Mumbai, 19th February, 2016: Over the past few years, there has been a rise in the number of hospital mismanagement cases in Maharashtra, some of which have resulted in fatalities. A simple solution to this prevalent yet avoidable problem is effective ground-up management at the healthcare delivery organisations. IIHMR Bangalore, in association with SEMS Pune, has devised a “Healthcare Leadership Training” programme for professionals who haven’t the luxury of leaving their jobs and going back to student life. It effectively addresses the innumerable critical issues faced by this sector.
The State of Maharashtra needs to increase proper healthcare infrastructure, especially in the rural areas. The other facet that needs urgent attention is the shortage of trained professionals in the healthcare sector. The patient-to-nurse ratio is quite less; as a result, there is a dire need of trained paramedics to run ambulance services efficiently. This calls for vocation training for emergency services in medical colleges.
Remarking on the need for effective management at hospitals, Dr. Amol Sahasrabuddhe, Manager of the Cardiac Department at Deenanath Mangeshkar Superspeciality Hospital & Research Centre listed out three major management specific challenges faced by hospitals today.
1. Financial challenges– Healthcare managers face an array of financial pressures with respect to bearing insurance covers, high treatment and equipment costs for patients, and exorbitantly high salaries of hospital personnel. Also, incurring mandatory overheads like electricity, gases, generators,development and maintenance of infrastructure are an added cost.
2. Maintaining quality of services –Patient satisfaction underpin a need for hospital managers to cast an eye on delivery smooth quality patient care by educating the significance of patient quality care delivery and strong supervision of medical operations among all hospital stakeholders. This beckons a need for proper hospital management and leadership education from healthcare institutions to prepare the workforce to cater to this need.
3. Clinical management challenges –Quality and accreditation of care in hospitals need round the clock availability of clinical experts, nurses, junior doctors, multipurpose workers, emergency teams, and junior and middle level management’s proactive participation. However there is a paucity of qualified clinical experts – especially in Maharashtra – who are not well trained and up to speed with the technological advancements in the healthcare sector.
Dr. Dnyaneshwar Shelke, Chief Operating Officer at BVG Maharashtra Emergency Medical Services shared his insights on the challenges faced by emergency medical services (EMS) management. He said, “One of the most prevalent management specific challenges faced by EMS personnel is to match the EMS and healthcare requirements to the skill levels of the professionals. There is also a mismatch between the values and ethics of the organisation and the values and ethics of the individual healthcare professional. In order to tackle these challenges, it is essential to have effective management at every level so that emergency healthcare delivery is cogent and efficient.”
Pointing out the need for a healthcare management programme, Dr. Biranchi N Jena, Director of IIHMR, Bangalore said, “In order to ensure that the candidates entering the field of healthcare management, IIHMR has deviseda short-term training programme made specifically for working professionals and the syllabus is constructed to meet the requirements of the healthcare industry. The programme focuses necessary skills to tackle complex management issues and develop creative solutions to critical problems. The training programme is open to professionals from different fields of healthcare such as nurses, dentists, lab technicians, pharmacists and corporate medicine professionals.”
NABET (National Accreditation Board for Education and Training) has accredited IIHMR Bangalore as the first leading hospital and healthcare consultant organisation to provide assistance to healthcare organisations on NABH accreditation via which students are given exposure in realms such as quality improvement, patient satisfaction, and infection control. Apart from the short-term training programme, IIHMR Bangalore also offers a full-time post graduate diploma course specialising in Health, Hospital and Information Technology management (HIT). As the program has set high precedent healthcare management, the admissions for the batch of 2016 are open and the last date for submission of applications is July 29th 2016.
