March 2009 Notes from the Middle East
Facilities Management The Gulf is experiencing unprecedented growth. At the Arab Health Congress 2008, experts from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) forecasted total health care spending to reach $60 billion annually by 2025, which is a fivefold increase over current spending
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As demand for quality health care rises, new, innovative hospitals are constructed and older hospitals are renovated. Typically, by having the latest medical and information technologies, patient safety and quality of care should improve, but unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Hospitals should link facility design features with quality and safety improvements by using demonstrated evidence to create the safest environment possible for the patient. This idea has to be top-of-mind from blueprints to commissioning.
JCI recommends the considering following tips to best ensure a new or renovated facility enhances patient safety and quality care:
• Identify and improve inefficient processes of the old facility through techniques such as root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA); make sure that the staff leaves old facility problems behind.
• Link evidence-based design elements to important patient outcomes to mitigate infection rates and patient falls.
• Have a plan for reducing risk of health care associated infections, since renovations may spread mold spores and dust, which can heighten a patient’s risk to developing a hospital-acquired infection.
• Conduct a construction risk assessment to determine the impact of air quality, noise, vibration, fire safety and utility interruption during construction on patient care and patient, staff, and visitor safety.
• Be sure that facility design, use, and maintenance comply with evolving local laws and regulations; ignoring or violating them can be costly and put quality and safety at risk.
Find out more information about JCI’s Health and Safety Design consulting service.
1http://conferences.medicexchange.com/en/arabhealth08news.aspx?articleid=264&zoneid=10
Derick Pasternak, MD, MBA
dpasternak@jcrinc.com