Gaps in Hospital Planning, Hospital Process Optimization and Hospital-IT
In terms of healthcare infrastructure, bed strength, and resource
optimization I see 3 gaps in the industry:
1- Green-field Hospital planning doesn't exist as a discipline in
India. There are no education institutes offering hospital planning
and hospital architecture courses. green-field hospital infrastructure
has to be planned from a people, process and technology perspective.
Whereas today you have hospital planning being done only from
infrastructure perspective. Usually process and technology is an after
thought! People planning is not even considered at the hospital
planning stage. This must change.
2- There is a lot of waste in hospital processes. US has estimated USD
600B of waste in their hospital processes. In India we don't even have
any such study. What makes us think that we will not have any waste in
our hospital processes? Brown-field hospital process optimization has
to emerge as a discipline. We can apply well known management
principles to save a lot of cost by standardization of the hospital
processes.
3- IT is a tool that can automate a whole lot of processes and prevent
errors. However like any tool it has to be used appropriately. Also
the initial cost of IT implementation is high and you reap benefits
over a longterm.
Physician Executives who understand IT and Management have to lead the
change. You need consultants that offers a bundle of the 3 powers -
Healthcare, Management and IT.
optimization I see 3 gaps in the industry:
1- Green-field Hospital planning doesn't exist as a discipline in
India. There are no education institutes offering hospital planning
and hospital architecture courses. green-field hospital infrastructure
has to be planned from a people, process and technology perspective.
Whereas today you have hospital planning being done only from
infrastructure perspective. Usually process and technology is an after
thought! People planning is not even considered at the hospital
planning stage. This must change.
2- There is a lot of waste in hospital processes. US has estimated USD
600B of waste in their hospital processes. In India we don't even have
any such study. What makes us think that we will not have any waste in
our hospital processes? Brown-field hospital process optimization has
to emerge as a discipline. We can apply well known management
principles to save a lot of cost by standardization of the hospital
processes.
3- IT is a tool that can automate a whole lot of processes and prevent
errors. However like any tool it has to be used appropriately. Also
the initial cost of IT implementation is high and you reap benefits
over a longterm.
Physician Executives who understand IT and Management have to lead the
change. You need consultants that offers a bundle of the 3 powers -
Healthcare, Management and IT.
posted by robusthealth at
8:55 PM
3 Comments:
Dear Dr. Pankaj
Greetings
I am an avid follower of your writings. I understand and appreciate what you are trying to achieve through this. However there is an issue where I would like to differ.
You seem to have a firm belief that to design a good Healthcare-IT system or to do BPR it is important to have a Physician-Management-IT qualification in concerned person. I think the physician part is over emphasized. In my opinion a person with above average IQ, analytical mind and passion for Healthcare Management & Healthcare-IT with adequate experience in this core area will be able to do justice to the job.
The problem is that there are not enough physicians who are inclined to do MBA and also PGDIT/MCA to get the desired qualification (as per your standards). I think there are very few of them and you are one. On the other hand if some one has done MCA and then MBA then that person cannot do MBBS.
Hence I think we should look for more analysts/prospective analyst from non-medico back ground and give them opportunity to gain expertise over a period of time.
Regards
Rakesh K Singh
By
ranarks, At
October 3, 2011 at 2:00 PM
This post is awesome..i've been reading tons of crap posts from other blogs, but shows you have a more educated reader base.
By
Business Cash Advance, At
November 17, 2011 at 5:31 PM
A very informative post, explains very clearly what results a process improvement strategy can have on healthcare using a process simulation software.
By
WaqasT, At
June 6, 2012 at 12:07 AM
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