World Hospitals and Health Services : the Official Journal of the International Hospital Federation

When suicide occurs, it is regarded as an adverse event. Often, little attention is given to nurses who cared for the patients prior to that circumstances. Instead, affected nurses are expected to write statements and incident reports. Patients who attempt suicide during hospitalization remain a stressful and anxiety-provoking experience for nurses. THis is because in most cases, even if the patient survives the ordeal, nurses blame themselves The physiological effects of such stress and anxiety are found to be harmful to the well-being of nurses an therefore should be avoided...

The District Health Information System (DHIS) is used in South Africa to collect routine aggregated data. Analysis of hospital data in the DHIS revealed that reporting in hospitals (especially clinical data) is generally inconsistent and incomplete. The NDoH recognize these reporting and data quality challenges in hospitals and the impact they have on the ability to make informed management decisions and monitor the impact of health interventions. A data quality improvement initiative was undertaken in ten of the biggest Central and Tertiary hospitals in South Africa...

Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) is a Comprehensive Care Centre for Cancer located in Mumbai, India. Patients from all over India and some from neighboring countries choose to travel to Mumbai (Bombay) to receive treatment at our centre. Given the geographical constraints, TMH has adopted Information Technology to reach out to patients in distant communities. TMH has a home-grown Electronic Medical Record System, the contents of which are shared with patients and providers over the hospital- wide Intranet, and globally through our website...

The Enhanced Anesthesia Recovery Program (EARP) is a unique patient-centered, Anesthesiologist-led quality improvement initiative designed to reduce postoperative anesthesia-related complications and to accelerate recovery. Anesthesia-related complications are known to be associated with poor patient outcomes and higher morbidity/mortality. This project was designed to develop protocols to improve anesthesia recovery and thereby the quality of patient outcomes. A detailed review of national & international guidelines was carried out and EARP pathways were designed to incorporate changes in perioperative management, as per recent clinical research findings, to improve the patient surgery experience, ensuring better postoperative cognitive function and a reduction in postoperative morbidity...

In its quest to improve service delivery and reduce congestion, the busy R. K. Khan Hospital Pharmacy has embarked on a unique partnership with community organizations whereby 13 community facilities including community halls, temples and churches, are being used as venues for issuing chronic medicines to patients. Patients receive their initial supply at the hospital and are then referred to a facility mos convenient to them to collect their repeat medicine. They only return to hospital after six months on their review dates...

In 2012 the Manila Doctors Hospital became the first hospital in the Philippines to launch and commit to a Social Vision. Since then, this Social Vision has served as a guide for good governance and a blueprint for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs focusing on health, environment and gender. The goal of the Manila Doctors comprehensive CSR health program is to render the fundamental right to health care available to marginalized patients. Through our CSR programs, more than 20,000 financially challenged patients gain access to quality medical services annually...

Blood products are essential components of effective healthcare management. However, they are expensive and scarce in many developing countries. In South Africa, several factors are likely to escalate this problem in the future. The "Saving Blood, Saving Lives" Project is an innovative healthcare system that promotes the rational utilization of blood products, improved decision-making, accountability, and quality improvement. It requires no budget and no additional staff. Once implemented, it simply takes a few hours a month to run...

This paper describes Tan Tock Seng Hospital's (TTSH) Journey in delivering value to both staff and patients, anchored on an Engaging Leadership framework. As the healthcare landscape becomes increasingly complex and TTSH continues o strive for organizational excellence, we focused on organizational health in tandem - delivering value to our staff so that they can deliver value to our patients. We built an Engaging Leadership Framework anchored on staff and patient values. Leadership builds both human capital and social capital in people through engagement...

According to World Health Organization (WHO)reports, MERS patient of the last five years mostly occurred in Saudi Arabia, but uniquely, over 180 patients appeared in Korea in 2015. The reason is in the nature of the Korean medical, characterized by high medical accessibility. MERS has rapidly expanded to infect large numbers of people in Korea in a short period of time through nosocomial infection. Under the circumstances, Myong Ji Hospital had accepted MERS patients and did not cause any nosocomial infection because the hospital had prepared, trained and formed a response team for emerging infectious diseases, a year before MERS occurred in Korea...

Hong Kong is proud of its population's long life expectancy, but rapid population ageing is one of its greatest challenges. The Hospital Authority (HA) is the largest healthcare organization in Hong Kong. To cope with the challenges, HA has formulated the "Strategic Service Framework for Elderly Patients", emphasizing the development of multidisciplinary integrated elderly services, patients and caregivers; engagement, and enhancing collaboration with community partners. Over the past few years. HA has innovated and re-engineered various service models to provide appropriate care based on the stratified needs of individual elderly patients...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

China's biggest population size is the foremost intriguing factor in the country's wellness tourism opportunity. Preventative medicine and health prevention is one of the most growing healthcare sectors due to state-of-the-art advanced medical diagnostics and technology. However, wellness tourism in China is still in its infancy, it offers massively new opportunities for the outbound wellness tourism industry. Several reports reveal that environmental assets, including fresh air, clean water and natural features, are considered the most important attributes for the development of wellness tourism for the Chinese...

This article describes the activities of MAA Medicare Charitable Foundation, which provides support for two charitable arms - the MAA Medicare I(idney Charity Fund and the MAA Medicare Heart Charity Fund. Author describe how such charitable organizations can play a vital role in supporting the care of patients with kidney disease in cases where such care is not available through the public programs offered by the government. Public employees and government retirees who need dialysis can receive care from private dialysis centers, through government subsidies...

In this article, we describe our project to initiate an online learning course, using real-world scenarios to help nurses enhance their communication skills with patients so as to improve the patient experience. The philosophy behind our project is 'a complaint is a gift'. We discuss how patient's complaints are incorporated into our curriculum and the use of HEART language to provide patients a better hospital experience. The 'HEART' acronym refers to five attributes which we believe all nurses should embody: Be HUMBLE, be EMPATHETIC, use APPEALING statements, be RESPONSIBLE and TELL the facts when interacting with patients...

Frail elderly patients require a longer time to recuperate after hospitalization, and are often discharged home from the hospital with little support despite their needs fpr complex care. They are particularly vulnerable to hazards of hospitalization and fragmented care if not appropriately managed. A geriatrician-led transitional care program called NUH-to-Home (NUH2H) was started in March 2014 to provide high-quality person-centered interdisciplinary care for older adults who were discharged from the National University Hospital (NUH) Singapore...

In this article, we describe how we spread safety culture of correct site surgery from Major Operating Theatre to Day Surgery. We discuss how we integrated the High 5s Project Correct Site Surgery protocol into the Day Surgery Operating Theatre (DSOT) workflow and monitored compliance through audit and feedback. We also reflect on how human factors analysis (HFACS) helps in bridging the gaps by providing a tool for recognizing possible causes of non-compliance. Background: The High 5s Project, established by World Health Organization (WHO), in 2007, is an international collaboration carried out in seven countries - Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States of America - and coordinated by the WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, The Joint Commission...

Service excellence Training is an important continuing priority in Lorma Medical Center. Its design and contents are modified as needed to respond to patients' comments on the quality of service by Lorma staff. Noted inadequacies in customer satisfaction were bared in the Patient Surveys of Lorma in 2013. Floating of Satisfaction Assessments is done monthly by the Patient Relations Officer and summaries of the same are submitted by the Executive Secretary to the Department Heads concerned for immediate action, monitoring and reporting on improvements made...

BACKGROUND: Hospital bed utilization is influenced by various factors which can be divided into patient, physician and administration related. These factors should be seen from the eyes of healthcare providers so that any improvement initiative taken by the administration is matched with the health worker's perception which ultimately affect the hospital efficiency and quality of care. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the factors influencing hospital bed utilization from the perspective of healthcare providers...

Patient safety improvements demand a complex system-wide effort, involving a wide range of actions in performance improvement, environmental safety and risk management, including infection control, safe use of medicines, equipment safety, safe clinical practice and safe environment of care. Healthcare accreditation is one of the major steps towards improving quality and patient safety. Amongst the several accrediting agencies across the world, the Joint Commission International, (JCI) stands out as the gold standard in healthcare accreditation...

"PWH easyGo" is a mobile smartphone application (app) designed to help patients and visitors to look for different departments and facilities on the hospital premises. Posters with QR code are displayed at various hospital entrances. Users with the app installed can scan the QR codes printed on posters on site or manually select their current locations and destinations in the app, and the system will display the relevant routes with photos. It is the first such app developed by the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and is available for download at Apple store (iOS version) and Play Store (Android version)...