Approaches to higher productivity in health care system

The prosperity of organisations is recognised as being dependent on their comparative productivity. Productivity expresses a relationship between outputs from a system and the inputs which go into this creation. Hospital activities have to be assessed. Results have to be evaluated. The medical and paramedical staff have to quantify procedure and assess them qualitatively in order to improve the standards of care. Assessment techniques already introduced in many hospitals have succeeded in reducing the number of antibiotics (and their cost) and the amount of blood used in certain operations and also cutting the wait for operations. As long as there is unused capability in the individual or the productive system, increases in productivity can be achieved without decline in quality. If one focuses on quality while holding speed constant, quality should improve, waste should be eliminated, and productivity should increase. This can happen as long as the individual, or group of individuals, is willing to exert effort and has the capacity to achieve the quality--productivity levels desired. It is the operations manager's task to provide the facilities, tools and desired (motivation) to do so.