality of research, education and treatment of breast cancer.
The Avon Foundation also has a number of goals which it hopes to meet in the course of its operations. For example, the foundation has a goal of reducing the trauma suffered by a patient when undergoing the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Secondly, the foundation aims to provide its services using a high level of skill and compassion when treating patients. The foundation also aims to prioritize the treatment of their patients above all other things that may face them. Finally, the hospital seeks to be the advocate for all their patients as they interact with various members of the healthcare system.
It is as a result of the above mission and goals that the Avon Foundation found it necessary to come up with a questionnaire which they would use to collect information from patients and other stakeholders concerning the quality of their services. The questionnaire contained questions on all the stages that were followed by a patient seeking breast healthcare services. The questions sought responses from patients concerning what they thought about the quality of service they received at each stage of service during the whole process of seeking breast healthcare.
Analysis of the hospital’s questionnaire
The questionnaire used by the Avon Foundation was meant to be filled by any woman who was interested in giving an opinion concerning the quality of healthcare she had received in any of the hospital’s branches. Women were expected to give responses that would help the hospital to identify and maintain the good clinical practices carried out at the hospital. Responses collected from respondents would also be used to improve any aspects that emerged as weaknesses or inefficiencies in the hospital’s system of providing breast healthcare. Since the questionnaire required responses from women, men were not allowed to give their views since they were not in a position to receive any form of breast treatment or healthcare.
In my view, it was important for the John Hopkins Hospital to create a questionnaire since it provided patients with an opportunity to give their views concerning the quality of breast healthcare services provided by the hospital. The use of the questionnaire is likely to improve the entire process of providing breast healthcare at the hospital. This is because the questionnaire has questions that seek responses concerning the level efficiency of all the stages involved in providing breast healthcare at the hospital. The responses provided by respondents will, therefore, help the hospital’s managers to come up with ways of improving the provision breast healthcare.
In a bid to establish the appropriateness of the questionnaire, it is prudent to discuss the structure and arrangement of questions in the questionnaire. The questions in the questionnaire used by the Avon Foundation are arranged according to the order of stages followed by a patient when she undergoes the process of receiving breast healthcare services at any of the hospital’s branches. Responses are given by choosing one of the options given to describe a patient’s opinion on the quality of service she has received. Patients are required to indicate a response of number 1 if they thought they were receiving poor services from any of the hospital’s branches. A response of number 2 indicated that patients thought that they had received a fair quality of service. If patients thought that they had received good treatment, they were required to give a response of number 3, A response of number 4 meant that patients felt that they had received very good services from the hospital while a response of number 5 indicated that patients termed the treatment they had received from the hospital as excellent.
After an analysis of the responses given by the respondents who fill in Avon Foundation’s questionnaires, several things can be learnt. First, the hospital’s management as well as other relevant stakeholders will be able to learn the general feeling that a majority of patients have concerning the quality of services they receive at each stage of the entire process followed by a patient seeking breast healthcare service at the hospital. Secondly, the responses collected enable the hospital’s management to determine the best and worst performing departments in the hospital’s system of providing breast healthcare. Finally, the responses will enable the management to know the departments they need to give priority when coming up with measures to improve the provision of breast healthcare.
After discussing the lessons that can be learnt from conducting analysis of the question, we can be able to discuss their impact on the organizational effectiveness of John Hopkins Hospital in terms of providing breast healthcare. It is expected that the hospital will try to improve all departments where patients showed a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the aim of ensuring that they provide excellent services to patients. In departments where patient’s indicate a general fair or good response, it is expected that the hospital’s management will also try to improve these departments so as to ensure that they improve the quality of services offered in this departments to a level where patients feel that they offer excellent services. A move by the hospital to improve the quality of breast healthcare services offered by all the departments involved in the entire process will, therefore, have the a general impact of improving the organizational effectiveness of John Hopkins Hospital.
However, after a review of the entire questionnaire, I would propose a review or re-design of some aspects of the questionnaire. For example, I would propose a reduction in the number of questions asked. In my view, the questionnaire contains a lot of questions which may discourage some potential respondents from filling it. Therefore, if I would be given a chance to redesign the questionnaire, I would come up with a way of restructuring and rewording the questionnaire in a manner that will result in a shorter but comprehensive questionnaire.
I am also of the opinion that some of the questions asked in the questionnaire need more specific responses as opposed to the use of words such as poor, fair, good e.t.c. For example, the question asking how promptly a patient’s visits were scheduled, require answers that illustrate specific periods of time e.g. weekly, monthly e.t.c. as opposed to responses such as poor, fair and good. This is because one patient might feel weekly schedules are excellent while another might feel that they are poor.
References:
Hayes, B. E. (2008). Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Survey Design, Use and Statistical Analysis Methods. Milwaukee: ASQ Quality Press.
John Hopkins Hospital. (2012, 10 17). Take Our Patient Satisfaction Survey. Retrieved from John Hopkins Medicine: http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/survey/
Shockney, L. (2008). John Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Cancer. Oncology Issues, 38-42.
