Cardiology External and Internal Factors
Question :
you will analyze and develop a strategy for the scenario that follows:
A large health system recently implemented its annual system-wide patient satisfaction survey. The survey results indicate that patient satisfaction has dropped sharply in the last year due to long wait times for specialty care appointments.
How would you solve this problem?
• Choose a specialty that you are familiar with such as endocrinology, nephrology, neurology, cardiology, etc.
• Research and discuss external factors and internal factors that might have an effect on wait times for appointments in this specialty service.
• Provide at least three recommendations that the head of the specialty department should consider to address the external and internal issues you identified.
• Support your analysis and recommendations using at least two credible sources.
Answer :
Specialty in cardiology
According to the recent survey done for the assessment of patient satisfaction, it has been found that there is an increased level of dissatisfaction among the patients. This could be because of the many internal and external functional deficiencies. This could result in a decrease in the reputation of the unit. The financial exposure could also be a major effect on the health unit. Cardiology is the major specialty area under a health unit. There is an increased number of obesity and bad air which could make an effect on the heart. Thus, the role of the cardiologist increases in this kind of situation. There are several things which are related to this specialty are discussed in further sections (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2013).
External factors and internal factors
External factors
Overcrowded
It could the reason for the increasing wait times. This is because a large queue cannot handle in the same period of time. Thus, this could be the prominentexternal factor for the increased number of wait times for the specialty care appointment in the cardiology (Khatoon, Reddy, &Guvva, 2016).
The gap between demand and response
Handling a large number of patients at the same time could be efficient. This could be the reason for the lack of resources to handle a large number of people at the same time.
Internal factors
Poor management
Lack of resources in the health unit could be a major problem for the patients. This could increase the wait time. This is because the available resource could not able to handle the demand of the patient (Neimanis et al, 2017). this could be a lack of staff who could manage the appointment and many other deficiencies.
Unavailability of cardiologists
This could be a possible reason for which the wait time is increasing. There could not proper specialists who could manage the demand. The increased pressure on the limited specialists could ultimately result in long wait times because of the fatigue in cardiologists.
Recommendation to handle issues
• Hiring the staff in the organization could be beneficial in meeting the requirement and reducing wait times.
• Training to handle a large number of demands at the same time (Ginter, Duncan & Swayne, 2013)
• Availability of the human and the supporting equipment for the practice.