by Brian de Francesca The goal: “Providing high-quality care while optimizing resources.” To do this, hospitals rely on key performance indicators (KPIs) as essential tools to assess and enhance their operational efficiency. However, it is crucial to recognize that while these KPIs are extensively employed, many healthcare institutions often fixate solely on averages, neglecting the...
by Dr Tony Felton What are ‘Hospitals-at-Home’ and ‘Virtual Wards’? Hospital-at-Home is a way of supporting patients at home who would usually be managed in a hospital. The model includes ‘admission avoidance’, where patients are wholly managed at home, or ‘early discharge, where the latter part of the patient pathway is supported at home. Hospital-at-Home...
by Dr Melsa Omaya Cancer remains one of the world’s most persistent and growing global health challenges, affecting millions of lives each year and accounting for the majority of deaths and disabilities worldwide. In Kenya, as in other lower-income countries, the incidence of cancer is rising fast, creating unprecedented challenges for health systems, many of...
by Laurence Smith A staggering 131 million people—around four in 10 of the population—present themselves to United States Hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) every year. [1] Any intrepid researcher who embarks upon a more detailed analysis or segmentation of this number is quickly struck by the enormous range of symptoms with which ED providers must cope...
Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd The NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary. While its concepts of equality of care and equity of access are admirable, it needs radical change to survive and thrive in the future. The system is burdened with overloaded hospitals, uneven access to care across the UK, and a workforce that...
Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd Technology and AI in healthcare are already indispensable tools, and their significance will only grow further in the future, revolutionizing medical treatments, improving patient outcomes, and optimizing resource allocation. AI is not meant to replace human healthcare professionals, but it can significantly transform medical treatments, particularly for diseases...
by Keith Hague ‘Should I stay as a private practitioner or give myself up to employment’? After a lifetime in healthcare, both in the public and private sectors of the UK, I never really thought that the time would come when I would see that a change was needed in the way that the private...
by Dr DJ Hamblin-Brown Effective handover in healthcare, which includes not just end-of-shift handover but also referrals between teams and changes of care setting, is essential for maintaining continuity and ensuring patient safety during transitions. Inadequate handovers can lead to errors, miscommunication, and compromised patient outcomes. Personally, I know this: my mother nearly died because...
by Dr Chris Potts Over the last 100 years, Dentistry has been provided by the dental team, either in private practice, dental hospitals, schools, institutions such as prisons, or the armed forces. In the UK, the traditional practice for primary care was often the house or a converted residential property owned by the Dentist. This...
by Keith Hague Severe staffing shortages are creating real dilemmas Throughout both the public and private healthcare sectors, the recruitment and retention of staff has become a serious challenge creating huge business dilemmas. Suddenly we are faced with a European employment market that has greatly diminished since Brexit. Covid caused the lack of travel and...
At Greybeard, we are keeping ourselves up to date on how AI is gradually affecting the delivery of healthcare services (see our other article here), and a report by the Daily Telegraph caught our eye. In Japan, a country with the world’s oldest population, AI and robots are being used in care homes to both...
by Dr Jenna Burton Concern is growing for the continuous increase in mental health disorders within the Western world. Likewise, psychosomatic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are subsequently increasing. Dr Jenna Burton discusses how the inability to manage our emotional outlets within a more complex and pressurized social environment may...
Introduction: Hospitals play a crucial role in the healthcare industry, providing essential care services to patients. In today’s fast-paced world, hospital providers face mounting pressure to increase efficiency while delivering high-quality care. Increasing hospital efficiency can be a challenging task, but it’s crucial to ensure that the hospital is operating at optimal levels to meet...
by Alan Hughes This call goes out to all healthcare payors, providers and policymakers as it is time to get digitally ‘fit’! All recognise the need to continue the adoption of available solutions but acknowledge the hardest part is where to focus effort, or in some cases, where to start… Digital care solutions are well-positioned to...
-By Henry Chao in collaboration with Brian de Francesca “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” – Sir Winston Churchill Ever Rising Healthcare Spending, Recent Hospital Financial Turbulence, and Skyrocketing Hospital Construction Cost In its name alone, the United States 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act sums up the major healthcare challenge in the US for...
