It has been well established within the literature that the successful implementation of quality relies heavily upon the human factor. Most leading firms now recognise that a higher quality service ...and improved competitiveness will result from increased attention to people issues within the organization. It is held that the implementation of any quality initiative should embrace a participatory management style, address the issue of changing attitudes and culture, employee involvement and empowerment together with investment in training, development and learning. To date, limited research attention has been given to the challenges involved in operating such practices in working contexts such as healthcare. This is significant given that it is the 'softer' issues of managing the quality dynamic that are coming to the fore in healthcare organizations. This paper seeks to explore and address such deficiencies and reports a review of key developments in this area. It concludes by outlining current research developments within the healthcare industry in Ireland and poses important questions for future quality implementation within the Irish healthcare sector.
In this article, the place and the nature of an ethical dialogue that develops within Christian healthcare institutions in Flanders, Belgium is examined. More specifically, the question is asked how ...Christian healthcare institutions should position themselves ethically in a context of a pluralistic society. The profile developed by Caritas Catholica Flanders must take seriously not only the external pluralistic context of our society and the internal pluralistic worldviews by personnel/employees and patients, but also the inherent inspiration of a Christian healthcare institution. This article concludes with ten general orientations that could shape the ethical dialogue from a Christian inspiration in a pluralistic context.
The development of an equipment inventory of the medical devices installed and used in the Peripheral Healthcare System (PHS) of Crete, Greece is considered to be the cornerstone for the initiation ...of a process for the evaluation, monitoring and management of biomedical technology in this institution. The medical equipment inventorying process is performed by the Institute of Biomedical Technology, in cooperation with the Biomedical Technology Unit from the Department of Medical Physics of the University of Patras, Greece. The whole procedure is divided and accomplished in three phases: 1) collection of medical equipment data on structured paper sheet forms; 2) data entry in a computerized management system; 3) installation of an in-house developed webbased medical equipment management system, called WEBPRAXIS, used to store and manage the medical equipment. As a result, the procedure leads to the creation of an electronic database, containing essential information for the identification of each medical device such as: equipment control number, device group, type and manufacturer, serial number, department and location, age and acquisition cost. Total number of 4 958 medical devices from 22 healthcare institutions are recorded. Furthermore, the medical equipment is classified in 355 device groups, 2 050 device types and 715 manufacturers. The current project overcomes a number of problems, present in the field of biomedical technology management in the PHS of Crete. The most important are: 1) ineffective practice of keeping local inventory files, due to insufficient information on codification and nomenclature standards; lack of computerized systems and software, and lack of personnel experience; 2) no centralized database for the medical equipment in PHS of Crete, resulting in poor technology management, assessment, planning and decision making. The systematic use of WEB-PRAXIS is expected to improve the management of medical equipment with significant benefits related to cost-efficiency and safety.
A severe dearth of medical experts in health institutions in the rural and remote areas in developing countries has directly affected the quality of healthcare. This problem can be alleviated by ...providing facilities to access up to date medical Information and knowledge for doctors who are stationed in these areas to update their knowledge. Since Knowledge Management System (KMS) consists of most related Information and knowledge, medical KMSs could be utilized to enhance the quality of clinical activities. This study was aimed to identify the factors that affect the knowledge management initiatives. Findings of the research have shown that there is a strong association between accessing and using Information/ knowledge in clinical activities and the quality of healthcare. Moreover, attitudes of Medical Practitioners (MP), Infrastructure facilities, patient Information systems, patient treatment, staff benefits etc., have contribute positively towards the success of knowledge management in Health organizations. The research has used the case study methodology for accomplishing the research objectives. Remote and rural areas in Sri Lanka have considered for the case study which is one of the developing countries in the Asian region.
A multi-objective optimization model is proposed as a decision aid designed to standardize the interfacility patient transfer system in Bogotá, Colombia. This model considers different patients’ ...preferences and the different situations in which a patient may be found, using multiple objectives, seeking to respect the patient’s right to choose the medical institution that will treat him or her, and while providing efficient solutions in terms of appointment wait time and travel distance.An ex-post study was done to evaluate the advantages of the model versus the previously usedmethod based on nurses’ empirical experience. The experiment took place in one of the largest and best-rated public hospitals in Colombia, which serves as benchmark for other hospitals in the country. The results of this comparison demonstrate that there are important advantages to using the model, because it delivers benefits in respect to improved patient choice and more prompt medical care.
Healthcare institutions everywhere, today, are attempting to respond to demands to reduce cost and improve the effectiveness of care delivery. Often spurred by a combination of economic and ...regulatory pressures, hospitals and healthcare providers search for new solutions that can address core business needs and manage the huge volumes of security-sensitive data that are involved.
The increasing need for medical information applications to handle varied multimedia data through interoperable systems is continually hindered by incompatible limited platforms, with low or ...non-existent security. Using the workflow of an imaging service, this chapter describes the structure and protection strategy of a secured specialized electronic patient record which allows exchanging of multimedia medical data in a secured manner. An open multimedia standard adapted to patient record requirements has been applied, combined with security tools. Prospective application scenarios are identified, and the main issues of the approach are discussed.
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