It Takes a Village - Hospital Staff Works Together Towards Better Health

As the average patient enters the hospital for a routine medical exam or open-heart surgery, they do not always get to meet the dozens of hospital staff working behind the scenes to make sure that they are given the best care possible in a comfortable setting.

When most people think of a hospital like Manteno hospital, they first think of doctors and nurses whom are certainly a critical part of the hospital. But what about the sheets on the bed or the well-balanced tray of food cooked and delivered to your bedside three times a day. These tasks are performed by housekeeping and kitchen staff and often go unseen during a hospital stay.

It is easy to imagine the hundreds of man hours that go into doing the laundry for an Illinois hospital on any given day, but what about the lights that illuminate the surgical suites during important surgeries or the clean white-tiled floors that allow patients to be safely moved from room to room as needed. Largely operations and maintenance staff, many of whom work late hours to ensure that everything in the hospitality is running efficiently, oversee these tasks.

If you were to look at staff at the Kankakee Illinois hospital, you would find a wide range of job positions. The hospital administration and management is always working to ensure that insurers are paid and that doctors and nurses have the necessary support and technology to give the best care possible to all.

Doctors and nurses have the closest interaction with patients, but all of the facets of a working, thriving hospital make it possible for you to receive the best of care at all times. If one person were to not complete their job then it would be nearly impossible for other workers to complete their daily duties. This is why many hospitals make every effort to acknowledge the diversity of their staff and the various ways that their hard work positively impacts the patient sitting in the waiting room ready to be admitted.

Rounding out the diverse roles and responsibilities of paid staff are the hospital volunteers. These men, women and children often come from varied backgrounds and support patients and other staff alike. Whether it is bringing some much needed humor and cheer to a post-op patient or reading to children in the hospital, these individuals recognize the fulfillment that comes from giving back within your own community.

So whether or not you are a doctor at Manteno hospital or a nurse at the Kankakee Illinois hospital [http://www.riversidehealthcare.org/locations/kankakee.html] or play a role in the administration of an Illinois hospital, Riverside Healthcare has a team of dedicated individuals working towards better health for everyone who walks through the door. At Riverside, patients can learn more about these caring individuals and the programs and services available at the Riverside hospitals across Illinois.

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6 Top Tips to Ensure That Your Hospital Has a Clean Bill of Health

Is it possible to leave a hospital with worse health than when it admitted you? Unfortunately, it can happen. In theory, hospitals should be clean as a bean. However, that is not always the case. Thus, it is important to follow some basic guidelines, in order to find the cleanest (and perhaps safest) hospital available:

1. Secure a copy of the hospital area's cleaning instructions, where you will stay.

Regardless of which part of the hospital in which you will stay, these instructions should include detailed descriptions about how personnel keep the area sparkling clean. While this may seem like overkill, remember that bacteria can kill. You are a paying customer, so you have the right to learn how the hospital cleans a certain area.

2. Determine if hospitals are certified and have retained certification

Learn if the hospital has received Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) certification. This is an industry standard. Receiving and maintaining this certification ensures that the hospital has been meticulous in keeping the institution sufficiently clean-for at least the past two years. This ensures that personnel are wearing hygienic clothing, such as cheap urbane scrubs, and are properly sanitizing all medical tools.

3. Ensure that the staff adheres to policies after the hospital admits you

The medical personnel should follow several cleanliness procedures. They must wash their hands with a sanitizer, prior to touching you. Stethoscopes must also undergo this process. Are personnel sanitizing instruments properly and washing their hands frequently? Observe whether the personnel are wearing hygienic clothing, such as scrubs.

Many types of bacteria in hospitals, referred to as "superbugs," have become resistant to various types of antibiotics. Thus, taking certain precautions can help to reduce the rate at which people transmit bacteria between people.

4. Learn about Medicare/Medicaid's HCAHPS results

Since March of 2008, hospitals acquiring financial refunds from Medicaid and Medicare, have been conducting HCAHPS surveys through their customers. HCAHPS refers to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. This survey includes clients' assessments in various areas, including "Cleanliness and Quietness of the Physical Environment." You can obtain results of a hospital's surveys, via the Internet.

5. Verify that the personnel are IEHA educated

IEFHA stands for International Executive Housekeepers Association. Inquire whether the cleaning personnel in the hospital have received AEHA training. This is yet another indicator that a hospital has prioritized cleaning its facilities properly.

6. Request for a tour of a hospital

When taking a tour of a hospital, ask yourself these questions:

o How do cleaning crews clean hospital rooms, and how often?

o Are carpets spotless?

o What hand-washing process does medical staff follow?

o Do breathe in an overall clean scent?

o Is there "hidden" dirt?

Do you want to stay in a clean hospital? If so, then you can follow some basic steps, to ensure that you will be in the cleanest and safest environment possible. For instance, scrubs can reduce the rates of bacterial infections. Make sure that your hospital has a clean bill of health!

Brent McNutt enjoys talking about cheap urbane scrubs and cheap landau scrubs as well as networking with healthcare professionals online.

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Health Care Hospitality Pays

A new trend is emerging in the healthcare Industry which has many patients and visitors smiling. Faced with improving their lagging patient satisfaction levels, many hospitals are adapting a hotel style model of hospitality, with related amenities such as valet parking, greeters, courtesy shuttles, and concierge services. While one would normally only expect to find such luxuries at the finer hotels in the world, they are now being delivered every day at more and more hospitals throughout the country. The demand is so great that several companies have chosen to fill the fast growing niche by specializing in hospitality type services specifically for the health care industry.

Not only do the services provide added convenience for patients and visitors, but they can also solve a variety of challenges related to new construction and state mandated seismic upgrade projects which many hospitals are dealing with. If you're still not convinced, Here's are some other reasons why it might pay to incorporate a few health care hospitality solutions...

Scoring Higher on Patient Surveys

Surveys have shown that hospital facilities which deliver extra amenities such as valet parking, patient concierge service and other hospitality related services score higher on patient satisfaction surveys such as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems), a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. Patients who receive stress-relieving services such as valet parking and concierge are more likely to give favorable overall ratings to the hospital, and would be more likely to recommend the hospital to friends and family.

A Patient Safety Culture

In 2004, the Health Care Leadership Alliance, which includes the American Association of Nurse Executives and other health care executives, identified a core set of competencies for executive leaders in health care. Within the context of the core competencies, seven imperatives were identified to develop a patient safety culture and a model of proactive safety was developed which infers that everyone's job is patient safety, in all health care system transactions; this safety mission involves the entire health care team and should include everyone from the physician to the valet parking attendant. The valet and concierge services can play a vital role in the patient safety process and hospitals without these services may be missing an important element to their culture of safety initiative.

Drawing Privately Insured Patients

The AP/San Francisco Chronicle recently examined the new trend of hospitals providing extra incentives to "lure in" patients covered by private insurance, which pays higher reimbursement than government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. According to the AP/Chronicle, hospitals "are finding it pays to pump up perks" for visitors, such as cooking classes, patient concierges, internet access and valet parking. Hospital leaders say "these extra touches all have a purpose, including stress relief."

According to the AP/Chronicle, competition also plays a role in the hospitals adding extra benefits. "If a patient has a free choice to go to this hospital or that hospital, they're going to choose the one that has the better amenities". Rick Gundling, a vice president for the Health Care Financial Management Association, said that extra amenities help attract physicians, who in turn bring in more patients.

At the end of the day, every Hospital has different needs, but they can usually all agree on one thing - patient care is the priority. If that's true, then its easy to see why nearly every Hospital in the country has "Health Care Hospitality" programs at the top of their To-Do Lists.

Michael Holmstrom is the Founder and President of Signature Parking for Healthcare which provides Parking Hospitality Solutions exclusively for the Healthcare industry throughout the United States.

His firm can be reached at (800) 825-3871 or on the internet at http://www.signatureparkingforhealthcare.com and via email at info@signatureparking.com

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