Mid Staffordshire Hospital Analysis

Introduction

The healthcare organisations require offering effective quality care to the service users or the patients so that they can develop positive health conditions by eliminating their deteriorated health state. In the given case study, it is seen that Mid Staffordshire Hospital has failed to provide effective care services to the service users which has deteriorated their health state to worst. Thus, in order to drive quality improvement in the healthcare professional practices in Mid Staffordshire Hospital a situational analysis is been discussed. Additionally, students seeking healthcare dissertation help can benefit from examining similar case studies to understand the implications of care quality on patient outcomes. Later, based on the analysis improvements to be made are recommended and an improvement plan is discussed for implementation by the hospital.

LO1 Situation analysis of Mid Staffordshire hospital and recommendations

A situational analysis of the Mid Staffordshire Hospital is to be made by using the PESTEL and SWOT Analysis tool. This is because they are going to information regarding the way external and internal factors are influencing the healthcare practices of the hospital.

Analysis:

Political:

As a result of funding cuts made by the NHS and UK government, the healthcare organisations in the UK are facing issues with financial difficulty in supporting patients. This has led to increased death of patients as they are seen to be unable to afford effective care services required due to shortage of funds. The Mid Staffordshire Hospital is influenced by the funding cut made by NHS and UK government which has made them face lack of support from the government to make improvement in care service quality available for the patients. This is because lack of funds made the hospital crippled to arrange effective services as per required by the patients as they became costly in nature. Thus, under this negative influence from the political condition in the UK for the healthcare, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital are recommended to arrange a crowdfunding strategy for the hospital to get financial support for improving their services. As mentioned by Otero (2015), crowdfunding is the process of collecting money in small amount from a large number of people to support a business. This is mainly done by the help of the internet and this opportunity can be used by the Mid Staffordshire Hospital to arrange financial support for them to ensure improvement in care services and reduce deaths and deteriorated healthcare of the patients.

Economic:

The present economic conditions in the UK though show that they invest considerable amounts in the healthcare sector to support hospital and patients to access improved care yet it is lower than in other G7 countries. As mentioned by Polisena et al. (2015), lower economic support from the government in the healthcare results in lack of healthcare practices improvement. This is because effective amount of finances are not available for the improving service quality as required for the patients. This is seen to have also influenced the healthcare practices at Mid Staffordshire Hospital due to which they are facing shortage of money to improve care services. Further, the attempt of the manager at Mid Staffordshire Hospital to cut costs for healthcare and meet the central target for labourers to attain foundation status has made them offer least quality care services. Thus, it is recommended to the managers at the Mid Staffordshire Hospital to avoid cutting costs on quality services and at the present develop the motive to offer better care services rather than focusing on the foundation status. This is because improvement in care services would offer better care satisfaction to the service users. This is going to create a positive name of the organisation in the industry which results more people to avail care form them results the hospital to have opportunity to collected effective financial earnings to meet central target of the labourers to attain foundation status. Moreover, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital also requires attracting private investors and be involved with the non-profitable organisation to ask for monetary support for improving their healthcare services.

Social:

In the UK, the number of aged population is seen to be more than the young generation. As commented by Smit et al. (2015), the ageing population of the country means that increased need for healthcare practices and support as more health complication arises with age. The increased aged population in the UK, therefore, demands effective healthcare services being provided. However, in Mid Staffordshire Hospital they have not considered the fact and are providing lower quality services which are further deteriorating the health of the individuals. This has led them to face negative name in the industry which is causing families to the patients to refrain accessing healthcare services from them. Thus, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital at the present is recommended developing their care services by using added funds from different sources in improving their care service quality so that the elderly people are not deprived of effective care they required for effectively living their life. (Refer to Appendix 1)

Technological:

In the UK, extensive availability of innovative technology is present to be used in healthcare. As asserted by McMenamin et al. (2014), using technology in the healthcare allows improvement and innovative way of delivering services that offer quicker recovery to patients. This is because technology use in healthcare helps in better and early diagnosis of health issues and assists to deliver timely care to the patients. However, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital has been seen to have failed in using technology effectively for care service purposes. This is evident as it is reported the nurses at the hospital switched off and refrained to use technological devices to offer care to the patients. Thus, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital is recommended to take immediate steps in training their staffs to educate them in effectively using technological devices in care practices to offer quality care to the service users. This is required as it is going to improve the overall quality of care to the service users within the hospital as well as would help to offer speedy recovery and care to large number of patients at the same time.

Environmental:

In the UK, there are many hospitals where effective waste control systems are implemented. However, in the Mid Staffordshire Hospital, no such initiative is been taken which is going to create spread of infection around the area creating further deteriorated condition of the patients. Thus, the hospital requires immediately implement waste control policy so that the infections are not spread and a hygienic environment is created at the hospital. As commented by Dai et al. (2015), lack of hygiene at the healthcare organisation creates deteriorated health condition of the patients. This is because lack of hygiene results patients to come in contact with wide number of infections that attacks their body and weakens them. Thus, Mid Staffordshire Hospital is recommended to ensure better hygienic facility within the hospital so that spread of infection and diseases are avoided.

Legal:

The UK government has developed wide number of healthcare legislation and policies to be abided by the healthcare organisation. As asserted by Dudin (2016), violation of the healthcare legislation leads to financial penalty as well as closure of healthcare organisation. This is because the healthcare organisation violating legislation and policies are seen as threat for the healthcare industry and patients. Thus, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital requires abiding and effectively implementing the Health and Social Care Act 2015 and made nurses follow NMC Codes of Practices to perform quality improvement in the care services in the organisation. This is required not only to offer better quality care to the patients but also acts as effective guidelines for the healthcare staffs to help in offer quality care services without fail.

SWOT Analysis

Analysis:

The only strength for Mid Staffordshire Hospital due to which individuals wished to access care from them was their support from the NHS. The NHS is the National Health Service developed by the government which is funded by them through the received taxes (www.nhs.uk, 2018). The individuals have belief that if government support a healthcare organisation it must be good to access care from them as they would be authentic. However, the hospital failed to offer satisfactory care services even after having assistance from NHS. Thus, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital is recommended to interact with NHS more extensively to alert regarding the assistance they require from the NHS in improving their service quality for the service users.

As mentioned in the case study, the irresponsible service nature such as keeping the patients dehydrated for longer time, providing them wrong medication and others are creating deteriorate health situation for the patients. As a result, it is hindering their care satisfaction which is going to result the hospital to face lack of patients in future as well as create a negative name for them in the market. As commented by Ventola (2014), negative name in the market results the organisation to face bankruptcy. This is because no individuals wish to avail services from them as they feel they are not valued and the organisation fail to earn finances in supporting their business. Thus, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital is recommended to train the nurses and doctors to provide them effective knowledge so that they can deliver proper satisfactory care to the patients. Moreover, the hospital is recommended to recruit experienced doctors and nurses more in number so that the quality of services can be improved. Further, training is to be provided to develop knowledge regarding the way to professionally operate technological healthcare devices to offer better care to the service users.

The unhygienic condition in the healthcare environment makes the patients sicker and requires longer time to recover (Kumar et al. 2015). This is because unhygienic condition spreads infections, and makes the people feel deprived of proper value which results them to show lower response to the care service being provided. The similar aspect is faced in Mid Staffordshire Hospital where the patients due to unattended and unhygienic care conditions became sicker and experienced being deprived of value and proper dignity. Therefore, the hospital is suggested to ensure that effective hygienic environment is installed within the hospital to offer better care to the patients.

The Mid Staffordshire Hospital has the opportunity of government funding by the UK parliament that they in case use strategically can resolve the weakness. This is because the funding is effective financial support that can be used by the organisation in developing their care service quality by arranging better training facility for the staffs which they could not have done yet due to economic constraints. Moreover, they can buy improved healthcare equipment for the patients in the hospital so that the care service quality can be improved with effective use of technology.

The threat remains for the Mid Staffordshire Hospital is that a negative name of the organisation is already circulated in the healthcare industry by the negative review of the patients and their families. As asserted by Patterson et al. (2016), the negative name of the healthcare organisation makes the individuals avoid accessing care from them. This is because they feel that they are going to face deteriorating health situation rather than improving their present health condition while accessing care services from the organisation. Therefore, individuals mainly the nurses and doctors in the Mid Staffordshire Hospital are recommended to improve their service quality so that positive name and review of the organisation is circulated and the negative image is dissolved. Further, the Mid Staffordshire Hospital require to implement risk assessment for the organisation and better care planning for the patients to develop a risk-free and better care environment. This is required to develop a positive image of the organisation which is presently at stake due to irresponsible activities of care by the organisation.

LO2 Developing an improvement plan for Mid Staffordshire Hospital

The improvement plan for Mid Staffordshire Hospital requires at first to arrange compulsory training for all the staffs present in the organisation to update their skills. They are to execute this by making existing and new employees before the initiation of their care services to undergo brief training period at the present. As mentioned by Moudi et al. (2016), training helps in resolving the weakness which results to improve employee performance at work and main consistency. This results to develop better quality services resulting patients to face satisfied care services as the staffs in the healthcare organisation have knowledge regarding the way they are to manage care services to improve the health of the patients. The implementation of training is going to help nurses at the Mid Staffordshire Hospital to offer better care to the service users to offer them care satisfaction. The training required to be made with the focus on the way nurses are to offer care by maintaining dignity and preference of the patients regarding care services. Moreover, the improvement plan requires implementing separate training program which guides doctors and nurses regarding the way they are to use healthcare technological devices to offer care to patients in the hospital.

The Mid Staffordshire Hospital is to make provision for recruitment of adequate experienced nurses, doctors and other staffs in the hospital by upgrading their HR management team. This is because it is mentioned in the case study that due to lack of experienced doctors wrong medications are given to the patients. The hospital in the improvement plan required for the time being eliminate the strategy of sacking doctors if they are unable to meet the four-hour waiting for time limit in the Accident & Emergency (A&E). This is because it is making doctors feel fear of getting sacked to leave critically-ill patients to attend minor cases that can be attended later resulting in death and serious health condition of the critically ill patients. As commented by Haque et al. (2014), feedback system helps to improve care services. This is because through feedback from the patients and families the organisations are able to know changes to be made in their present care service nature so that improved quality services and satisfactory care are provided to the patients. Thus, the hospital required to include this in their improvement so that the quality of the care services is improved at the organisation. (Refer to Appendix 2)

Conclusion

The above discussion shows that the NHS has made funding cut on public spending of healthcare which may have negative impact on the Mid Staffordshire Hospital. This is because it has resulted to face financial constraints in improving their services. Thus, they are recommended to avail crowd funding sources, arrange private investors, and draw money from the UK government funds and others to resolve the issues. Moreover, the hospital is recommended to recruit more experienced staffs so that wrong care services can be eliminated. However, it is found that there is lack of experienced doctors and nurses present in the UK. Thus, the hospital is recommended for training the new doctors and nurses so that they become adequate to effectively manage complex care and deliver right care services. Moreover, more consultants and staffs are to be recruited to reduce the staff shortage issues which are hindering to deliver effective quality care by the hospital.

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