“This is a normal practice in the service sector. Patients seek help from hospitals and therefore the proper attention should be given to them as they are the hospital’s client.
“Even if the medical bills are expensive, some might not think that is a big problem, therefore they will return to more treatments in the future if the first encounter is a memorable one,” said Johari.
Currently, there are many private hospitals in Kuching that have their own standards of services to their patients.
“Expenses aside, any hospital that would be able to satisfy the needs of their patients and treat them with care will gain their trust and of course their investment,” said Johari.
Meanwhile, 20 staff of Normah Medical Specialist Centre (NMSC) received the NMSC Quality Service in the aforesaid ceremony graced by the Chief Minister.
They each received RM500 alongside certificates for their services to the hospital.
Also present was the Chief Executive Officer of NMSC, Dato’ Dr. Au Yong Kien Hoe who earlier in his speech said that healthcare must be done by focusing on the interest of the patients rather than making money.
He said that if such focus is practised in the healthcare industry especially on hospital operations, many would suffer.
“Hence, NMSC has decided to take control of the entire operation of the hospital from its ‘traditional practice’ as a private hospital in 2003.
“Private hospitals would generally appoint doctors through contracts to manage and run its clinic and from there on, revenue are made for both the doctor and the hospital.
“But due to this, different patients who go to different doctors will receive different treatments from the same doctor. The old practice seemed obsolete and no longer relevant to cater to the needs of the people of today.
“Therefore, we need to set a standard on operations, medicines, treatments and so on. Hence, NMSC has adopted standards that have been set by the Joint Commission International (JCI) and the Malaysians Society for Quality Hospital (MSQH),” said Au in his speech.
He then continued by pointing out that JCI has 14 standard points which comprises about 1,300 measurable elements. Hence, adopting these standards would mean that every operation in the hospital can be measured and audited to know whether the implementation is correct.
“For example, from the moment a patient arrives in the hospital, a nurse must get the patient for registration and attend them until they have completed their treatment in the hospital.
“Here, there are redundancies whereby from one officer to one officer, ensuring the correct patient is treated and to attend his or her safety is the main concern. Safety can be measured through many elements such as physical, through medications, during surgeries and so on.
“And to add on, each time before a surgery is performed, every single one of involved officer, (anesthetist, nurse, the patients, surgeon, doctors and others.) will be having a ‘time-out’ session in the surgery hall to brief and inform especially the patient on the upcoming surgery he or she is about to undergo.
“This practice is done in many hospitals in developed countries such as the United States of America (USA). The main objective of this practice is to prevent errors from occuring,” said Au.
He also added that the Association of Private Hospital Malaysia is also active in engaging law practitioners and often hold conferences in Kuala Lumpur on errors that are made by doctors or hospitals where patients received wrong treatments.
At the same time, Au pointed out that a holistic approach is needed to care for not only the patients but their family members as well as they are too under emotional distress.
“Providing compassion is also one of the practices in NMSC. We do not want to treat patients only to create more problems just like a case of patient who wanted to sell their house in order to pay for the medical bills,” he said.
Au said that NMSC first adopted the JCI standards nine years ago and many doctors were unhappy as it will affect their independence carrying out their work.
To address this, we informed that the reason JCI standards were adopted was to increase the service quality of the hospital as Malaysian doctors come from different medical backgrounds such as India and Russia.
“Hence, we are proud to be of service to many visitors coming to NMSC every year as we receive about 120,000 visitors annually,” he pointed out.
