Outsourcing in hospital
Dnia 5 December 2016, autor Katarzyna Złotowska
How efficiently manage hospital? The way to improve medical processes – optimization healthcare processes – in hospital doesn’t consist of single action but it is based on defined tools and mainly organization culture. We should know WHY we provide services, and then how we are doing that. There is no lean healthcare without kaizen philosophy.
Does outsourcing in hospitals is cheaper solution than internal organization each departments, which are needed to functioning medical facility? What is process? It is set of activities, which are linked to each other, that develops inputs to outputs, creating value added. Well designed system of processes, causes that owners and participants know very well process, for which add value. Also they know internal client – other department. Not every hospital is aware about advantages of outsourcing – use defined external services, external suppliers for supporting core processes. Functioning medical unit consist of many processes (medical, management, educational), the most important one is clinical process. Clinical processes are the interaction between patient and personnel, as a results patient state of health is improved. For efficient realization of core processes, there should be identified supporting processes, without that organization couldn’t work. This processes can be: cleaning processes, laundering, feeding patients, accounting processes, human resources, pharmacy processes from which all medicaments comes from and other. Supporting processes as it is named, are dedicated to support core processes, thank to that organization can exist and have clients. These processes not always are fulfilled internal, but thanks to outsourcing services. What are main assets?
Outsourcing supporting processes is not just economic aspect. It is new level of quality. Cleaned, disinfected patients room according to hygiene plans and instructions, using appropriate fluids can reduce number of infections, improve level of patient safety. It is also less patient complaints, no delays in delivery, better communication and exploitation modern technology. Hospital im. Mikolaj Kopernik in Lodz saved up 1,6 mln zloty yearly thanks to outsourced cleaning processes [OSOZ, nr 6/2016, s.48]. Suppliers should be regularly evaluated, every claim or observation are motivators for improvement.
Having more and more duties in medical unit, it is desired to outsource some processes. External units are specialists in their area, which keep up to date with processes, thank to returns to scale it is possible to reduce costs.
