Beyond Aesthetics: Campus Sheraton

I initially planned to title this post “Does Your Hospital Have Aesthetic Value?”. But after some careful thought I decided to title it “Beyond Aesthetics”. This is because I have discovered that a lot of hospitals are stepping up their look in terms of modern designs and buildings. This is especially so in the urban areas. Many though, in rural and semi-urban areas are still living in the past, providing services from dilapidated structures and unkempt premises.

I have always believed that a hospital building should be trendy (forgive me, I am still under 45), have wide corridors, neat and air-conditioned rooms, shiny floors, sparkling clean bathrooms, a pleasant fragrance, comfortable furniture, adequate lighting, spectacular landscape, an imposing signpost, functional ambulances, smartly dressed staff, state of the art facilities etc. This sounds like a five-star hotel. Well, I think the modern hospital should be a five star hotel and even more.

Back in school, we had a cafeteria complex that catered to the culinary needs of the entire campus. There were about 12 separate canteens called ‘Buka’ 1- ‘Buka’ 12. Sometime in my 4^th or 5^th year, Buka 1 was taken-over and became known as ‘Campus Sheraton’. The new management transformed the dingy lit canteen to a five-star hotspot. The furniture was changed to a more comfortable one; the exterior was re-designed, the interior was re-decorated and air-conditioned. But most importantly, the menu and service were drastically changed from what the other cafeterias were providing. The management employed waitresses who were smartly dressed, friendly and courteous. My wife and I still reminisce on those good old days as students when we went ‘tearing’ turkey wings, eating fried rice and drinking chilled coke at Campus Sheraton; all at the expense of our parents! The place sure wasn't cheap but the service and food was spectacular.

That is what ‘Beyond Aesthetics’ means; going beyond mere external beauty to provide profitable quality. While it is necessary to improve the outlook of our facilities, the focus should be more on provision of quality service at all times. The aim of every infrastructural project should be to enhance the experience of the patient and improve patient outcome. A beautiful building will attract patients but only consistent quality service will keep the patients.

There are several dimensions of quality which must be regularly assessed to determine how well you are doing on the quality scale. These are:

• ·        Timeliness
• ·        Completion
• ·        Courtesy
• ·        Accuracy
• ·        Mistakes

The time dimension of quality emphasizes promptness of service to patients. Patients should not be delayed unduly and adequate measures should be put in place to reduce patients waiting time to the barest minimum.

 Quality also means each task in the hospital process is properly completed. An incomplete or poorly performed task could affect the performance of the next task in the sequence.

Another quality dimension that must be regularly assessed is courtesy. Measures and standards of behavior should be set for hospital employees at employment, induction and at regular intervals during the period of their employment. It is unacceptable for hospital workers to be rude to patients whose basic need is emphatic help.

Accuracy is a dimension of quality that relates with hitting the mark in patient care. The incidences of misdiagnosis should be rare and far between.

Finally, mistakes should be avoided. Hospital managers should design measures to prevent mistakes e.g. use of checklists, adequate planning of duty rosters, putting name bands and marking surgical sites on patients going for surgery e.t.c.

These measures will improve quality and reduce litigation. In addition, ensuring quality service helps you move beyond aesthetics to actual profitability.

See you soon…..