Messy galleries, oil-painted walls, stained bathrooms, inefficient staff, dim light, and noise…
This is how we identify a typical Indian hospital. Hospital chains are indeed making their presence felt, but for an average Indian, branded healthcare is still a luxury. The scenario has to change. The 21st century marks the arrival of technology where everything is changing. Hospitals are no exception. However, the problem is with the strategic perspective.
A strategic framework for modern hospitals is missing
This realization is important, as healthcare is one of the basic needs of human kind, and especially in India, it is at the lowest ranking on the priority list.
One needs to think and know about how strategy is important in making modern healthcare happen in India. The hospital of the future looks quite different from the hospital of today. Rapidly-evolving technologies and growing consumerism, along with demographic and economic changes, are expected to disrupt hospitals worldwide.
Already, a growing number of inpatient healthcare services are being moved to the home and outpatient ambulatory facilities. However, many complex and very ill patients will continue to need acute inpatient services. With aging infrastructure in some countries and a demand for more beds in others, hospital executives and governments should consider rethinking how to optimize inpatient and outpatient settings, how to best connect with consumers, and how to integrate digital technologies into traditional hospital services to truly create a healthsystem without walls. The focus is on strategic management, the intelligent choice of investments, adopting the right technologies for the treatment of patients, and the resources for hospitals, including the quality of personnel when high turnover and a lack of proper resources plague hospitals and jeopardize investments made in high-tech equipment.
Doctors and administrators of hospitals are central to leveraging the latest technologies and innovations in the treatment of traditional diseases, as well as the body blow to hospitals caused by pandemics like Covid-19. Hospitals are better prepared for such challenges now than they were a few years ago, and this book could not have come at a better time, as hospitals are grappling with the enormity of choices that have been made available to them. Hospitals’ digital strategies should aim for higher levels of customer engagement than their rivals,especially as major hospital chains leverage digital technology to revamp their reward offerings. It is easier said than done. Still, it needs to be emphasized that offering Western Style health is just not enough anymore. The digital version of loyalty programs is a feature that can give health retailers a greater chance of competitive advantage. Arguably, the strategic management process at hospitals depends on how effectively it applies a mix of product-based system, visit-based system and a points-based system.
It is equally important to focus on what type of services are expected to keep the customers loyal.Strategic Management deals with planning, organizing and internalizing the rapid development of technologies not only in the diagnosis but in the treatment with highly sophisticated gene therapies giving targeted treatments to deadly diseases and improving health care and reducing the time spent in hospitals for recovery
The traditional Hospital is witnessing a change that is unprecedented. FromRobotics Process automation, Digital supply change, Artificial Intelligence, theInternet of Things where machines will be talking to other machines and 3D printing for surgeries are happening across the country.
Transparency is the key to talent management.
The organizations with a clear-cut statement on performance goals TheHospital of the Future are believed to perform better than organizations with weak statements of performance goals. … Nurturing multiple talents is allowing modern day hospitals to develop and identify high potential individuals at different levels of nursing and to provide them opportunities in their specialty areas.Technology has completely transformed the healthcare sector.
The advent of RAS(Robotic Assisted Surgery)has led to an exciting time as Surgeons can now perform new and complex procedures with ease. The success of this assistance is witnessed across Specialties such as SpineSurgeries, Cranial, Orthopaedic, Urology, General Surgery, Gynaecology, Neurology, CVTS, GI among many others.
Leveraging Technology with better utilization of human resources has helped the hospitals in achieving cost effectiveness while delivering good outcomes. Robotic Surgery enables Doctors to execute various types of surgeries with more precision and flexibility. The machine integrates advanced computer technology with the experience of the skilled surgeon and provides them with 10x magnified high-definition images of the body’s intricate anatomy. The surgeon makes use of the controls in the console to use the special surgical instruments that are smaller, maneuverable, and more flexible than a normal human hand. The robot then replicates the surgeon’s hand movements while minimizing hand tremors thus allowing the surgeon to operate with enhanced precision, control and dexterity even during the most complex procedures.
As the RAS offers a minimally invasive surgery that results in smaller scars, shorter hospital stays, less blood loss, less complications, faster recovery of patients it enhances the experience for both the surgeons and patients and rapidly gaining momentum in the healthcare space.
RAS can not only play an important role in training young medical professionals to become more efficient future surgeons but will also help enhance the healthcare infrastructure in Tier2 Tier3 hospitals. With further progress in AI, machine learning and data analytics and medical devices Doctors are able to gather insights into patients in real time and personalized medicine.
With advances such as Telemedicine being widely implemented across the country patients in remote villages across the country can easily avail the expertise of the Doctors miles away.
More and more organizations are now looking forward to the LeadershipCompetency Model for guiding their efforts towards talent management.
An array of IT Solutions, in the form of cloud computing, virtual medium, artificial intelligence, and data mining, give healthcare facilities a great opportunity to enhance their operational efficiencies. Proper incorporation of modern IT Solutions into healthcare systems are found to be positively related to quality of care. This is an investment that cuts down upon the redundant and unnecessary tasks and allows the caregivers to focus on meaningful tasks. Technology can be seen as a potential solution to efficiency problems in modern hospitals.
The right technology not just reduces costs but it also helps hospitals provide quality service. For example, virtual consultation video notifications, multi-language audio, two-way audio communication, and high-definition video cameras make it easier to connect to patients.
Predictability and rationality have long been the mainstay of managerial perspectives on modern hospitals. The Rising complexity with the business volatility and demand cycles has forced the hospitals to gear up for the future ahead. Quality of service is increasingly getting complicated because of the diversity of professionals, ambiguous objectives and multiple stakeholders.
Meyer et al (2016) have therefore said that strategic management is becoming useful in hospitals because they work as complex organizations and are driven by ambiguous and multiple objectives. In hospitals the actions and decisions come out of interpretive political and symbolic aspects more than mere rationalism.
Also, it is important to know that social capital, legitimacy, organizational knowledge, and highly pluralistic context make hospitals a difficult terrain. In Addition to the complexities of their external environment, they are internally as complicated. The accumulation of various internal and external stockholders makes it challenging for the managers to fight the right balance between rational managerial models and institutional models.
Also as social institutions hospitals constantly face a high level of exchange of information, domination, structures, and complex interactions. In addition to an institutional-based view of strategy, the hospitals should look for a strategy that acts as a central mediator between the institutional environment and organizational attributes
Transparency is the key to talent management. The organizations with clear-cut statements on performance goals The Hospital of the Future is believed to perform better than organizations with a weak statement of performance goals. Nurturing multiple talents is allowing modern-day hospitals to develop and identify high-potential individuals at different levels of nursing and to provide them with opportunities in their specialty areas. More and more organizations are now looking forward to the leadership Competency Model for guiding their efforts toward talent management.
An array of IT Solutions, in the form of cloud computing, virtual medium, artificial intelligence, and data mining, give the healthcare facilities a great opportunity to enhance their operational efficiencies. Proper incorporation of modern IT Solutions into healthcare systems are found to be positively related to the quality of care.
This is an investment that cuts down upon the redundant and unnecessary tasks and allows the caregivers to focus on meaningful tasks. … Technology can be seen as a potential solution to efficiency problems in modern hospitals. The Right technology not just reduces the cost but it also helps the hospitals in providing quality service
For example virtual consultation video notifications, multi-language audio, two-way audio communication and high-definition video cameras make it easier to connect to patients. Remote nurses can possibly take care of all the vital signs of the patient and provide care based on the patient’s condition.
The future of the hospitals would depend on the level of ownership that each of its employees shows during. The right engagement strategies and proper environment planning would make sure that the employees contribute their hundred percent on care delivery.
Author Biography
Dr M . Balasubramanian, a doctor by profession, coupled with leadership and management skills have successfully led a period of 35 years a team of healthcare professionals in various hospitals in Mumbai.
He is a strategic, people-oriented leader with senior-level experience within complex health environments who enjoys leading and influencing change. He has a genuine passion for working with the community and other key stakeholders to improve health outcomes. In his final tenure as Chief Medical Officer at Lilavati Hospital, he was responsible for the staff’s health & well-being, in addition to medical administration.
He has successfully completed the General Management Program(GMP) from the prestigious Indian School of Business (ISB) In the early stages of the pandemic, he was quick to assimilate facts and publish a book ”COVID-19 – The New Age Pandemic” In his last book” Total Quality Management in the Healthcare Industry” he talked about the importance of TQM in healthcare and the Barriers &Challenges faced while implementing it.
His latest book on “ Strategic Management of Hospitals–A Futuristic Overview:
The hospital of the future may look quite different than the hospital of today. Rapidly evolving technologies and growing consumerism, along with demographic and economic changes, are expected to disrupt hospitals worldwide. Already, a growing number of inpatient health care services are being pushed to the home and outpatient ambulatory facilities; however, many complex and very ill patients will continue to need acute inpatient services. With aging infrastructure in some countries and demand for more beds in others, hospital executives and governments should consider rethinking how to optimize inpatient and outpatient settings, how to best connect with consumers, and how to integrate digital technologies into traditional hospital services to truly create a health system without walls.nn
