WELCOME!!!!

Welcome to my blog.

Hospital Management is a blog that focuses on helping medical personnel to become better managers of their healthcare facilities. This blog will highlight topical issues that are relevant to the African Hospital Entrepreneur or Medical Manager in managing a facility in an African setting. However, we will also not hesitate to bring to the fore important global innovations in healthcare management which are adaptable to Africa.

I will like to begin by telling a simple story.

The Good Old Days 

Patrick, Ohi, Ayo, Uvie, Bawo

Can you recall your pre-clinical days? The days when you were a wide-eyed and easily excitable Medical Student? The days you used to strut around campus in your white coat and dream of when you'd eventually become a doctor? Looking back, I'm sure you would laugh at some of your impetuous ways. Arguably, those were the times you had the most fun in Medical School. The days when you had no care in the world and was not saddled with the responsibility of actual patient care.

I can still recall doing the basic sciences in my first year pre-med and how I often wondered what medicine had to do with CHM101, BOT107, PHY124, and GST104 etc. Moving on to the second year pre-clinicals, we all faced the basic medical sciences of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology. These were the building blocks for the Clinical classes.

Can you remember the first time you saw a Cadaver? What was your emotion? Was it fear, shock, awe or excitement? You may probably have felt like a Surgeon during the Dissection Sessions! I can still recall my colleagues, Ayo,Bawo,Uvie,Patrick, Chris and others. Then, there was Peter who used to eat groundnuts in the Anatomy Lab!

What was the point of your pre-clinicals? It was to prepare you with adequate foundational knowledge to tackle the rigours of the Clinical classes. Your pre-clinical days prepared you for the day you'd eventually practice as a Doctor.

In the same vein, I would like to ask; what preparation are you making for the day you'd own your Practice? Or the day you'd leave Government service?

Let me state three important facts.

Fact#1: Over 90% of health professionals will engage in private practice at a point in their careers.

Fact#2: Though intelligent and skilled, most health professionals lack a basic understanding of business and public management.

Fact#3: You need a solid knowledge of business management to succeed in private medical/dental business.

The Hospital Management blog is committed to improving the quality of healthcare in Africa. I am concerned about the quality of management in our health facilities (both private and public).Having realized that most medical personnel are too engrossed in improving their clinical skills to pursue a formal training in hospital administration and management; this blog will put together vital and helpful information that is practical and easy to read.

It is appalling to note that a lot of private practitioners struggle to succeed in their practice. The few who seem to be doing well also struggle to sustain their practice. I have discovered that this is not because they are unskilled or unintelligent professionals. Rather, it is because there is a void in the knowledge and practice of modern hospital management skills (as a recent study showed*).

Hospital Management is committed to filling this knowledge-practice gap. This blog will provide relevant and current information about hospital management to help you move from where you are now to where you want to be.

As a Nigerian adage says "it is only a dead man that possesses all knowledge". It is not too late to learn new things!

Once Again, Welcome Aboard!