• Unsuitable documentation - Every project plan must be documented clearly and exhaustively. This must be done after having detailed discussions with the concerned stakeholders on the expectations with respect to cost, time and healthcare quality. All milestones must be properly tracked to have a clear-cut understanding of where the project is heading in reality in comparison to the stated goals. It is also very important that a strong business case is established in line with initiatives and expectations. Often, lack of proper or relevant documentation and proper business case hinders the scope, priorities and successful execution of the project. 
• Poor scheduling - Apart from allocating the resources, it is vital that the healthcare project is well scheduled to handle the competing priorities. All goals and milestones must be clearly defined and deadlines must be planned realistically. Scheduling must consider all resources including infrastructure, funding and staff and handle risks proactively. Poor scheduling due to wrong time estimation results in a lot of confusion and hampers the progress of the project.
• Multitasking overload – Due to severe pressure for meeting the costs and timelines, most healthcare project managers assign multiple roles and tasks to the team members without sufficient introspection. It is crucial that the task load is planned and shared based on the qualification, experience and capabilities of the healthcare staff. Often, inexperienced people are given multiple roles and responsibilities which they cannot handle leading to failure.
• Management stress - Healthcare management faces stress in various aspects including handling the project finances, human resources, technology, culture and communication. There must transparency and proper communication between all levels of management including the upper, middle and lower levels to avoid misunderstandings and delays. All project members must be allowed to express their concerns, give their opinions and suggestions and make complaints if necessary. Following medical ethics and handling compliance issues is crucial for the management because healthcare business runs on patient satisfaction and delight. The management must also clearly articulate the short-term and long-term goals, vision and mission of the healthcare organization to avoid ambiguity and stress. Having able leaders is also the key factor that contributes to the project’s success because he or she ensures that the entire team strives towards the accomplishment of the target.
• Poor assumptions and change management - Many healthcare projects are baselined with wrong assumptions. This could be due to poor planning and forecasting. The project must be executed with the goal of delivering the right output and information within the specified timelines and not exceed the planned budgets. All constraints must be taken into account cautiously without making unrealistic assumptions so that the correct adjustments may be made in the workflow to ensure correct scoping, budgeting and scheduling of the project. Similarly, in an attempt to fulfill the technical details or meet deadlines, most projects ignore the aspect of change management which is essential for successful completion. The staff must undergo training and communication programs to face any unforeseen challenges and changes. Having proper portfolio management goes a long way in evaluating and prioritizing the project processes to ensure a seamless implementation.

Measures to be taken for increased energy efficiency –

• Conducting regular inspections on energy equipment.
• Keeping a track of each equipment’s energy reading and checking it against the next reading.
• Upgradation of equipment with emerging new technologies such as Central Automated Management Systems.
• Implementation of monitoring mechanism that provides detailed reports on energy consumption and the condition of the equipment.
• Conducting training sessions for the staff on the efficient usage of the equipment.

• Air Conditioning – The necessity of providing comfortable room temperatures for the patients as well as to the equipment make hospitals the most energy consuming facilities. Installing the advanced air conditioning systems such as thermal insulation improvement and maintaining them adequately can help in reducing power consumption.
• Lighting – As an institute that needs to be functioned around the clock, lighting is one of the most important factors and also the factor that consumes more energy. Use only the high performance lighting system for reduced energy consumption. Using local capacitors for correction of the power factors can also reduce power consumption to a whopping 50%.
• Heating – Heating requires at various levels in a typical hospital day to day operations. Most of the hospitals are still using gas for their heating requirements. Replacing gas heating with thermal insulation can reduce the costs significantly. More importantly, hospitals can conserve more energy if they replace oil usage with natural gas.
• High energy consuming medical equipment – Medical equipment contribute to high energy consumption. However, same equipment by different manufacturers project different energy consumption numbers. Compare all the equipment from different manufacturers and purchase the ones that consume less energy and comes with durability.

• Level 1 – Do not require replacement of equipment or reconstruction. Regular maintaining activities and monitoring is sufficient to ensure better energy conservation.
• Level 2 – Required reconstruction of equipment. Actions involve replacement of the parts in the equipment and general maintenance that is more than just Level 1 care.
• Level 3 – Requires replacement of the equipment. Involves capital investment and demands a proper techno-economic survey to save more on the new purchase.

General Energy Conservation Methods You Could Employ –

• Reduce the usage of doors between 2 different room temperatures.
• Check the windows and doors at regular intervals for any cracks or damages.
• Taking measures that increase thermal insulation for the openings can help in reducing energy consumption at a great deal.
• Internal shading in the areas that are exposed to direct sunlight is advisable.
• Periodic maintenance of boilers, heaters and other boiling equipment save that extra power needed for boiling purposes.
• Installation of hearth blades, exhaust gas turbines, diaphragms in the chimneys and permanent measurement systems can be the major solutions for your energy conservation measures.

Non-Communicable Disease Control by Indian Hospitals:

• Organizing awareness camps for the public to educate them about the risks of such lifestyle diseases
• Organizing free or affordable health check-ups like Diabetes, BP and liver testing.
• Offering day-care procedure like endoscopic intra-gastric balloon or angiographic embolization to help patients shed excess weight.
• Offering bariatric surgery as an affordable alternative for obese patients to reduce weight.
• Equipping the hospital with MR-Elastography and advanced ultrasound facilities to detect mineral deposition in the liver and liver cirrhosis.
• Recommending and providing facilities for colonoscopic evaluation of patients over 45 to rule out piles or Crohn's disease.

Communicable Disease Control by Indian Hospitals:

• Indian hospitals can effect communicable disease control by adopting the following measures.
• Conducting Immunization camps to stem the spread of typhoid, jaundice, rubella, measles etc by timely vaccination.
• Arranging awareness camps on sanitation and hygiene especially in rural areas to prevent malaria, cholera, dengue etc.
• Organizing health camps with a free or affordable distribution of anti-malarial and dengue medication.
• Issuing awareness messages on social media to educate the public on the prevention of such diseases.

Healthcare ethics (also called medical ethics/bioethics) encompass a set of moral principles, beliefs and values that guide our choices and decision-making in healthcare. It is the core and heart of the patient-centric healthcare system. Ethics help us in judging and discriminating between our sense of right and wrong, reinforcing our beliefs about the rights we possess and endorsing the duties we owe to society. A careful contemplation of the ethical aspects enables us in choosing the right options for making justifiable healthcare decisions.

All healthcare professionals are bound by legal and ethical obligations to ensure the best interests of patients seeking care services. They must necessarily demonstrate ethical behavior and responsibility by doing the right thing for the patient to ensure the best possible healthcare outcomes. Most healthcare professions define ethical codes and practices.

Here are a few examples of healthcare ethics:

• Taking crucial decisions about end-of-life care like continuing life support system to a brain-dead patient.
• Doing fund allocation by prioritizing the treatment of chronic diseases and promotion of public health.
• Crucially identifying gaps in the health status of the population strata and contemplating on the ethical obligations to ensure equitable healthcare access to all.
• Enabling pathways for ensuring ethical conduct in medical research.
• Investigating the ethical implications of cloning technology in genetics.

Underlying Principles of Healthcare Ethics

• Autonomy which implies that the patient’s right to take their own healthcare decisions must be completely respected.
• Beneficence which indicates that the patients must be supported and helped adequately in their best interests for improvement of health status.
• Nonmaleficence which is essential to ensure that no harm is done to the patient.
• Justice which promotes unbiased handling of all patient engagement alike in a fair manner without partiality.

Impact of Healthcare Ethics

Benefits of Healthcare Ethics

• Standardizes healthcare decision making – By deploying a consistent model of ethical standards creates a roadmap for uniform decision making by all employees in the healthcare organization. It thus simplifies the process by setting predefined norms with a set of principles resulting in fewer ethical dilemmas because standardized protocols and action guidelines are in place.
  Improves patient centricity – Ethical standards promote primary healthcare concerns with a strong focus on patient needs by using predefined guidelines. This minimizes medical errors by the practitioners who are committed to following the rules.
  Enhances public support for the medical profession - Promotion of ethical practices improves public image and builds public trust. This, in turn, encourages community donations and funding for new healthcare projects and initiatives.
  Promotes research and development - Ethical principles determine the types of medical research to be conducted. This is crucial for the continuance of the healthcare profession in addressing curing existing diseases and developing preventive healthcare approaches.

Categories of Healthcare Apps

• Emergency Care Apps: Recommend nearest and most effective care destination to patients in the event of emergencies. May also provide information about waiting times, routes, insurance possibilities, approximate treatment costs and travel times.
• Wayfinding/Guiding Apps: Aid patients in quickly finding concerned departments, physicians and other concerned medical staff in healthcare destinations.
• Pregnancy and Childbirth Apps: Help parents especially mothers to schedule and track their appointments. Also provides education on pre-natal, post-natal and newborn care.
• Hospital Apps: Apps used to aid hospital marketing, branding and advertising. It also gives details about services and facilities available, shows virtual tour demos and provides general hospital information.
• Outpatient Care Apps: Guide patients about their health status, helps to monitor it and increases adherence to prescribed treatment plans. These apps also have treatment trackers for managing diagnostic results and care procedures.
• Appointment and Referral Apps: Facilitates speedy appointment bookings and referral processes thereby boosting doctor-patient relationships.
• Wellness Apps: Educates and helps patients to monitor their well-being with health trackers, exercise schedules, nutrition/diet recommendations and health tips.
• Medication Tracking Apps: Encourages adherence to prescribed medications by tracking doses, intervals, meals and also provides reminders for immunization and re-stocking drugs.

Desirable App Features

1. Possessing relevant functionality  based on patient requirements and demands
2. Having a pleasant and user-friendly interface
3. Aiding  staff training for better application implementation and adoption
4. Promoting  its usage by leveraging marketing strategy and social media

Healthcare App Benefits

• Provide complete transparency to patients by informing waiting times and even allows them to select the nearest suitable healthcare facility with shortest waiting times in crisis situations.
• Gives access to right information in a time of need thereby answering patient concerns and eliminating ambiguity. Example:Online ’What to expect’ booklets for pregnant mothers.
• Bridges the emotional gap with patient empowerment by involving patient in decision making, goal setting and self-monitoring and bringing them closer to medical staff.
• Enables chronically ill patients to take control of their own health with easy usability and connects them with caregivers for any issues thereby promoting early medical intervention.
• Offers splendid digital experience with quick 24/7 access to healthcare information. It also intimates patients about special discounts, healthcare packages and offers, sends personalized messages and collects feedback which in turn fosters better patient relationship management.