The Improvements to Patients and Visitors to the Royal London Hospital - Case Study Example

Royal London Hospital Royal London Hospital Introduction Human health is considered a very important element to human life, and this follows the understanding that ill health contributes immensely to poor performance in every event or activity that one gets involved in. Researchers have found out that health of a person is directly related to the performance of that individual, an indication that for excellent outcomes in the functionality of an individual, one must be in good health. However, since human body is prone to diseases and health disorder, there is great need to devise appropriate measures that can be used to improve the health of a person. More importantly, there is need for effective implementation of the strategies that are found beneficial in ensuring that the health of people is maintained at better standards to improve their performance. This study focuses at investigating the importance of patient satisfaction with the quality of healthcare services in Royal London Hospital. This follows the observation that quality in health institutions in the hospital is a challenge, and patients have raised great concerns due to the poor performances of the health institutions in Royal London Hospital. In the Royal London Hospital, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of United Kingdom is considered to be the fundamental organ that controls all the activities and operations in the ministry, and more importantly provides the primary health care to the citizens and the public in general. It is evident to have adapted the referral system which offers curative care to the public, and the medical services offered by the MOH and other health facilities has been greatly influenced by the advancement in technology. However, it has been observed that the quality of services offered by the public health facilities is low as compared to those offered in the private health centres in London. As observed by some medical specialists, this is caused by low training of the medical practitioners and low provision of quality machinery among other technologies that are effective and efficient in the medical sector. In order to meet the elevating needs of the clients, and also address some of the complexities that patients have such as heart disorder, kidney failure and mental disorders, the public hospitals are observed to increase the number of personnel in their hospitals. The need to transform the public medical sectors of the country to improve the quality of services and ensure that the patients are satisfied is pioneered by the desire to improve the excellence of the medical services offered (Barney, 2009). The larger population in London prefers accessing medical services from private hospitals because the treatment services and products that they receive from the facilities are of high quality. One of the contributing factors of the increased and elevated quality of the services and products in the private medical sectors is the proficiency and competence of the professionals and nursing practitioners due to training and education they are subjected to. This does not imply that the public sectors do not hire trained or educated personnel, but the frequency at which the public personnel are subjected to additional training to improve their skills and competence is very low (Cingel, 2009: 50-52). Adapting the system of operation that offers patients’ satisfaction ensures that the nurses and doctors among other professionals in the medical sectors of public medical facilities undergo continuous training and education to improve their skills and abilities to deal with complex human health disorders. Economic status of the London civilians and residents cannot be considered to be so low such that they cannot afford the services offered in the private medical sectors, but the fact that these private sectors are not spread everywhere in the country is enough to argue that there is need to improve the quality of services and medication in the public sector (Cordesman, 2009: 50-52). The national hospitals in the country are also few and since they have most medical equipment, machinery and technologies, they tend to be overpopulated. The private medical sectors and other non-medical sectors must offer their employees and their family members with healthcare insurance. This is not observed in most public organizations and institutions, and it is the obligation of the government to consider strategizing on offering health insurance to its employees and their families as a way of ensuring that they access quality health services at any hospital that they visit irrespective of whether it is public or private (Dewer & Mackay, 2010: 299-308). This argument follows the observation that most of European laws command that public sectors (public departments) should offer to their employees and their families’ healthcare insurance. Various studies affirm that this ensures that there is patients’ satisfaction in the health facilities in London and offers the patients a better chance to life (Dietze & Orb, 2000: 166-174). The other alternative that needs to be investigated and executed in the healthcare systems of the Royal London Hospital is shifting the practices and medical operations and make their operations similar to those of private sectors and allowing managers in the private sectors to manage, operate and run the hospitals (Dosanjh, 2004: npag). The government through the ministry of health needs to encourage the Institution of Retirement to offers healthcare insurance for retires employees and their families (Durston, 2006: 105-111). This offers a great chance for the patients to have better services from the health centers from Royal London Hospital because they offer them financial security. Generally, this study will aim at investigating the recommendations above, find out whether they are worth to be implemented as a way of improving the quality of services in the Royal London Hospital, and more importantly suggest on the most appropriate measures that can be used to attain patient’s satisfaction (Epstein, Franks, Shields, Meldrum, Miller, Campbell, T.I. & Fiscella, 2005: 415-421). Patients and Visitors Medical Attendance at Royal London Hospital Private health care sectors in London are beneficial to the entire population in the sense that they provide health facilities, which are with inclusion of hospitals, laboratories, and rehabilitative facilities to the population. Moreover, they are observed to provide high quality laboratories and physiotherapy points in different parts of Royal London Hospital, whose services and medical products have been rated high in comparison to other health facilities in the country. It is essential to note that human health is the backbone of the economy of any region, and this is to the understanding that healthy population is active and is beneficial in terms of engagement of the their energies and activities and practices that can generate income (Eunice, 2004: 5-12). Involvement of Royal London Hospital is thus beneficial, and hence there is need to investigate the performance of personnel in Royal London Hospitalhealth care sectors as a way of evaluating their performances. Human resource management is a very fundamental tool in any organization as it facilitates to effective and efficient functioning of the workers and other parties involved in daily operations and activities of the organization (Ghafour, 2014). . It integrates several roles that are considered vital in ensuring that the workers feel appreciated and accommodated in the organization, and this not only motivates them but also enables them to be loyal and patriotic to the organization they are working with. This is a fact irrespective of the nature of the firm, with inclusion of business enterprises, non-governmental organisations, and health service sectors (Ghoussoub, 2014: npag). Considering health services at Royal London Hospital there is a high rate of growth in roles and elevated participation from private sectors in provision of medical services due to the quality of services and medications offered by them. However, there is a great need to assess the performance of the personnel at Royal London Hospital, and this builds the foundation of this research paper. Having found that there is need to investigate and review the performance of the personnel in the Royal London Hospital in delivering quality services and products to meet satisfaction of the patients, most of the materials focused on the following: a. Investigating the patient satisfaction with quality health services in private health services sectors in Royal London Hospital, b. Determining factors that facilitate to attainment of effectiveness and efficiency attainment of patient satisfaction with quality health services in health services sectors in Royal London Hospital, c. Affirming the issues that hinder effective attainment of patient satisfaction with quality health services in health services sectors in terms of personnel performance, d. Verifying the roles and functions of human resource management in attainment of patient satisfaction with quality health services in health services departments in Royal London Hospitalin regarding the quality services and products deliverance in the medical sector, e. Investigating sustainable measures that can be used to improve the performance of the personnel of the health service sectors in the London in attempt to attain patient satisfaction with quality health services in the region, f. Evaluating some emerging issues in medical field (health services sectors) that directly affects the patient satisfaction with quality health services in Royal London Hospital. The chart below is an illustration of consumer satisfaction rate in health organizations where employees understand the need of providing quality services and products to the clients or patients. According to the materials used in the study such as articles and books, London is considered one of the highest populated cities, and this elevates the chances of increase in demand of health centres in the city to satisfy the expected demand of health services in all regions. The ministry of health (MOH) in the city is the most supportive state agency responsible for provision of preventive and curative health care services on the region. Additionally, MOH is obliged to provision and facilitation of rehabilitative health services to most of the population, and more significantly, this government’s agency is highly depended on for provision of primary health care (PHC) services to approximately 1,925 centres across the population (Hamilton, 2010: npag). The ministry of health contributes enormously in the management, planning, and regulation of health services sectors alongside other duties, which are with inclusion of supervision of health care related practices and operations integrated in the private sectors. This implies that the private sectors rely on the ministry of health of London for operational instructions and procedures, and for monitoring and supervision of most of the operations and activities that are their responsibility. Thus, Ministry of Health in UK is the root of health care services in the population, and irrespective of the fact that the government supports emergence of private health care centres, it remains the National Health Service (NHS) for UK civilians (Hannah, 2005: npag). Effective management of human resources is a challenge to achieve in health service sectors in Royal London Hospital. This is due to several influential factors such as unavailability of medical equipment, medications, and significant number of trained professionals. It is critical in facilitating high quality services and health products. The Royal London Hospital investors take this advantage to improve the working of their health care centres by financing some of the services that are not available in the public sectors such as hiring professionals in different medical fields and purchasing of medical equipment and machineries. Thus, the personnel in the private health service sectors enjoy the benefits of working in environments that are highly equipped and facilitated in terms of equipment, machineries, and experts. This improves their general performance making them more productive in terms of quality deliverance of medical services and related products, and more loyal and jingoistic to their respective health care organizations (Holahan, 2008: npag). Hiring of human resource managers at Royal London Hospital involves complex procedures ranging from evaluation of the academic qualifications to managerial expertise of the candidates, unlike in public health sectors where such procedures do not have intense weight. This approach allows the personnel in the Royal London Hospital to have genuine, knowledgeable, and competent directors and managers, who are aware of the challenge that the personnel in various departments face. In connection to this, these top officials in such departments have defined and evidence-based strategies and abilities to make immediate decisions to address issues affecting the working panel, enabling them to have comfortable environment to work (House, 2012: 165). The performance of personnel in health service sectors in Royal London Hospital is deeply determined by the fact that the personnel are well aware of the factors that need to be considered when determining demand for health services in the hospital, which is not the case for some public health sectors. Additionally, socio-demographic features and economic factors are considered to allow them attain competitive advantage over other private investors in the industry and over the government’s agencies such as MOH and NHS (Long, 2005: 85). The other fundamental issue that contributes to the performance of the personnel in the Royal London Hospital is workforce training. It is crucial for the personnel to understand that effectiveness and proficiency in the health service sector is dependent on the skill categories and the level of training acquired by the medical personnel. Royal London Hospital sectors have defined education and in-service training for their personnel, and this enables their employees to acquire and advance their medical knowledge and skills, ethical training and technological updates among other benefits (Malat, 2001: 360-72). The workforce or the personnel’s migration alters their performance and consequently the performance of the health care sectors where they work. This can be considered as an emerging issue in the ministry of health irrespective of whether it is supported by the government or private investors. This is to the understanding that migration of professionals negatively impacts to service deliverance, and hence inability to achieve the targeted vision, mission and goals of health care organizations (Manojlovich, & Ketefian, 2005: 15-34). Personnel mobility creates imbalances that initiate the need for better training, planning and improvement of the general management of the personnel in respective health care organizations. The personnel mobility is high in government supported health agencies than the private health services sectors in UK, and this immensely interferes with the quality of service and products provision in public sectors than in private sectors. Thus, it can be deduced that the performance of personnel in private health sectors in the London is better in comparison to public health service sectors. Most health service sectors in London have high accountability in integration of various measures that are aimed at increasing equity in their organizations, and this leads to enhancement of the performances of their respective personnel. This is achieved using strategies such as introduction of financial protection approaches and re-deployment of services in the health sectors. It is of essence to note that the core goal of human resource professionals in private sectors is to promote equity in relation to needs needed for systematic planning of health procedures and associated services. Achievement of such an aims helps significantly in achieving proficiency and competence in the personnel working with the organizations, hence enhancement of the general performance of the health organizations. Irrespective of the several measures and operational decisions and strategies that human resource management in Royal London Hospital integrate in their operations to improve the performance of their respective personnel, there are some hindering factors alongside mobility of the health professionals. Other limiting issues are with inclusion of budgets, increased absenteeism rates, and the most discouraging issue is reduced morale of health personnel in the private sectors resulting from emerging issues and lack of motivation in some health enterprises. It has also been confirmed that in London private medical sectors, there is increased lack of congruence between different shareholders’ values and this hinders effective facilitation to the workforce or the personnel, and consequently affects the clients’ confidence in the health organizations. The fact that health service sectors are ultimately offered by human beings is sufficient to show the need for human resource management to play its planning, supervisory and financial management roles as they are the solution to limiting issues hindering personnel from achieving competence and proficiency in their operations as expected. The core outcome is that the patient satisfaction in health services in Royal London Hospital is greatly affected by the human resource management due to a number of factors. Such factors are such as planning, budgeting, supervision, monitoring, and mobility of the professionals and other workforce. These hindering issues might be confirmed to be contributing to ineffective implementation of the goals and objectives of the health services at Royal London Hospital in terms of personnel performance and patient satisfaction. Measures such as lowering the mobility of professionals, lowering cost, increasing effectiveness, and efficiency of the personnel and equity may improve the appropriateness of health services at Royal London Hospital. Patients sometimes show misconduct which has been confirmed to be negatively influencing the performance of the medical centres and institutions. This is because these misconducts tend to affect the health care providers, and this lowers their feelings towards sympathizing or helping these patients attain their normal health as required, a condition described as compassion. Lack of compassion by the medical practitioners is an indication of poor quality deliverance of medical services and treatment products. Patient misbehaviour is considered the actions by patients that violates the recognized and acceptable norms of conduct, is situations related to usage of medical products and services and disrupt the order, which is expected in consumption situations. In understanding the patient behaviour and consumption situations, it is essential to look at it as exchange situations. This is to the sense that the parties that are involved have to exchange ideas, services and goods to each other, and if the processes involved are not effective there is misconduct as the norms that have to be followed are neglected. Thus, patient misconduct arises if the cause of failure to observe the norms and ethics of operations are contributed or caused by the patients, who are also considered to be the customers or clients. This implies that patient behaviour and conduct is directly related to customer behaviour and conduct applied in businesses. This is an indication that the patients are the causes of predicaments and challenges that hinder effective and efficient deliverance of medical services and medical products such as medications and drugs by the healthcare providers. There are several reasons why patients’ misbehaviour is common in most healthcare settings across the globe. One of the major reasons is calculating opportunism, and this is to the understanding that some patients misbehave due to the expected outcome of the decision-making processes that are based upon conscious calculations of the benefits without considering the cost that they may incur if they fail. The search for thrills is another major cause of patient misbehaviour, and this is perceived to be the basics for the patients’ misconduct in the sense that the misbehaviour permits thrilling defiance of legal and moral structures and this presents a high risk of being caught on the wrong side of law. Additionally, considering the argument that patient misbehaviour risks their lives, the lives of their loved ones and other patients, and they risk the career of the medical specialist suffices to show the need to control patient misconduct in health setting. Differential associations and frustrations are other desires that trigger the patient to get involved in misbehaviour as they become over-stimulated to a level that only few can legitimately afford to realize their conducts. Other reasons linked to causes of the patient behaviour are psychological problems and abnormalities of come patients, sexual frustrations, provocative situation issues and negative attitudes towards exchange healthcare institutions and other health organizations. This argument is supported by the observation that most patients in London tend to trust the services and products offered in private health care institutions as compared to those offered by public healthcare settings. Conclusion In the main, considering the situations presented about the performances of health organizations in London and connecting them to the operations in Royal London Hospital, it can be deduced that there are various issues that need to be addressed to be at a position of acquiring competence and proficient in health sector of the firm. The issues that need to be addressed are with inclusion of improving the quality of services and products offered, and more importantly the competence of the employees. The other significant factor in helping in realizing the challenges facing the health sector at Royal London Hospital is dealing with the needs of the patients and treating patients as first priority, as this aid in identifying the challenges that face the administrators and the service providers. 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