Hospital Management: Expectations vs. Reality

Hospital management is one of the giant areas of healthcare in the US, estimated at over $ three trillion. This is the world’s largest healthcare market by a long stretch. The sheer size of this market, however, belies the realities that hospital management has to face in their daily administration of health to patients in the thousands of healthcare settings in the US.

It is interesting to look at hospital management, its expectations vs. reality. Hospital management: expectations vs. reality from a healthcare provider’s perspective offers a rather less sunnier perspective into hospital management. While it is tempting to paint a rosy picture of the overall healthcare market in the US, it is imperative to look at how hospitals face issues in their day-to-day functions.

From a hospital’s point of view, it is faced with many aspects that it has to confront with patients. When care is not given in line with patient expectations, it results in bad reputation. Hospitals have to take utmost care to convey that the patients are being taken care of to the best of the hospital’s ability and with all the resources it has within its reach.

In addition to specificities such as this, there are also the other general matters concerning hospital management: expectations vs. reality. Let us look at some of these:

Differing expectations between caregiver and patient

One of the crucial issues of hospital management: expectations vs. reality is that there is almost always a difference between the expectations that patients have of the healthcare service being provided and the expectations from the caregivers’ perspective. If the doctor or any other caregiver has one set of expectations of the outcome of care, the patient has another, often very differing one.

It is almost always true that the patient expectations of a treatment outcomes are much higher than those of the patient. A lot of it has to do with perceptions. The patient is now exposed to an overload of information from various sources such as the Internet. This availability of information leads to assumptions about the possible outcome, which could be at variance with the facts on the ground. The healthcare provider has to handle this with sensitivity and care and set things in the proper position before commencing the treatment. Conveying the best and worst possible outcomes can go a long way in assuaging patient expectations.

Patients have wide choices

Along with information about the disease or condition a patient has, there is also the prevalence of a lot of options for patients. If they are not satisfied with one hospital, it is simply never difficult for them to go to another. This is one of the challenges for a hospital. A vital component of hospital management: expectations vs. reality; this alerts in hospitals the need to up the quality of their service if they have to retain patients.

Dealing with patients’ patience

This is another of the core issues relating to hospital management: expectations vs. reality. The sheer onslaught of the social media has ensured that jumping from one hospital to another is as simple as a few clicks. A patient spends more than 1300 hours a year just waiting for her turn to see the doctor. It is estimated that the average waiting period for seeing an ultra-specialist physician is about two-and-a-half weeks in the US cities. This of course, is the average, with the shortest and longest time varying between five and 66 days between the prime cities.

Imagine if one were a patient. Who would have the patience to wait for such a long time? With several others being available more easily, it is but natural for patients to go in search for more convenience. This is one of the key areas of hospital management: expectations vs. reality. Hospitals have to bear facts such as this in mind when offering their services.