• 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.

• Formulating the correct healthcare strategies.
• Developing the required skills of the hospital staff to improve their performance levels.
• Maintaining healthcare regulatory compliance.
• Procuring the medical equipment and other resources for building the hospital infrastructure adequately.
• Streamlining the hospital expenses and workflow.
• Creating  a sufficient source of fund for maintaining adequate service levels to meet patient demands and sustain the hospital business in the competitive market.

• Managing the healthcare services by carefully handling all the functional and operational aspects of the hospital.
• Doing adequate strategic planning to ensure that the hospital business is stable and forecasting  futuristic demands of the related healthcare logistics.
• Gaining sound knowledge of the healthcare domain, information technology, best practices of the industry and the latest innovations to maintain technological proficiency.
• Developing and implementing operational policies and procedures and enforcing rules to ensure that patient safety and care ethics are not compromised.
• Recognizing the latest trends in data and doing accurate forecasting for planning future projects and monitoring the day-to-day functioning of the hospital.
• Assisting the Human Resource(HR) department of the hospital in recruiting candidates for various hospital staff vacancies.
• Building an ethical and  patient-centric culture in the hospital that encourages all employees to be top performers and execute their duties seamlessly with high morale.
• Overseeing the various financial aspects of the hospital including budgeting, auditing, planning and reporting.
• Being a good role model and mentor to the hospital staff by displaying strong leadership skills.
• Ensuring that the hospital abides by all the pertinent healthcare rules and regulations by scrupulously fulfilling the legal formalities.
• Fostering and maintaining a close relationship with the senior stakeholders of the hospital.
• Working closely with the hospital senior management to formulate both short-term and long-term goals and determining the values, vision and mission in line with it.
• Building lasting external alliances and partnerships with other healthcare organizations including hospitals, diagnostic clinics, therapy centres, pharmacies, medical and nursing colleges and research institutes.
• Enriching communication and trustful relationships between hospital employees and the senior management.
• Solving existing operational issues, gauging potential threats and opportunities for the hospital business.

• Educational background in Operations Management or related areas.
• Good experience and interest in the field of management and operations.
• Strong leadership qualities.
• Thorough understanding of financial management and budgeting concepts like profit and loss, cash flows and balance sheet.
• Excellent team-building and communication skills.
• Robust strategic planning, analytical and logical thinking capabilities.
• Ability for doing negotiation and building consensus and relationships amongst various stakeholders including hospital employees, managers and outside partners.

Every prestigious hospital understands the importance of patient satisfaction and knows full well that this depends mainly on the nurse-patient interaction. This is why seasoned healthcare consulting firms are enlisted by hospitals to train their nursing staff on offering empathetic service to patients.

The role of empathy in the services offered by nurses and caregivers is critical for healthcare quality management and is highlighted below for better understanding.

Why is empathy an integral component of the role of nurses?

• Nurses are the caregivers who attend to the patient closely
• They should intuitively understand the patient's state of health, mind and of their needs.
• Nurses are often at the forefront and must bear the bad news about the patient's condition or even mounting hospital expenses.
• The main job of a nurse is to help the physician to heal the patient. To achieve this, nurses must first extend care and concern to the patient above everything else.
• Emotional support can help the patient faster than medicines and this should be realized by nurses.
• Above all, nurses must understand the importance of patient satisfaction and empathy is vital in providing this.

Empathy in the importance of patient satisfaction

Why do nurses need training to offer empathy to patients?

What empathy means for the hospital, patient and nurse?

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.

1. NABH has imposed standards for hospitals from two perspectives - patient and organization that varies with the size of the hospital and health care provider
2. Patient centric standards include AAC (Access, Assess and Continuity of care), COP (Continuity of Care), MOM (Management of Medication), PRE (Patients Right to Education) and HIC (Hospital Infection Control).
3. Organization centric standards include CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement), ROM (Responsibility of Management), FMS (Facility Management and Safety), HRM (Human Resource Management), IMS (Information Management System).

• In-patients procedures
• Out-patients procedures
• Procurement of medicines,  medical equipment including surgical equipment and maintaining adequate inventory to meet  ad hoc requirements
• Treatment procedures for in patient and outpatients
• Core committee framework to monitor clinical and managerial processes
• Periodic review meetings - To ensure continuous process improvement through key performance indicators.
• Quality standards have been imposed even for the waiting time for outpatients with regards to consultation and admission formalities for  in-patients
• Medication and treatment procedures should be documented for all cases
• ICU procedures and surgical procedures done should be documented with pre surgery and post surgery details for all cases
• Periodic clinical audits should be conducted.
• Dedicated complaint and grievance cell should be designated to address the grievance and complaints from patients
• Committee to follow up grievance addressed and resolved should be set up.
• Safety guidelines for employees and patients should be ensured at times of accidents and emergencies by the dedicated patients’ safety committee.
• Clinical risk committee should function monitoring and correcting clinical errors. Usually administrators, doctors and nurses are the core participants.
• There are specific guidelines for even needle pricks and anaesthetic procedures. Non-compliance with medical guidelines should be strictly prohibited and penalized
• Records proving rectifications in cases of errors occurred or quality guidelines violation, should be maintained for audit
• Quality standards are incorporated for wards and rooms in terms of size, facilities, hygiene, nutritional diets, planned nursing procedures etc.,
• Proper clinical disposal procedures should be practiced to avoid infections to patients and neighbourhood promoting environmental safety as clinical waste are serious health hazards

• Leads to customer loyalty
• Enhanced patient retention i.e. satisfying a single customer can reach approximately reach up to four
• Can command higher price without losing their profit
• Constant profitability
  Improved staff morale with fewer staff proceeds which direct to increased productivity
• Decrease of malpractice risks
• Quickly tackle accreditation issues
• Enhance both personal and professional contentment

• Telephone Service – Smart and intelligent person to handle calls with a good practice of voice to help doctors with the additional calls during their professional work.

• Office Appearance – Design it aesthetically with the well-furnished item and as well make it properly spaced with good interiors.

• Waiting Time – Patients expect to see the doctor as early as possible. The waiting period should be as less as possible.

• Patient-Doctor Relations – Satisfaction of the patient can increase based on the inter-personal skills of the physician.

• Patient Edification – Clear their doubts with more tolerance and kindness. Be proactive while knowing concerns and be informative while advising.

• Crisis Handling – Hospital infrastructure and aspects should be easily accessible and patient friendly.