Any business or organization, no matter its size, has many different parts in it. For a successful and productive business, all these parts must work in tandem with each other, else the organization is bound to fail. To ensure effective and efficient healthcare management, a wellness clinic or any healthcare organization must have a standard operating procedure or SOP.
SOPs include written instructions or steps that must be followed to complete specific processes or tasks across your organization. Through an ideal SOP, organizations can improve their quality of care and improve patient satisfaction. Further, we’ll go through the best practices to implement SOPs in healthcare.
What is Meant by Standard Operating Procedure?
In the field of health and medicine, standard operating procedures offer detailed instructions and clear steps to perform various tasks and business operations in an efficient and consistent manner. An SOP makes sure that the staff is uniform in execution, there is no miscommunication, and all regulatory standards are followed.
SOPs are more than just a simple procedural document, as they are a reference guide for solving problems, standardizing performance of functions, and ensuring patient safety in healthcare. They also feature steps to troubleshoot problems and handle unexpected emergencies. It is essential for a healthcare organization to have a clear-cut SOP.
Best Practices for Standard Operating Procedures in Healthcare
Coming up with an ideal SOP takes a lot of time and effort. You have to focus on all minor aspects of your healthcare services and organizational goals for this.
With a quality standard operating procedure, you can have a positive effect on your entire organization. The following best practices will help create or improve your healthcare organization’s SOP
Identify Critical & Important Processes
First of all you’ll have to think about and identify all the regular processes and tasks in your healthcare organization. Coordinate with the supervisors and managers to make a list of everything important that happens regularly.
Review this list to identify processes that affect productivity, profitability, and workflow the most. This will help you focus on what’s most important for your organization when drafting your SOP. You must start with processes with highest priority and proceed further.
Work With All Employees & Managers
Sometimes, the senior management is not properly aware of what happens at the frontlines of your organization. Ensure that managers and employees from all levels are involved in the creation and review of your healthcare firm’s standard operating procedure.
This approach will allow you to work on the needs of patients as well as staff, improving the overall quality of the SOP.
Document the SOP in Written Form
Come up with a template to include every single detail of your SOP. You’ll need many drafts to include all the different processes and tasks of the organization. The SOP must be documented in writing, and must have several copies for reviewing.
Also, before publishing the SOP, make sure every staff member goes through it, and checks it for completeness and accuracy.
Train Your Staff Accordingly
When you draft the SOP for your organization, it does not mean all employees will automatically start following it. It’s essential to make sure every member understands the new standard procedures, and are well-trained for implementing them.
Team members must understand the benefits and advantages of the SOP, and know how it improves the overall functioning of your healthcare organization.
Measure & Review the SOP Regularly
Once the new SOPs are implemented and the staff starts following them, you must establish a review process to ensure desired results. Check if the SOP is being implemented properly, and what its effects on the staff as well as patient care.
Place a measurement system to track results, and check whether the new processes are effective or not. Also, this review helps in adjusting and optimizing processes, as needed, for improvement.
Conclusion
To ensure operational efficiency, quality assurance, and enhanced patient safety, standard operating procedures are vital for every healthcare organization. If you are finding it hard to create or improve the SOP of your firm, you can look up to experienced healthcare executives like Carleesha Porter Delgardo for inspiration.
The quality of healthcare provided to patients should be your organization’s priority, and you can improve it through an ideal and effective standard operating procedure.