Posts Tagged ‘Healthcare’
This article proposes a communication model for organisation in health industry. Communication is “a process of circular interaction involving a sender, receiver, and message” (Moran et al., 2007, p. 45) and the quality and level of communication plays an important role in running the operations by the health authority. Facilitation of communication in the health authority organisation in order to send messages to internal and external stakeholder can be explained by application of Shannon and Weaver’s (1949) model of communication which consist of five elements: information source, transmitter, channel, receiver and destination. Shannon and Weaver’s (1949) model of communication Adapted from Chandler (1994) Information source in case of the health authority relates to senior level management aiming to communicate information about changes in the organisation. Transmitter for the health authority relates to press office in case of communication with external stakeholders. In internal communication, on the other hand, line level managers and immediate supervisor may serve as transmitters of messages sent by stop management. Channels available for the health authority to transmit its messages include but not limited to the official website of the organisation, press releases in local and national media, newsletters etc. Receiver can be represented by media for external communications as a wide range of media platforms can discuss official press releases of the health authority organisation thus, causing the message to reach its destination. Destination for communication message represents individuals and parties for whom the message is intended. Noise is an important factor in this model of communication as it can interfere in communication process potentially causing messages to be misunderstood. Therefore, it is important for the health authority management to be proactive in terms of eliminating or at least minimising the noise. References Chandler, D. (1994) “The Transmission Model of Communication” Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/trans.html…
This brief article discusses information management processes for health authority focusing on information communication technologies. Information is a vital tool for the health authority and its effective management is the most basic responsibility of administrative management. Information management process for the health authority may include the following stages as proposed by Akwetey (2011): 1. Collecting information. In health authority organisation information can be collected from application forms and other internal and external sources. Moreover, primary data collection can be initiated with the use of surveys, focus groups, experiments etc. 2. Processing information. This stage can be greatly assisted by the application of relevant analytical software and the level of sophistication of such software is rapidly increasing. 3. Analysing the information. Information on its own does not represent value in practical levels; therefore information needs to be transformed into knowledge through critical analysis. 4. Acting upon the information. This last stage in information management process is associated with developing recommendations according to analyses of information and application of recommendation in practice. Dramatic development of information technology and intensive integration of internet in increasing range of organisational processes has increased the level of convenience and effectiveness of each stage in information management process. Specifically, information and communication technologies (ICT) represent an effective platform to be used in data collection, processing of information, and data analysis. ICT applications can be divided into two categories: standard and specialised (Shane, 2008). Standard applications can be used in a wide range of industries and purposes and they include word pressing applications such as Microsoft Word and Text Document, database software such as Access, Oracle etc. Specialist ICT applications, on the other hand, are applications that are industry-specific. Specialist applications available for the health authority include Electronic Patient Record Keeping (EPR), Medical Use Expert System (MYCIN) and others. References Akwetey,…
According to the report published by the Chinese Ministry of Health (2002), it is said that the provision of health care services in the country is based on three-tiered system. While in rural areas the village health stations, town’s central hospitals and county hospitals form the three tiers, in urban areas the three tiers consist of neighbourhood health clinics, district hospitals and municipal hospitals. Dib et al (2009) note that this three-tiered system is aimed to ensure the efficient and effective provision of health care services while creating trusts and closer relationship between patients and doctors. As a first point of contact for patients, the health institutions at the lower level of the tier are designed to provide prevention and primary health care services. In practice, the private clinics account for majority of these low-level health instructions as they provide primary care services, health check-ups and cure minor diseases. On the other hand, county and municipal hospitals at the upper level of three-tiered system provide impatient, outpatient and emergence care services to the patients referred from lower level health institutions and hospitals (Chen Xiaohong, 2007). However, Yu Guangjun et al (2007) argue that this vertical structured three-tiered system itself is the one of the key reasons behind the failure of the Chinese health care system. The difficulty in getting transferred from low-level health institutions and obtaining access from hospitals at the top level of hierarchy due to long-waiting lists for registration and treatment, unnecessary long bureaucratic processes pinpoint the difficulties faced by patients, particularly in rural areas. Moreover, given the huge size of country’s population, the author argues that lack of trained doctors and health care professionals, shortage of medical equipments and facilities further diminish the ability of hospitals and other health institutors to receive and treat the patients. On…
As the oldest living civilization, history of the Chinese medicine goes back to nearly two thousand years. The methods and theories of the Chinese medicine considered as one of the oldest in the history of medicine and they have been practiced and developed further over the centuries. However, as many scholars note, China did not have organized and centralized health care network system until middle of the 20th century. The health care services were mainly provided by small, private clinics, local, individual healers as well as some religious or charity institutions, while big central health care station, which could qualify as a hospital, mainly cared after royal family and served the needs high-ranking officials and military personnel. This highlights the fact that private clinics and practitioner had played significant role in the history and development of the Chinese health care system. The earliest contemporary hospitals began to appear in China from 18th century in the form of missionary hospitals run by western churches. According to the statistics cited by Meng Qingyue et al (2000), prior to the formation of Chinese Communists state in 1949, there were around 768 hospitals providing health care services in the country. While only 248 of them were government-funded, remaining 520 were private hospitals indicating the private sector dominated the provision of health care services throughout the history of Chinese health care system. However, following the arrival of socialism and foundation of communist state in 1949, the role of private sector in the Chinese health care has diminished significantly within very short period of time. Ministry of health, which was set up by the government as a responsible body for overseeing the provision of health care services and running of country’s health care network, soon began transferring private hospitals into public ones. The Cultural Revolution, which…
Defined as “a set of conventional principles and expectations that are considered binding on any person who is a member of a particular group” (Code of Conduct, 2012, online), code of conduct is considered to be an effective tool to encourage or even reinforce particular pattern of behaviour. Code of conduct in health care settings in particular can be described as normative. In other words, they are “concerned with describing what should be done and how you should behave; i.e. the moral principles, rules and values that should guide your actions” (Hendrick, 2004, p.63). This article represents a critical review of a code of professional conduct for nursing and midwifery developed by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) that has been introduced in 2004 and revised in 2008. Revisions relate to the additions of new principles that have increased the total numbers of principles in the code from 54 to 61. The article critically evaluates both, the structure and content of the code and addresses the core principles within the code in a detailed manner. Analysis of NMC Code of Professional Conduct NMC code of conduct is based on four following core principles: The first core principle: taking care of individuals concerned, treating them as individuals, and respecting their dignity at all times. This core principle consists of 20 individual principles that address a range of relevant issues such as treatment of people as individual, respecting of confidentiality of people, maintaining collaboration with those in care, and ensuring that consent has been gained. The principles of treating people as individuals (principles 1 to 4) require nurses and midwife to treat people with great level of care and consideration, not to discriminate against anyone and avoid stereotyping those in care due to their illnesses and possible disabilities. Discrimination can be defined…
January 5, 2013
By John Dudovskiy
Category: Corporate Social Responsibility
Tags: Ethics, Healthcare