What makes a good hospital (7 factors)?
A good hospital can be defined as one that provides high-quality medical care, prioritises patient safety and satisfaction, and engages with the local community.
Key points
- Quality of care
- Patient safety
- Accessibility
- Range of services and performance
- Patient experience
- Cost-effective
- Community engagement and communication.
Here is more on the 7 key factors that contribute to making a good hospital.
1. Quality of care
This can be hard to judge. A good hospital should have a reputation for providing high-quality medical care.
This includes having experienced and well-trained doctors, nurses, and other medical staff; using the latest medical technology and techniques – and following evidence-based medical practices.
A stable high quality hospital board with good relationships with all levels of staff is very important. Without that a collective mind and memory cannot develop.
2. Patient safety
Patients should feel safe and secure when they are in a hospital, which should be clean. A good hospital should have protocols in place to prevent medical errors, reduce the risk of infections, and ensure patient safety.
A ‘no blame’ culture is important; and staff should be encouraged to report medical errors. Emergency services should work normally at weekends and on bank holidays.
3. Accessibility
A good hospital should be easily accessible to patients, with convenient hours, good (green) transportation links, and ample parking (ideally free).
This is particularly important for patients with chronic conditions or mobility issues.
4. Range of services, and performance
A good hospital should offer a wide range of medical services, including emergency care, surgery, diagnostic tests, rehabilitation services – and a full range of specialist doctors.
This ensures that patients can receive comprehensive care in one location, without having to travel to different facilities – or wait for opinions from specialist doctors in other hospitals.
Performance
There should be short waiting times for all operations, procedures and investigations. All key NHS targets should be achieved.
A good hospital should provide a positive patient experience, with friendly and helpful staff, and clear communication with patients. Patients should feel that their needs and concerns are being listened to and addressed.
Complaints should be addressed swiftly and there should be an effective PALS service. Both should be seen as ‘good things’ as they can improve the care of a health professional.
6. Cost-effective
A good hospital should provide cost-effective care.
7. Community engagement, and communication (communication and communication)
A good hospital should engage with the local community and collaborate with other healthcare providers (e.g. GPs and other local hospitals) to improve the overall health of the population it serves.
Communication should be seamless with other healthcare providers using excellent information technology (IT). Most medical mistakes are due to poor communication.
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
It is always worth checking the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) grade of the hospital you are considering using – accepting that it is an overall grade that tells you little about a department within that hospital, or an individual doctor.
When the CQC inspects a hospital, it asks about five key domains: is it safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led? Interestingly excellent performance (as shown by KPI performance) is not a key domain. Nonetheless a grade of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ is hard to get, so means something.
Note. A stable executive team is vital to keeping the focus on all 7 factors above. If there are alot of people on the board with interim posts, it is not a good sign.
Summary
We have described what makes a good hospital using 7 factors to assess them. Overall, a good hospital provides high-quality medical care, prioritises patient safety and satisfaction, and engages with the local community – to promote better health outcomes. We hope you understand it better now.
Other resource
What makes a good hospital (CQC)
