Hospital Concepts, Functions, and Planning
Concept and Definition of a Hospital
A hospital is an element of medical and social organization. Its function is to ensure full medical care, allowing for the healing of a given population. It also has external exercises that radiate to the family unit.
Three Objectives of a Hospital
- Provide assistance to the sick.
- Participate in general public health programs and community education.
- Contribute to the rehabilitation of patients.
Functions of a Hospital
To achieve its objectives, a hospital develops a set of functions, including:
- Restorative: Diagnosis in outpatient and interaction. Treatment of disease with curative, palliative, surgical, and specialized medical activities.
- Education: Medical student and postgraduate training of clinical specialists, general nursing, midwifery, and social assistance.
- Preventive: Supervision of pregnancy, normal delivery and cesarean section, contagious disease control, prevention of physical disability, and mental health education.
- Research: Physical, psychological, and social health and disease. Hospital activities (technical and administrative).
Hospital Classification
According to these parameters, a hospital may be classified by:
- Nature of assistance: General or specialized hospital.
- Capacity: Small, medium, or large hospital.
- Level of complexity and attention: Third or fourth level.
- Length of stay: Short or long stay.
Regional Hospital Pedro Juan Caballero Classification
- Nature of assistance: General.
- Property, maintenance, and control: Public hospital.
- Capacity: Intermediate.
- Teaching and Research Capacity: Fully approved.
- Patient stay: Short and medium basic level.
The Regional Hospital Pedro Juan Caballero is a level III hospital with additional units that match the specialized level IV.
Principles of a Modern Hospital
Three principles of the decalogue of a modern hospital:
- Physical and organic, well-planned by a competent hospital consultant.
- Facilities certified based on merit.
- Updates its methods and operating systems.
The hospital is responsible for health recovery.
A hospital’s mission is the recovery of health.
The competitive ability of a hospital depends on strategic planning.
Factors Determining Community Needs
- Supply
- Demand
- Expectations
- Trends
- Costs
- Requirements
- Morbidity
Characteristics of Epidemiology in a Health Service
Epidemiology is interested in stocks or groups of individuals. It measures phenomena, compares situations, and tries to establish the determinants and causal associations.
Concept of Hospital Planning
Hospital planning is the framework for health service planning that allows understanding and applying the process of planning programs and projects at the hospital.
Principles of Planning
- Feasibility: The process of providing elements for use and allocation.
- Consistency: Correspondence between policies, plans, and projects.
- Comprehensiveness: Taking into account all the activities required to achieve the objectives.
Golden Rules of Management
Know ranking priorities, and act accordingly.
Objectives of Hospital Planning
Develop a basic instrument for the administrative process, rationalize decisions, and use resources efficiently.
Advantages of Planning
- Streamlining of priorities.
- Facilitates the organization of activities and avoids duplication and the unexpected.
- Promotes monitoring and evaluation.
- Combined efforts provide maximum results.
Factors that limit planning provide benchmarks for monitoring and evaluation.
The process through which the systematic identification of problems and opportunities, and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization is performed, is called strategic planning.
In development planning, objectives, policies, and strategies for functional areas or units are set. Using technical and scientific information, the internal variables of the organization are analyzed.