Pursuit of Continuous Improvement Process at the American-Emirati Hospital

The cost of poor service can be significant, and the cost can be heightened by the negative effect unhappy patients have on potential patients.American-Emirati Hospital located in Dubai is well known for its knack and reputation for quality healthcare delivery. As the first hospital in UAE to receive Dubai Quality Award, American-Emirati hospital takes quality - continuous improvement process very serious. This implies constant dedication and commitment to meeting and exceeding patient expectations and ensuring that its branches in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ajman are devoid of any errors or defects in its healthcare supply chain operations. Essentially, American-Emirati and its branches apply lean/6-sigma in their daily healthcare supply chain operations. In short, they thrive for zero-defects in their healthcare practices.

Arguably, in the healthcare sector, quality can be difficult to determine. Patients do not buy service when they present themselves for healthcare attention at the American-Emirati - they purchase solution. Therefore, building the proper blend of factors to make the provision of health solution preeminent is the crucial challenge and goal of each healthcare clinician and non-clinician, from security, cleaners to hospital administrator. Before applying for the Dubai Quality Award, American-Emirati Hospital Administrator, Dr. Ali and his team tackled a painstaking self-assessment of their operations to measure and determine quality. Thirty processes were examined, including in-patient facilities, service delivery, in-patient and out-patient appointment and registration, admission, in-patient room service delivery, and discharge service. This time of self-assessment included statistical process control measurement of hospital service flows and cycle times for areas ranging from registration, admission service times and treatments to room cleaning efficiency. The results were then applied to create performance benchmarks against which future activity could be measured. With specific, measurable targets in place, American-Emirati supervisors and staff members employees can pay attention on continuous improvement process. The goal is to achieve superior patient satisfaction. However, if patients' experience does not match expectations, the hospital will face the problems of losing that patient to rival hospitals. One of the means the hospital has placed more meaning behind its quality - continuous process improvement is to organize its clinicians and non-clinicians into self-directed work groups. The groups determine work scheduling, what activity needs to be done, and what to do about quality challenges in their own work stations. To see the relationship of their specific work station to the overall goals, they are also provided the opportunity to take further training in hospital supply chain operations. Indeed, American-Emirati Hospital believes that better trained and informed clinicians and non-clinicians is well positioned to make decisions in the best interest of the hospital.

Discussion Questions

1. Identify and discuss the ways American-Emirati Hospital could monitor its performance in achieving superior quality.

2. Often small and large organizations point to the fact that their premier goal is to offer error-free products and services. Explain the actions you expect from an organization that desire quality to be more than a slogan?

3. Describe why it might cost the American-Emirati Hospital less to "things right done " the first time.

4. Discuss how control charts, Pareto diagrams, and cause-and effect diagrams may be used to identify quality problems at a hospital.

5. Identify some of the non-financial course of actions of patient satisfaction that may be used by the American-Emirati Hospital.