Efficiency, Effectiveness and Patient Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care

Efficiency, Effectiveness and Patient Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care
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Efficiency, Effectiveness and Patient Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care
For the past few decades, ambulatory care which is care that does not require hospitalization has increased and is becoming a common form of health care delivery not only in the USA but across the world. This shift from inpatient to outpatient care is being achieved due to many new medical procedures as well as technological advancements. However, besides these changes, most CEOs are not happy with the efficiency and effectiveness in the ambulatory care unit. The purpose of this paper is to develop an action plan for measuring efficiency and effectiveness in this unit to ensure that things are done in the right way to promote patient satisfaction.
The first measure will be reviewing practices and procedure to ensure that they are being efficient and effective in a manner that can improve patient health outcomes in the ambulatory care. Another consideration will be to ensure that the goals and objectives of the clinic are developed carefully. If the goals and objectives of the hospital are not considered in the execution of various activities, then a plan for carrying the responsibilities, goals, and objectives of the clinic will be developed. This will ensure that all members of the staff are familiar with the mission, values, and vision of the health clinic. As a healthcare institution, we are aware of patient needs and strive to collaborate with all departments effectively in an attempt to improve healthcare services. Therefore, communication is the basis for achieving these objectives. The objective of communication is to create a mutual understanding through sharing of information. Besides these aspects, efficiency can be built on strong relationships and collaboration between the hospital departments (Ozcan, 2014).
It is important to measure patient satisfaction within any healthcare setting to evaluate health care delivery and assess patient outcomes. Moreover, it is an indicator of the quality of care because it addresses various issues regarding compliance. Patient satisfaction has been proved to be a complex construct because it involves a wide range of factors such as physician's knowledge, communication skills, availability of resources, health insurance or financial status/arrangements, location, efficacy, personal attributes and other various factors. Scholars and practitioners have developed some instruments to measure patient satisfaction in different healthcare settings (Beattie et al., 2014). However, most of these constructs have ignored the outpatient aspect of healthcare delivery. A variety of p...