In the United States, health care for all people is very important. This is also taken as a key thing in the Winthrop University Hospital where the health of the people is taken as everything. Winthrop University hospital is a resource for healthcare and it offers both inpatient and as outpatient services. The activities that the hospital is concerned with are research and medical education. The services provided by this hospital are fit for people of all ages and sex ranging from newborns to older adults. Winthrop University Hospital is a healthcare institution that is multifaceted and thus offers a wide range of services including emergency services, disease diagnostic and prevention programs, rehabilitation, medical treatment and surgery.
To offer these healthcare services effectively, the hospital employs experts as well as specialists in the various fields of healthcare. The healthcare providers at Winthrop University Hospital are excellent in terms of the skills that they hold in medicine. These are also physicians whose focus is the patient just like is the general philosophy of the hospital. Each division in the hospital is held by a professional in that field. Because of the hospital’s commitment to ensure that the quality of the offered healthcare is enhanced, the hospital employs man physicians for instance it has almost 1400 physicians. This helps to reduce the physician to patient and thus ensure that the patients get the best and even personalized care. It is only by recruiting the best people that any organization will be successful and be recognized for its services. Having been recognized for its excellence in clinical services proves that the hospital has the best physicians.
To assess the educational needs in the hospital, a study was carried out. The study involved the physicians at different levels in the hospitals. The methods of data collection employed were interviews. Further, being a member of the organization, the researcher also used the direct observation method. Interviews were done by giving questionnaires to the people and also carrying out individual interviews. The questionnaires included both open and closed ended questions and thus the participants had the chance to express their views. This was an effective way of data collection since following the fact that the participants did not include personal details for example names when completing the questionnaires, there were high chances of getting sincere feedbacks. Direct observation increased the efficiency of the research study in that primary data was collected.
Data from the research was analyzed statistically by drawing a histogram. It showed that 90% of the participants supported the need for education to enhance healthcare services. 5% thought that the hospital had already done enough and thus the services offered were already sufficient and efficient. The remaining 5% did not hold any specific stand. This then showed that despite the fact that the hospital offers quality services, most of the physicians realize that there is always need and room for service improvement.
The Winthrop University Hospital recognizes that it is important for its people to get quality education. Therefore, the university offers a range of educational programs for its clinicians, medical students and also other residents. Because of this service, the hospital healthcare providers have recognized the need to get more education. Thus education is a priority for the clinicians in the hospital. This is because they have realized and accepted the fact that healthcare provision changes day by day. Also people suffer from new diseases and thus new discoveries have to be made and since some disease causing microorganisms can become resistant to some medicine, then alternatives have to be sought to ensure that patients get the best quality healthcare services. Thus, the data collected revealed that physicians at Winthrop University Hospital prioritized the need for education. Of the highest priority was education to the residents as well as patients. This would help them in taking good healthcare of themselves.
For any employee decision or even wish to be made a reality, it should have the support of the top management. In Winthrop University Hospital, support has always been given to education programs. This then shows that the management of the hospital supports this initiative. From the data that was collected, the participants revealed that one of the reasons that triggered the need for education was the support that the education programs received from the management. The management realized that even residents needed to be educated on health matters. This then according to the physicians revealed that there would be less cases of illnesses since the people know how well to take care of themselves. Further, it would be advantageous in terms of cost. Once effected the hospital would have to spend less in medication since they will have less cases. This is an important step towards ensuring healthcare for all people.
This education program also teaches patients on how to take care of themselves and thus ensuring that more attention is given to more serious and emergent cases. This is especially to those with acute illnesses. However, this does not imply that the service delivery in the hospital would decline. The patients will take more responsibility of their illnesses and also get to know more about what they suffer from. Thus, this is a way of increasing disease awareness in the society. To show how education need was prioritized in the hospital, the research participants were open in offering the feedback for the research. Thereby, they showed a positive attitude towards data collection and gave information openly. Furthermore, no one would be victimized for the information that they gave.
However, these education programs are faced by some challenges. An example of these challenges is budgetary constraints. The hospital supports these education programs from funds obtained from grants like government grants and other individual grants as well as from corporations and foundations. Therefore this poses a challenge since it may not be certain that the grants would be available. Some of the participants in the research study feared that this would lead to extra spending on the part of the hospital and thus may compromise other operations within it.
Based on the organizational structure, all the management approves all programs to be carried out in the hospital. To respond to these educational needs, the first step would be the training of staff. Each program should be run by well trained and qualified persons for it to succeed. Therefore, the hospital needs to train the staff on how to conduct these education programs. This would involve teachings on communication skills. Further, the staff needs to realize that such programs would be interactive but not lecture sessions. Thus, the people being educated have to be made feel comfortable and participate in the learning. This would be followed by the actual training sessions. This then leads to improved service delivery, health of the people and productivity of the hospital.
Reference
Winthrop University Hospital, (2011). Retrieved on April 25, 2011 from: http://www.winthrop.org/.
