Trends and Best Practices in “Best Hospitals” (Essay Sample)

Trends and Best Practices in “Best Hospitals”
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Trends and Best Practices in “Best Hospitals”
The Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit medical center focused on clinical practice and academic medical research. Currently, it is ranked as the number one hospital overall in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of top hospitals ("U.S. News & World Report ", 2018). Notably, the clinic has topped the Honors Roll of the U.S. top hospitals for three consecutive years by demonstrating high-level care and implementing the best practices in multiple areas such as operational excellence, information technology, and health care informatics.
In addition to diagnosing and treating medicine’s most complex patients, Mayo Clinic is renowned for its operational excellence. The hospital continually delivers to meet the organization’s target for productivity, costs, and other key performance indicators. According to Jeffrey Bolton, the clinic’s Chief Administrative Officer, Mayo Clinic is patient-centered, providing affordable and accessible medical care to all patients ("How the Mayo Clinic Built its Reputation," 2018). Bolton adds that teamwork is Mayo Clinic’s success secret. For instance, after diagnosis, patients meet with a team of specialists so that they can decide about treatment together. Moreover, the hospital is renowned for its timely referral process. Patients are matched to appropriate specialists as soon as they are diagnosed, eliminating the need to schedule for later appointments.
With regards to information technology, the clinic has implemented telemedicine to provide remote analysis and monitoring and electronic data storage. Through telemedicine, the clinic can transfer medical information, procedures, and examinations via telephone and the internet (Keshvari, Haddadpoor, Taheri, Nasri & Aghdak, 2014, p.321). According to Shahi, Sadoughi, and Ahmadi (2014), telemedicine improves patient care and reduces the cost of treatment by eliminating travel expenses for patients in remote areas (p. 200). Furthermore, Mayo Clinic uses IT to support the delivery of care by reducing repetition in data entry and collection (Jaana, Teitelbaum, & Roffey, 2014, p. 294). Overall, Mayo Clinic’s efficiency results from its dynamic IT strategic plan that gives patients and family access to patient records and balances service delivery needs through partnerships.
Moreover, the hospital is the first in the U.S. to implement comprehensive healthcare informatics by standardizing patients’ medical information from the first visit to the clinic. As a result, it is easier for the hospital to track and assess patients’ previous medical background for optimal medical care (Pliskie & Wallenfang, 2014, p.283). Furthermore, the hospital has adopted a geographical information system (GIS) to better understand their patients, demographic trends, and shifts in the utilization of healthcare. Through GIS modeling, the clinic obtains critical information about consumers from Census Bureau data. Consequently, the hospital manages to shape their marketing strategies to meet the healthcare service needs of different patients based on age, sex, or instance of disease (Pliskie & Wallenfang, 2014, p.283). Advanced healthcare informatics help the hospital coordinate multiple data sets, indicate areas of cost or service reduction, and avail information that aids in strategic business decisions that set Mayo Clinic apart from competitors.
Undoubtedly, Mayo Clinic has demonstrated that hospitals must be committed to operational excellence for affordable and accessible care. Additionally, healt