support and utility services ppt
Answers
Within a hospital, different departments are responsible for providing the levels of service that make a hospital run—from environmental services, equipment distribution and linens to biomed/clinical engineering, facilities and many others.
All these support services are necessary to keep the hospital going, so that hospital staff can provide care and patients can receive treatment. These support services also have an opportunity to drive operational improvement.
Departmental Roles
Often, departmental directors in support services must deal with the pressure to “do more with less”. They may need to cut their operating expenses by 10% or reduce headcount. These departments need the ability to increase the efficiency and utilization of staff to meet the workload (because the workload is never going away).
At a high level, you can look at a healthcare system as three pieces of a pie:
1. Clinical
The clinical piece of the pie focuses almost exclusively on patient care and the use of clinical documentation systems such as EPIC and Cerner.
2. Finance
The financial piece includes billing, accounts receivable, accounts payable and purchasing/supply chain/materials management—all important aspects of managing the financial health and prosperity of a hospital.
3. Operations
The operational slice is comprised of a wide variety of support services—including biomedical engineering, facilities engineering, equipment distribution, environmental services, linens, dietary, courier service, security, IT, and others.
Typically, these departments operate independently. Many times, each department relies on their own software systems to manage workflow, which often becomes confusing to end-customers as to which “system” to use for request creation. From a departmental perspective, they need to operate independently.
From an end-user/customer support perspective, however, these silos become problematic, making it difficult for hospitals to meet the needs of the staff and the patients alike.
Eliminating Silos
High efficiency in hospital operations is all about the elimination of departmental silos. Traditionally, because there are so many silos in the operational wedge of the pie, there is a need to streamline and standardize how these support service requests are captured and routed to the people who need to get the work done. What systems can be put in place to make your hospital as efficient as possible for patients and hospital staff?
Imagine you are a new nurse at a big hospital. Three weeks into your role, you have finished new hire orientation and you are ready to get to work. You sit down at your desk, but the room is freezing cold. What do you do? The next day, you need a specialty piece of mobile medical equipment to provide care for a patient. What do you do? Then the next day, after a patient’s assessment, you are asked to administer medication via an IV pump. But you know that the last time you needed an IV pump, it took three hours to get it. What do you do?
Depending on the need, hospital staff typically use multiple endpoints to submit a request for support services:
Visit one of many web portals
Send an email
Make a phone call to a dispatch center
Walk to another department
These multiple methods result in inefficiencies and leave much room for improvement. There is a better, easier, more scalable way for a member of your hospital staff to send a request for support services.
Across the health system, any number of support services departments and their end-customers—the rest of the hospital staff—can benefit from handling different types of support service requests through a single portal. Regardless of the support need, requests can be distributed and delivered through Accruent’s portal to the appropriate group to be fulfilled. It is a seamless workflow orchestration.
Given all the internal and external pressures that hospitals feel—with reimbursements, Medicare/Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act—hospitals need to provide a high level of service at the lowest possible price point.
Meeting the Challenge
Operationally, the big challenge in hospitals is continuing to meet patient needs and ensuring patient satisfaction while dealing with staff reductions. Without driving efficiency, it becomes difficult for departments to meet the never-ending demands of upholding service levels, which makes for happier staff who provide care to happier patients who give higher survey scores, which leads to stronger reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.
Over time, the streamlining and standardization of support requests increases operational efficiency gains in terms of staff utilization and staff efficiency. If you can give time back to your staff, they can do more, which drives up efficiency and drives down costs.
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Support and utility services
- The levels of service that keep a hospital operating are provided by several departments within the facility, including environmental services, equipment distribution, linens, biomedical/clinical engineering, facilities, and many others.
- In order for hospital employees to give care and patients to receive treatment, all of these support services are required to keep the hospital operating. Additionally, there is a chance for these support services to spur operational development.
- These divisions often function independently. Each department frequently uses its own software systems to handle workflow, making it difficult for end users to know which system to use to submit requests. They must function autonomously in terms of the department.
- Assume you are a new nurse working in a major hospital. You have completed new hire orientation and are prepared to begin work three weeks into your position. The room is icy cold when you settle down at your desk. How do you behave? You will require a specialised piece of mobile medical equipment the next day in order to care for a patient. How do you behave? After a patient's examination the next day, you are then asked to deliver medication using an IV pump. However, you are aware that it took three hours to obtain an IV pump the previous time you required one. How do you behave?
- Hospital staff generally uses a variety of endpoints, depending on the requirement, to make a request for support services.
- There is a lot of potential for improvement with these several ineffective ways. For a member of your hospital staff to submit a request for support services, there is a better, simpler, and more scalable way.
- The handling of various support service request types through a single portal can assist a variety of support services departments and their end-users within the health system, as well as the rest of the hospital employees. Requests can be dispersed and provided to the proper group to be fulfilled through the Accruents interface, regardless of the support need. The coordination of the workflow is flawless.
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