
Through our close monitoring of industry standards, it is evident that every hospital or healthcare organization is required to comply with many policies and procedures requirements. Considering the complex nature of the structure of the healthcare industry, the scope of hospital policies and procedures is vast. This is, understandably, a huge headache for healthcare workers as it further adds to the complexity and workload of their already demanding roles. From patient discharge procedures, to maintaining hygiene of the staff workers, policies and procedures are comprehensive guidelines to ensure the organization is complying with the rules and regulations. The maintenance of policies also ensures reduced risk of accidents, improves efficiency, and helps maintain a sound working environment for patients, staff, and visitors. This is why having a great policy management system to organize and administer hospital policies and procedures is so critically important. You may find our software is the best option for this organization and administration, or you may find another vendors software is more suitable, however, the key is to find the best fit for your various types of hospital policies and procedures.
There are several types of hospital policies and procedures but the main ones are as follows:
Administrative Policies
Administration activities are the primary backbone that ensure that a hospital is running smoothly and has everything in place in order to make sure that the staff, patients, and visitors are being handled in the proper manner.
Administrative policies cover a vast area including, but not limited to, visitation rules, dress code policy, acquisition of equipment, bed policy, and various other activities that are needed to be performed in order to help run the administration of the hospital.
Human Resource Management Policies
The primary duty of human resource management department is to ensure that the staff are complying with the rules and regulations of the organization, as well as, being taken care of. Staff members are a vital component of a hospital, therefore, it is essential their well being, as well as, improving their skill sets is the primary focus of the department. In order to ensure that the department is taking care of its staff, as well as, ensuring its staff is following strict procedures, they need to create and maintain a comprehensive list of policies and procedures. Such policies may include, vacation days, personal hygiene maintenance, shift policies, as well as, assigning tasks to each individual.
Providing Care Policies
The basic purpose of a hospital is to provide care to its patients. Therefore, it is no surprise that the most comprehensive set of policies and procedure manual is the one directed to this department. Such policies cover topics from, nutrition guides, patient and family education, abuse and neglect, admission and discharge, patient call back, patient rights and responsibilities, as well as, numerous other topics. The policies differ for each department as well, for instance, the paediatrics ward would have a separate set of policies as opposed to cardiological ward.
Medicine Policies
The pharmacy is one of the bigger departments of a hospital. It is essential that the department follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure there are no mistakes or accidents that may, otherwise, occur. From prescription, to handling drug samples, it is vital that the staff is following strict policies and procedures. Other policies include, handling of drug shipment, outpatient prescription availability, and the likes.
Information Management Policies
Finally, it is very important how a hospital shares its information. This information can be related to a staff member, patient, or a visitor. It is very important for an organization to ensure everyone is following a strict code of privacy, and is not violating anyone’s right. Therefore, such policies include: confidentiality, security and integrity of information, medical records distribution, and the likes.
Keeping up with regulations regarding policies and procedures, may be stressful. In order to ensure that staff is complying with the policies and procedures, it is essential that the policies and procedure manuals are well organized and easily accessible. To that end, our policy management software may be able to help, or it may be that another vendors software is more suitable.
If you would like to find out more about how healthcare policy management software can help ease the stress the staff members are under, please contact us for more information. Alternatively, if you would like to see our software in action, please ask for a free demonstration.