Tag: best patient care

Of Patients and Patient Care Units

Patient care can come in different forms. Because there are specific illnesses/diseases that need special attention, patient care units are installed to cater their medical needs. There are at least 7 major types of patient care outlets for those needing medical help. These are Primary, Specialty, Emergency, Urgent, Long-Term, Hospice and Mental Healthcare.

These patient care facilities have specific functions.

Primary Care
This is a type of facility that focuses on preventing illnesses through regular check-ups and health screening. Primary care outlets treat regular sicknesses such as a common cold or fever.

Specialty Care
Specialty care treats patients that require special skills. Specialty care can be ongoing or preventative. Cardiologists and physical therapists usually work inside specialty care units.

Emergency Care
Professionals under emergency care are usually associated with ambulance services. Emergency care provides medical help to patients with life-threatening diseases, or in need of immediate help.

Urgent Care
An urgent care differs from an emergency care outlet. Urgent care facilities treat illnesses such as cuts, sprains, infections and others that need constant care.

Long-Term Care
These are cares that treat people with disabilities, or to those who can’t perform daily activities due to a chronic illness. Long-term care is a combination of nursing and social care. They are sometimes called assisted living facilities.

Hospice Care
Providing physical, emotional and spiritual care is a primary concern of hospice care. They help ease symptoms of such diseases, not so much on curing them. Hospice care makes way for the patient’s family, too, in coping with the former’s condition.

Mental Healthcare
Mental healthcare treats patients with mental disabilities or those who are undergoing psychological problems and is being treated with medication or psychotherapy. Psychiatrists and counselors can be found inside mental healthcare units.

Patient care units may be a combination of these types, but their main function remains the same. They provide constant care and attention to those who are in need of medical help.

Nurses at Patient Care Units

Patient care comes in a variety of forms. It has seen an expansion over the years to cater every possible need of every patient. Taking care of the sick is the only reason why patient care exists, although others have their own specialization, but their main concern remains the same, and that is, giving medical care to the sick.

There are also different types of nurses attending these said patient care units. When the development of patient care outlets started, the formation of adding specialized workforce was already in the works. And this paved the way for the inclusion of these type of nurses. These nurses, however, do have different roles to keep, but most often than not, their calling hasn’t changed. The following are types of nurses you would find in a patient care outlet.

Emergency or Trauma Nurses
They treat patients who are in the brink of death, such as in an accident or after suffering from a debilitating disease. They are usually situated on emergency rooms, getting ready to assist life-threatening situations with their patients.

Critical Care Nurses
It may sound like they have the same responsibility with Emergency Nurses, but a Critical Nurse’s sole responsibility is to treat those patients with pulmonary and cardio-vascular ailments.

Holistic Nurses
These type of nurses are into a different kind of patient treatment. They concern themselves with mental disorders as well as maintaining the spiritual health of their patients.

Infusion Nurses
Nurses who are more attuned to injections, particularly with blood transfusions and other diseases that have something to do with vein problems.

Home Health Care Nurses
They are the ones who provide care to their patients like that in a home. They extend help to those patients who have survived a major surgery or after giving birth, while providing assistance like that of a typical nurse.

The 4 Virtues of a Patient-Centered Care System

Respecting the needs and preferences of a patient is the idea behind every patient-centered care system. Unlike in a normal patient-hospital relationship, patient care aims to treat their patients pro-actively. It was born out of championing health care issues, as well as in having safer medical means for the sick.

Since much of what goes on during diagnosis is still suspect even to the practitioners themselves, and that need of having a full engagement with their patients, patient care was then established.

It is basically going beyond the conventions of assisting their patients with proper diagnosis and treatment. These medical outlets are out to guide patients and provide them with a more personal treatment with their illnesses. Patient care has four inherent virtues, “whole-person” care, communication, support and sustenance and ready access. With these four virtues,a patient could be assured of a medical care for life.

Taking Care of the Person as a Whole
Oftentimes, a minor ailment could have its direct effect towards the entire body. Treating these patients from head to foot, so to speak, could lead to a more complete healing, not just treating a part of it.

Only Connect
Having a sort of bond towards a patient has its own advantages. If you can extend not just your expertise as a medical practitioner but also your time with them, you are somehow improving the quality of their lives also.

Support System
Inculcating a system of camaraderie like supporting each patient with his or her needs could go a long way as far as healing goes. This will make things easy for them while they recuperate.

Always Ready
Practitioners are always there, on the go, ready to perform their duties with care. Being available to their patients always is of utmost interest in the field of patient care.

Improving The Quality Of Patient Care

Developing the patient care program is one of the priorities of all health care providers. The quality of patient care is determined by the quality of the facilities, infrastructure and the competence of the personnel.

There are many factors that patients and families consider when choosing a hospital. One of the factors is the quality of patient care and the satisfaction experienced by patients and their families. That is why it is necessary for hospitals to follow strict quality and safety practices. Hospitals should always find ways to improve their services.

It is true that patients are the most important people in a medical care system. They deserve to be treated well. In order to satisfy the patients and their families, it is necessary to improve the quality of patient care. There are a lot of factors that can improve the quality of patient care. Hospitals should have well-trained staff to provide high quality care with desirable outcome. All the necessary equipment should be in place and properly maintained. This is important for the hospital’s performance and it contributes significantly to better results in providing best health care. It is also necessary to continually use newer technologies that improve the quality of health care.

Improvement of patient care is a continuous process because a lot of new technologies are coming out. The personnel also play a big role in giving the best services to patients. They should have proper training in order to address the concerns of the patients and families.

Patients’ safety is the corner stone of high- quality health care. That is why it is a big challenge for the hospital on how to offer good services to their patients.

Improved Patient Care

Health is wealth, as the saying goes. And for those who are not in good health, the next best thing that we can ask for is to receive the best patient care from our health care providers. With the increasing demand for better care, greater awareness among the public, more health care regulation, keener competition, the rise in medical malpractice litigation, and concern about poor outcomes, we can say that improving patient care should be a priority.

To improve patient care, there are medical and non-medical factors to be considered, as well as a comprehensive system that is “patient oriented” and improves both medical and non-medical aspects must be adopted.

Before anything else, it must be recognized by all those who work in the system that the patient is the most important person in a medical care system. This single factor makes a significant difference to the patient care in any hospital. With patients being the priority, the health care provider is able to create a management system that emphasizes on cost recovery. A patient who receives high quality services and can afford it is one way to tell that patient care has improved and at the same time patient satisfaction is higher.

The non-medical factors that should be considered to improve patient care are the following: accessibility and availability of both hospital and the physician should be assured to all those who require health care, waiting times for services should be minimized, information should be made very clear, check-in and check-out procedures should be “patient-friendly”, communication with the patient and the family about possible delay should be done, and ancillary services should be available to both patient and attending families.

Some of the medical aspects to be considered for improved patient care are: well-trained personnel, present and properly maintained equipment, use of proper instruments, use of appropriate medications, and use of newer technologies.

Physician Efficiency vs. Patient Involvement in Patient Care  

Having to go through a medical process can really be a frustrating experience especially when the patient is left unknowing about it. But how much does a patient want to know about and be involved in their own care? The response to this question cannot be fully relied on a single answer simply because many personalities and emotional complexities are involved when it comes to patient care.

Doctors like to simplify issues into neat categories, each of which have a clear management plan. This, however, is not necessarily applicable in patient care especially when it involves different personalities and emotions. One cannot simply eliminate the feelings of patients especially when satisfaction of the care they receive is involved.

In this case, the battle between increased physician efficiency through well-planned medical processes and better healthcare understanding buy the patient is the dilemma. Which of the two is best for patient care? There is reasonable argument for both.

A well thought of medical plan can be beneficial to an extent. There are physicians that prefer to spend their day practicing in a world of medical fact and deductive reasoning without taking into consideration patient reaction. The more practice, the less the mistakes are. But it can be argued that higher efficiency does not represent the rate at which patients are satisfied customers.

On the patient side, the ability of the medical team to involve them in their own care and make them aware of the plan lessen the patient’s frustrations with treatment. Doctors that are well-loved by their patients are those who spend time with them, to answer questions and provide a picture of what the coming days and weeks might look like. However, it can be argued that most of the questions can be answered not necessarily by the doctors themselves but by a less senior and equally able medical practitioners working for the admitting service.

Both have valid arguments and probably the best patient care in one that involves both as well.

Improving Patient Care

In today’s time, hospital organizations and other health leaders across the globe were being challenged with an increasing number of patient complaints related to ineffective patient care. They also received reports saying that there are some rude medical professionals who don’t want to provide health services to those unfortunate people. Because of these reports, health leaders have come up with some ideas on how to improve patient care to avoid negative reports and dissatisfaction from patients.

In this article, we will talk about effective guidelines on how to improve patient care within the society, community and hospital settings.

Continuous assessment
Doctors and nurses should conduct continuous health assessment to the patient by visiting them 3 to 4 times a day. By doing this, patients will regain their trust over them.

Proper communication
To have a smooth and peaceful relationship, medical professionals should always communicate well with their patients. Patients have low self-esteem; they wanted to be treated like what their mothers do to them. In order to provide the best patient care, talk to them modestly, give them accurate instructions.

Don’t let them wait
One of the most common patient complaints is that they wait for too long just to get the attention and care of the physician. Doctors and nurses should not let their patient wait and treat them as soon as possible. However, due to shortages of medical staffs, they cannot immediately attend to the needs of the patients. In order to prevent dissatisfaction and complaints, doctors and nurses should give patients definite and accurate time of service.

These three simple tips to improve patient care experience are much less difficult to follow. Patients who suffer from illnesses don’t have longer patience to understand the medical team. Doctors and nurses plead to provide highest care to patients who are in need.