What Goes Into a Strong Hospital Environment?

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When you want to know what goes into a strong hospital environment, the first thing you have to do is look around. You see people sitting, walking and pushing. Some people are talking, and some are taking “vitals.” The key here is that they are all doing their jobs. The key in a hospital is that everyone is being productive, as you would expect in a manufacturing plant or any other work environment. The key is that everyone is prepared and willing to do his or her specific job.

The ER Hospital Environment

In an emergency room (ER), the nurse may be sitting there gabbing with a co-worker on a subject that has nothing to do with his or her job. That is not a problem. His or her efficiency is not needed now. In 5 minute, when the call comes in about an auto accident, at the same time, a cardiac case walks through the door and parent carry in a child who has aspirated a toy that is where the staff’s productivity comes into play. Knowing what to do and how to approach it with practiced ease, that makes a strong ER. Knowing triage as well as good medical practice saves lives. The down time is decompression for the times when adrenaline and sheer instinct rule the line between life and death. A good staff here is the backbone for a strong hospital.

Hospital Environment and Strong Floors

This is the area where a hospital often gets its reputation. Are the nurses professional and personable? There are tiers of responsibility here that go unbroken. The C.N.A., the L.P.N. and the R.N. are the machine that makes this work. When people think of medicine, they think of doctors, but they virtually play a cameo role in patient cases. Strong doctors of good character are necessary, but they are not solely what makes the hospital strong. The strength comes from the in-the-trenches people who change the linen and the bedpans. The strength of a hospital comes from its people and the underlying medicine of positive attitudes who make a hospital truly worth going to.

What Makes the Difference?

Communication is the essence of a good hospital. When a patient comes into an ER, there will be short orders barked, but no long discussions, since most of the situation has been long talked out. A patient may be incapable of telling you their history, but it can pop up on a computer screen in seconds and all the additional problems that go with the patient file. The practiced skill comes flowing out with efficiency and surety. Each move is with minimal waste. That is the strength of a hospital, not “productivity,” but producing when all is on the line.

To be a strong hospital, it must communicate and treat patients well. The strength of a hospital is in communication among the staff. They do not have to like each other in this communication; just give clear and concise expectations with due respect, and then go back, sit down, and decompress… the front door just opened.