PACT - A Frame work for excellence
How do we rate the services of a hotel, a taxi, a bank, a gas agency or any other service provider? It might be in terms of the quality of their service or the value of what we paid for. Our repeated visits to a service provider even when there are other choices could be an indicator of their service quality. As providers of health care, hospitals do not differ in this matter.
Continuity of patients is important for the sustainability of a hospital. In their efforts to attract new patients hospitals tend to improvise on technology, infrastructure and services. In this process we are likely to ignore the existing patients. Retaining existing patients has a greater potential and is less expensive in comparison with attracting new patients.
It has been observed that most of the patient’s complaints highlight the failure in professionalism, accuracy, courtesy and timeliness(PACT). Who controls these parameters? Directly or indirectly these are controlled by the health care staff!
The ‘PACT frame work’ is a model intended to design and introduce systems in health care institutions to enable effectiveness in patient care services.
Professionalism: In this context, professionalism is ‘adhering to the best accepted practice of the industry in every function of a service area’. Professionalism brings a ‘system approach’ rather than an adhoc way of functioning. It demands SOPs(standard operating practices) at functional levels. Continuous improvements through feedback and professional updating are also evident in professionalism. Safety and confidentiality are closely associated with it.
Accuracy: Accuracy is error free functioning. Right judgements and right documentation result in accuracy. Accuracy is indicated by right diagnosis, appropriate tests, correct values and calculations.
Courtesy : Courtesy is the experience of a patient in the hospital in terms of politeness, respect, dignity and empathy.
Timeliness: Timeliness is the ability of the organization to value patient’s time and to provide services accordingly. This is the responsibility of every employee in the health care organization.
PACT Frame work process
First of all the organization should have a strong passion to improve the quality of its services. This should be reflected in their vision and mission statements.
In line with this, all departments should have objectives which can be achieved through their functions at the departmental level.
This is where ‘PACT’ comes in. Each function of the department should be tied with professionalism, accuracy, courtesy and timeliness as applicable. Few functions of the HR department are given as an example in Figure-1
Once the department functions are developed based on ‘PACT’, the effectiveness should be assessed periodically through appropriate measures such as:-
• Patient satisfaction survey/feedback
• Performance appraisal
• Exit interview with staff
• Staff satisfaction survey
• Suppliers feedback
• Time studies
• Medical and other types of audits
• Quality checks - internal and external
Based on the assessment if ‘PACT’ score is found low the following reinforcement measures can be adopted
• Training
• Motivation
• Close monitoring
• Developing accountability
This cycle should be an ongoing process as it focuses on the refining of staff and the systems leading towards the satisfaction of customers and eventually to excellence.
Ultimately, the patient determines the level of excellence of the hospital services. That’s probably why Gandhiji said "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so."
................................................................................................................................................................................
Sunny Kuruvilla,
Head - Administrative Services
Bangalore Baptist Hospital
How do we rate the services of a hotel, a taxi, a bank, a gas agency or any other service provider? It might be in terms of the quality of their service or the value of what we paid for. Our repeated visits to a service provider even when there are other choices could be an indicator of their service quality. As providers of health care, hospitals do not differ in this matter.
Continuity of patients is important for the sustainability of a hospital. In their efforts to attract new patients hospitals tend to improvise on technology, infrastructure and services. In this process we are likely to ignore the existing patients. Retaining existing patients has a greater potential and is less expensive in comparison with attracting new patients.
It has been observed that most of the patient’s complaints highlight the failure in professionalism, accuracy, courtesy and timeliness(PACT). Who controls these parameters? Directly or indirectly these are controlled by the health care staff!
The ‘PACT frame work’ is a model intended to design and introduce systems in health care institutions to enable effectiveness in patient care services.
Professionalism: In this context, professionalism is ‘adhering to the best accepted practice of the industry in every function of a service area’. Professionalism brings a ‘system approach’ rather than an adhoc way of functioning. It demands SOPs(standard operating practices) at functional levels. Continuous improvements through feedback and professional updating are also evident in professionalism. Safety and confidentiality are closely associated with it.
Accuracy: Accuracy is error free functioning. Right judgements and right documentation result in accuracy. Accuracy is indicated by right diagnosis, appropriate tests, correct values and calculations.
Courtesy : Courtesy is the experience of a patient in the hospital in terms of politeness, respect, dignity and empathy.
Timeliness: Timeliness is the ability of the organization to value patient’s time and to provide services accordingly. This is the responsibility of every employee in the health care organization.
PACT Frame work process
First of all the organization should have a strong passion to improve the quality of its services. This should be reflected in their vision and mission statements.
In line with this, all departments should have objectives which can be achieved through their functions at the departmental level.
This is where ‘PACT’ comes in. Each function of the department should be tied with professionalism, accuracy, courtesy and timeliness as applicable. Few functions of the HR department are given as an example in Figure-1
Once the department functions are developed based on ‘PACT’, the effectiveness should be assessed periodically through appropriate measures such as:-
• Patient satisfaction survey/feedback
• Performance appraisal
• Exit interview with staff
• Staff satisfaction survey
• Suppliers feedback
• Time studies
• Medical and other types of audits
• Quality checks - internal and external
Based on the assessment if ‘PACT’ score is found low the following reinforcement measures can be adopted
• Training
• Motivation
• Close monitoring
• Developing accountability
This cycle should be an ongoing process as it focuses on the refining of staff and the systems leading towards the satisfaction of customers and eventually to excellence.
Ultimately, the patient determines the level of excellence of the hospital services. That’s probably why Gandhiji said "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so."
................................................................................................................................................................................
Sunny Kuruvilla,
Head - Administrative Services
Bangalore Baptist Hospital