How facilities design affects patient safety, quality and productivity
Abstract
This paper analyses the impact of facilities design on patient outcome, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and staff productivity. It examines the common facility selection and procurement criteria that often overlook usability. The different dimensions of usability and aspects of design that can serve as guides in facility planning and selection are presented. The paper reviews several pitfalls as well as best practices and standards in ergonomic facility design. It concludes that to ensure the human-centredness of hospital facilities, management should involve all stakeholders, process owners and direct users and their early participation in facility planning.
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Author's Biography
Rene T. Domingo is an industrial engineer trained and educated in Japan on Lean and Quality Management. He is a full-time faculty at the Asian Institute of Management, where he teaches Operations Management and Service Operations. He consults for companies in the manufacturing, service and healthcare industries in the fields of quality and productivity improvement. He served as technical consultant for World Organization (WHO) on hospital management in the Asia Pacific Region. He led an EU-funded project in the setting up of a national quality assessment system for Philippine hospitals. He is a regular speaker on patient care and patient safety at the annual Hospital Management Asia (HMA) conference, the largest conference of hospital chief executive officers and executives, where he also serves as judge in HMA’s service excellence award. He presented a study on innovation in healthcare for developing countries at the International Hospital Federation (IHF) conference. He is the author of Quality Means Survival (Prentice-Hall), a practical guide on Total Quality Management.
Citation
Domingo, Rene T. (2019, September 1). How facilities design affects patient safety, quality and productivity. In the Management in Healthcare: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.69554/KVZF6292.
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