Support Services Seminar

'Healthcare Worker Safety is of Prime Importance'

The national seminar organised by PD Hinduja Hospital engaged and enlightened on innovative strategies to improve efficiency in support services

Dr T Raghvendra Rao

Dr Subha Rao

Major General Naresh Vij

Recent past has seen a tremendous shift in the management of support services in hospitals. Increasing operational cost and demand for quality services from customer have forced hospitals to look at various other modalities to achieve higher efficiency and reduced cost such as outsourcing of various non-core activities. The national seminar organised by the support services department of PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai on February 15, provided a platform to healthcare professionals, managing the support services to share their ideas, best practices and contribute to the discussions about new ways to improve the quality standards. Express Healthcare was the official media partner.

The central theme was 'Strategic Approach to Challenges & Issues' in support services. The seminar equipped participants with a comprehensive understanding of important issues like healthcare workers' safety, energy efficient programmes in hospitals, management of medical equipment, importance of food safety practices in hospital and disaster management.

The event kick started with the inaugural ceremony by the Mayor of Mumbai, Dr Subha Rao, who stressed on the importance of safety of grade IV employees in municipal hospitals and promised full support in terms of any aid to the management of the hospital. After her key-note address, it was time for session one that focused on waste management. Said Chairperson of this session, Major General Naresh Vij, Director Projects & Engineering, PD Hinduja Hospital, "Bio-medical waste just forms 20-25 per cent of the total hospital waste, but as most hospitals do not follow guidelines as set by the environment ministry, it is proving to be an environmental hazard."

The first speaker T Raghvendra Rao, Director, Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects Pvt Ltd (STEPS), drew attention to recycling the waste and using it as a resource of energy. "Hospital waste and energy conservation is a contradictory term. Whenever we dispose off tons of waste, there is actually energy lost because of high-end equipment involved. Hence in such a process, energy conservation is not achievable unless there is a paradigm shift in approach by all concerned that includes not only the hospital administration but also the local authorities and pollution control board." He spoke about a very innovative technology introduced by STEPS that uses organic materials like clothes, gloves and even non-organic materials like plastic and converts them to fuel.

"Currently, methods to dispose-off the waste increase the capital expenditure. Added to this there are problems like lack of skilled manpower and high material cost. Hence, this technology is an answer to many problems. Secondly, the most common form of to dispose off bio-medical waste are incinerators which not only require high-voltage but also skilled manpower and is also environmentally hazardous. If we convert waste to value, waste is a wonderful resource."

Dr Tanu Singhal, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Hinduja Hospital, stressed upon the importance of healthcare worker safety. "Healthcare worker are the most important resource of a hospital. Thus, there should be proper medical evaluation and immunisation. Before hiring, medical evaluation is not a means to deny employment to those with risks but to help in appropriate placement with special references to disease like AIDS," she said. Such people are denied surgical privileges. "One of the most important aspect in safety is adequate immunisation. The most significant one being Hepatitis vaccine. Hinduja has not only vaccinated the in-house staff, but even contract workers who can also be potential carriers."

Subsequent to this talk, session two followed on the central theme— Service Quality. Said Sushila Sharanghdhar, Consultant Dietician, PD Hinduja Hospital, "Every patient after discharge will always remember the kind of food available. In today's scenario, the role of a dietician is undermined and most of them are overworked considering the high patient to doctor ratio." She emphasised on the various healthy nutrients and stressed upon educating the patient. Under the same centralised theme of quality, A Ganesh, Head- Knowledge Management, Johnson Diverssey Knowledge Centre, spoke on 'Food Safety Management System'. " Ideally, food is safe or free from micro-organisms either below five degree Celsius or above 63 degree Celsius. Hence most systems need to maintain their food temperatures at these levels for safe consumption," he said.

The lecture that followed was focused on the theme Support Services outsourcing, wherein there was a panel discussion on 'Outsourcing: Quality V/s Cost.' Said Ankush Gupta, HR, PD Hinduja Hospital, "We do not believe in outsourcing and all our employees are on payroll. We feel that it would mean compromising on quality as the organisation that is outsourcing may not be aligned with the mission and vision of the hospital. Secondly, we may not even know their whereabouts and their functioning style."

The final session discussed current trends in support services like disaster management or recent advances in CSSD and management of medical equipment. In a nutshell, this one-day unique seminar highlighted the critical dimensions of support services, showcasing the recent trends and the emerging approaches towards support service management in hospitals, thus proposing ways to bring in innovation and creativity to the current practices.

EH News Bureau