A hospital inpatient is a person who’s spending more than one night in a hospital. More often than not, hospitals try to hurry people out as quickly as possible, mainly because there isn’t enough bed space to have lots of people staying for long periods of time. Inpatients are typically people who are undergoing some kind of surgical procedure, although they can also be people who have been brought into the ER with life-threatening injuries and need time to cover.
Most people report that staying overnight in a hospital is very uncomfortable. This post will tell hospital managers how they can make the lives of inpatients more comfortable so that they find their experience more enjoyable.
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More Privacy
The main concern that a lot of inpatients have is that they feel as though they aren’t given enough privacy. Unfortunately, hospitals aren’t big enough anymore to cope with the huge influx of patients that they get, which means that it’s very difficult for them to give people their own private rooms. However, just because patients can’t have private rooms, that doesn’t mean that they can’t get privacy. Hospital managers can install a hospital curtain track to provide privacy to individual patients. Each bed can be flanked on all sides by a curtain, which can be closed to give them privacy.
Medication Times
Another way that you can make the inpatient experience less stressful is to ensure that staff administers medication on time, every time. A problem that a lot of people experience when they are spending time overnight in a hospital is staff giving them medication at incorrect times, usually late. While your staff is probably going to be very busy, giving patients medicine at incorrect times can disturb the patient’s schedule, since they might be waiting for their medication so that they can go to sleep or so that they can eat.
Dimming Lights
It’s very common for hospitals to have their corridor and ward lights left on overnight, which can be a real problem for people who are staying overnight and are trying to sleep. If you have ever stayed overnight in a hospital before, then this is likely something that you will be familiar with. Make sure that any wards that have patients staying in them have their lights turned off when it’s time for people to go to sleep so that they can get a good night’s rest.
Comfortable Bedding
Comfortable bedding is something that you need to ensure. Again, unfortunately, a lot of inpatients report that their hospital bedding is very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable bedding can make going to sleep very difficult. Sleeping in an unfamiliar place is difficult already, let alone when it’s a hospital. If your inpatients’ bedding isn’t comfortable, then they are probably going to struggle with going to sleep, which will make their lives unnecessarily difficult, and leave them feeling very unhappy with their time in your hospital.
Better Food
Hospital food is notoriously bad. The main reason for this is that it is very difficult for hospitals to provide high-quality food, since after all, they are not gourmet restaurants, but instead medical facilities. However, despite this, it is essential that you hire the highest-quality chefs that you can and ensure that they are given the best possible ingredients to cook with. If your inpatients aren’t given tasty and nutritious food, then their recovery could be delayed. Make sure that you carefully work out your menu also, so that your hospital’s patients are given meals that are going to provide them with all of the vitamins and nutrients that they need.
Polite Nurses
Another common thing that people who are staying overnight or for long periods in hospitals complain about is dealing with a nurse with bad manners. The lives of nurses can be very stressful, especially when you factor in everything that’s going on with COVID-19 at the moment. However, stress is not a valid justification for being rude to patients. Patients are the lifeblood of your hospital. If they stop coming because of the way that nurses treat them, then you won’t be able to keep your organization running. Make sure that the staff you have are properly trained and are very polite.
Sleep Masks
Even with the lights off and curtains drawn, it can still be very difficult to get a good night’s rest in a hospital. Because of this, you should give the patients that you have staying in your hospital complimentary sleep masks and earbuds. Providing them with these will help to ensure that they get the right amount of sleep. It will also ensure that they don’t go away groggy and complaining about lights being turned on or a lack of privacy. Sleep masks and earbuds are very affordable and can be bought in bulk.
Regular Cleaning
You need to make sure that your hospital is extensively cleaned on a daily basis. Germs and bacteria breed in abundance in hospitals. Superbugs like MRSA can be found in hospitals all over the world. It’s worth noting that MRSA is antibiotic-resistant, meaning that antibiotics can’t be used to treat it. As the manager of a hospital, it is absolutely essential that you regularly clean and maintain your hospital, so that you don’t give your patients anything to complain about. Regular cleaning isn’t at all difficult to ensure—just make sure your staff have access to non-abrasive cleaning chemicals so that patients don’t react to them badly.
Shower Time
Finally, ensure that each patient is given the opportunity to have a shower every day. While in the past people only showered once or twice a week, it’s now commonplace for people to shower on a daily basis. If you do not give people access to a shower, then they could complain. If you are understaffed, then appoint a single staff member the person responsible for ensuring patients have showers, and get them to go through each ward facilitating shower time.
Hospitals aren’t the nicest places to spend one’s time. If you are managing one, then employing the tips outlined here will help you to ensure that your hospital’s patients have as stress-free an experience staying in your hospital as possible.