Last few months have been ‘Hospital Season’ for me, thanks
to health issues of own self and others, one after the other! This used to
happen very often in my life since very young age and I have developed an
expertise in hospital care & support services with some basic understanding
of many do’s and don’ts, while in hospital. I don’t know how many people agree
with me when I say that there are many skill sets required to effectively
assist an in – patient of a hospital as a by-stander. I had developed some of
those required skill – sets over a period of time and could use this expertise
effectively to avoid many mishaps!
I shall give you some sample scenarios for you to understand
the importance of above said requirement of skill – sets.
1) This was quite a long time back in a super specialty
hospital in Coimbatore, where I was a by-stander for one of my close relatives,
who was admitted there after a series of cardiac arrests, brought there after
unnecessary complications created by some of the old time famous local
hospitals of Palakkad (They don’t exist now).
On the 3rd day of admission, the patient was shifted to the
room after some very critical moments in the ICU. The patient was found
diabetic and asked to completely avoid sugar and I went out to fetch medicines
from the nearby pharmacy after the Doctor’s visit. In the meanwhile, the
dietician and a duty nurse visited the patient and for some odd reasons, they
had a different patient profile with them. They asked to purchase baby food and
lots of protein rich food for the patient along with another set of medicines.
When I came back the patient handed over another list of item to be bought for
him. I went through the diet chart (even the patient diet was to be
administered by the duty nurse as per the hospital system) and the
corresponding list of medicines and food supplements. Immediately I had a doubt
and rushed to the doctor’s cabin and shown him the list. The doctor called both
the nurse and the dietician and gave a piece of his mind for the blunder they
had done. It would have been a disaster if it was not brought to Doctor’s
notice as the patient who is already weak and whose heart was going through a
recovery process, would have struggled further by sudden shoot up in the sugar
levels in the blood. This hospital was in the initial stages of growth at that
point of time. Now, they are one among the veterans in the industry.
2)
Very recently, I had been in a leading hospital
of Palakkad, again as by-stander. Even before my relative got admitted I had to
accompany her regularly for various diagnosis processes. It was here my Mom
underwent a minor surgery, years back and the quality of services and the
cleanliness were appreciated very much on those days. However, the whole
scenario is changed now, as years passed by….! It is overcrowded and the
expansion (construction) is already on and it was quite difficult to get a room
there and at last when we got a shared accommodation, we realized the pathetic
state of its affairs. In fact, I was left alone at this room when my relative
was undergoing a surgery and the other patient in the adjacent bed got
discharged. When the housekeepers came to clean the room, I asked them to just
dampen the cloth and wipe the partition and when they did that, all those basic
stains vanished and it looked new. They themselves were appreciating each other
for the new look of this wooden partition. It reflects that there’s a clear gap
in supervision of the process.
3)
Another funny incident was that when I requested
for a room to one of the front office managers, he was expressing his
helplessness and then carried on to mention that many a times, he had helped
people and once the room is given, then there would be numerous complaints
regarding the facilities. I understood his intolerance about the grievances and
also it was sad to realize that the man who’s employed to resolve the issues
thinks that he had done a favour by allotting a room to the client?! Above all,
having received a favour of getting an accommodation, you are not supposed to
demand quality of service…..? Are we living in ‘Banana Republic’?
4)
Another incident is at a practicing local clinic
of an integrated health scheme of defense forces, where the crowd is multifold
than its optimum capacity. There are lots of systems and processes, but still
it should be appreciated about the way it has been handled. There is a whole
gamut of scope for improvement, but then with the current facilities and
limited manpower, they are doing their best!
5)
The best example was yet to come! I had to be at
RCC, Thiruvananthapuram with my relative and then I realized what growth
management is and I came across the effectiveness of one of the intuitive
employee orientation programme! We keep boasting about various HCM (Human
Capital Management) initiatives at corporate places and take pride in providing
the best motivation to the manpower through most pampering methods! However, I
witnessed more meaningful HCM initiatives at RCC, though it is a Govt. of India
undertaking and most of the employees are permanent with assured salaries
regardless of their performance! I don’t say that everything is perfect and
flawless here and of course, there’s huge scope for re-engineering of certain
processes with the modern perspectives. But then, given the volume and crowd they
are handling, I have limited words to express my awe towards each one of them!!
Once again, the most distinctive characteristic about this place is the soft
words they utter to the people who visit here, despite the huge work pressure
they carry and this quality is uniform across the staff right from the top to
the bottom.
I have only one suggestion to all those corporate hospitals: Realize
your growth and empower your employees to effectively manage that growth
through consistent trainings. Otherwise, the growth will turn out to be
negative!
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