Public Relation is an evolving concept that is gaining a lot of importance in the hospital setup today.
That is so because of its vital role in communicating within the various departments of the hospital and to the outside world. Specifically speaking, with an increased focus on value-based care, the hospital and patient relationship assume paramount significance here for achieving patient satisfaction and building long-term reliable healthcare engagements.

The various entities in the healthcare chain including the society, patients, employees, caretakers, visitors, media, suppliers and medical personnel give their opinion and feedback on the care services. This influences the brand, reputation and competitiveness of the hospital for continued business sustenance. Therefore, there is a need for good public relations through communication mechanisms for begetting appreciation and goodwill from these valuable stakeholders.

Yet, there are a number of challenges faced by Healthcare Operations Management which call for the need of developing better public relations in hospitals by seeking the professional expertise of Healthcare Consulting Firms. Some of them are -

• Contending with increased healthcare expenses and meeting the sophisticated demands of patients to avoid public criticism
• Overcoming several hurdles  for delivering quality care at affordable rates
• Efficiently handling the professional management of the hospital
• Monitoring and balancing the increased involvement of government agencies and consumer protection forums with respect to patient care and hospital internal management issues

• Assist the top management in clearly articulating the hospital’s policies, vision and mission to the outside world.
• Help the various departments within to showcase a consistent image of the hospital for good publicity.
• Suggest and improvise adoption of latest marketing techniques for maintaining the competitive edge.
• Formulating and guiding the hospital staff training and retention activities to ensure that they are kept abreast with the latest medical technologies and reduce turnover.
• Inculcate the correct communication mechanisms to the hospital management so as to reinstate the importance of courtesy, kindness, empathy and friendly approaches in patient care to provide a comfortable healing environment.
• Enable the hospitals to be proactive in epidemic management by clearly communicating preventive methods to the patients and their families, installing the necessary medical equipment for screening and taking precautions to effectively treat the affected patients without ignorance.
• Advise the hospitals to maintain and upgrade their infrastructure to be compatible with the latest industry standards.
• Recommend the new relevant healthcare technology updates and processes to the hospital so that the patients are benefitted with the best treatment approaches.
• Supervise the hospital in maintaining proper hygiene standards and waste disposal management so as to maintain a clean environment and prevent infections and diseases.
• Deploy the appropriate communication methods in all possible ways to aid the hospital in

• Conveying its message to the public
• Dealing  with the media
• Ensuring smooth intramural functioning and internal operations.

• Providing relevant information to patients, families and visitors for inquiries, registration, health status at discharge, follow-ups
• Facilitating an open house approach to address visitor queries without disturbing the routine care functions.
• Using easily comprehensive signage boards and floor plans at strategic points and providing information brochures and visitor guides for familiarizing the hospital environment.
• Improvising proper methods to record and track complaints, suggestions and compliments through emails, collection boxes and registers.
• Improving public interactions through health fairs, awareness programs, healthcare campaigns, voluntary services and donation camps.
• Advising the administrative staff on overcoming shortcomings in hospital functions.
• Advertising through social media, billboards, newsletters and articles for better branding.
• Conducting patient satisfaction surveys and general opinion polls to improve care quality.

Common issues faced by a patient at a hospital

1. Lack of sensitivity to patient's needs

• Sleep deprivation he/she faces due to

• Delay in attending to the patient when

• Disrespect meted out to them by the nurses barging in unannounced without knocking.

2. Lack of clear communication from hospital staff

• There is a changeover from one physician to another causing conflict of opinions or diagnosis.
• The patient's condition is not communicated to their family when it changes.
• The patient is not informed or reassured of his condition when a test or scan is taken.

3. Lack of professionalism on the part of the hospital staff

• Rude or brusque behaviour by nurses expressed as stern talk, not answering etc.
• Nurses on break not responding to queries
• Nurses from other departments not willing to help
• Nurses not listening to what the patient is saying
• Nurses not executing their roles efficiently.

4. Lack of hygiene in hospitals

• The rooms are messy
• The bathrooms stink
• The bed-covers are not changed daily
• The rooms are not cleaned every day
• The patient robes are smelly
• The dustbins are not emptied

5. Lack of orientation at hospitals

• There are no signboards or directional arrows pointing the way.
• The persons at the reception desk are not forthcoming.
• There is no one to guide the patient around the hospital.
• The consultation rooms are frequently changed.
• The whiteboards at the hospital are not updated.

6. Lack of professional efficiency due to a shortage of good doctors and nurses

• The aim of this module introduces the upgrades and the advancements in various healthcare facility management techniques. This module also focuses on the compliance requirements of the healthcare facilities.
• The medical codes and the authorities who have the jurisdiction, risk assessment principles, managing the fire and life safety procedures during any crisis, hazardous materials, medical equipment and their security are few of the topics covered under the advanced compliance module.

• This module covers the risks that are involved in the facility risk management, infection control, facility certification and general maintenance without disrupting the patient treatment and their convenience.
• The training program also includes estimating the infrastructure and managing system and service shutdowns with proper planning. The sessions cover coordination, space allocation and maintenance.

• This module covers the overall operations of the facility. The sessions mainly discuss the universally perceived and effective operation techniques that ensure the building and the equipment is well maintained without affecting the patient flow in any manner.
• Ranging from employing the energy saving methods, sourcing the backup for energy, maintaining the water and gas management systems without affecting the operations, managing repairs and its supplies, maintenance documentation and medical engineering systems.

• Most of the hospital maintenance systems utilize the data of their own facilities in order to practice the benchmarking that ensure financial stability and administration management.
• The hospital maintenance staff plays an imperative role directly and indirectly in effectively carrying out the cost-cutting methods, allowing the management to increase the return on investment. The more the staff undergoes the financial management topics that cover life-cycle cost analysis, equipment functionality and durability, purchases and labor distribution and justifying the need of purchase, the many instances the hospital could deliver enhanced patient experience while providing quality medical care.

• HBO varies by the time of the day due to

1. Routine Patient Discharges which typically happen at an assigned time-slot during the day.
2. Late Discharges which happen after physicians assure that patients get their due arrangements for post-discharge care or when some diagnostic results are anticipated before allowing the patients to leave.
3. Planned hospital admissions that arise mostly due to need for some diagnosis or surgery.
4. Unplanned admissions that occur because the patient’s health condition needs medical attention.

• HBO also varies by day of the week – This is because typically elective surgeries happen on weekdays and therefore the number of in- patients who need post -surgery care may drop on weekends.
• HBO also depends on the location of the hospital, its ICU capacity, emergency handling capabilities and it’s overall reputation in delivering patient centric care and satisfaction.
• Ideal value of HBO is around 85%. This is so because if occupancy is low, medical staff is less engaged leading to low workforce utilization and decrease of hospital revenues. On the contrary, if HBO is 100%, staff-burnouts occur, patient admissions are refused which defeats the very purpose of providing healthcare services and also hampers the hospital’s reputation and new patient referrals in the long run.
• Undue long time boarding of in-patients in Emergency Rooms (ER) has detrimental effects on HBO due to decreased comfort levels, long waiting times and delay in treating real ER patients.

• Planning and Managing Patient Discharge Times appropriately so that duly discharged in-patients vacate the hospital in the earlier part of the day to reduce overlap times and pave way for faster accommodations in new patient admissions and other patients seeking discharge.

• Adequate Staff Recruitment especially for housekeeping, maintenance, patient help-desks and environmental services. This ensures that patient peak loads are handled properly, more so on week days, hygiene standards are maintained and expedites hospital room cleaning times so that new patients are admitted quickly without hitches.

• Appropriate Physician/Surgeon Scheduling to handle contingencies of high HBO rates by allocating them on different times/days depending on nature of specialized treatment / surgery required and number of post- operative/Out-Patient Department (OPD) consultations.

• Analysing Patient’s Length of Hospital Stay based on required treatment like deploying multiple

1. Therapists to ensure that patients get required therapies in more frequent slots per day for faster recuperation.
2. Customer service managers for supporting   faster home health care and nursing facilities.