H IL LC RE ST P R I VAT E H O S P I TA L
Nurturing an environment of health and healing www.hillcresthospital.co.za
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Quality
Hillcrest Private Hospital is expanding its facilities with future development and sustainability in mind as 2016 shapes up to be every bit as challenging and rewarding as the past 12 months Writer: Matthew Staff • Project Manager: Eddie Clinton
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and Care four-pronged approach has reaped dividends for Hillcrest Private Hospital over the past 12 months as the ongoing development, diversification and expansion of the building’s facilities maintained, and even gathered further momentum. With key goals encompassing a revised recruitment drive, an enhancement in quality and a more structured leadership hierarchy, the Hospital’s improvements in 2015 have subsequently paved the way
for a new injection of targets in 2016, with continuous improvement a necessity, rather than a choice. “The main goals for 2015 were divided into four key areas,” explains Hospital Manager, Glenn de Villiers. “Firstly we wanted to recruit specialists to supplement or expand our service offering, and secondly we wanted to drive a holistic quality approach to nursing which ensured a positive patient experience.
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Hillcrest was recognised as a Discovery Health Top 20 Private Hospital in 2015
“Thirdly we wanted to ensure that, at a leadership level, we had the correct structure to enhance our vision of a quality service and lastly we wanted to grow our business for future development and sustainability. “In reviewing this, we have done well in the past 12 months, as we have added specialists and increased our service offering. We were rated by our Discovery patients as being in the top 20 hospitals in South Africa and we have restructured our nursing division by appointing two Deputy Nursing Managers to maintain our nursing standards to a growing patient base.” The Hospital continues to show yearon-year growth at double-digit levels in terms of patient volume, making this positive internal infrastructure development all the more pivotal, while additions to the offering including a new pre-admission clinic has further refined the service at hand. De Villiers adds: “National Renal Care has also opened up a 14 bed unit,
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We were rated by our patients as being in the top 20 hospitals in South Africa by Discovery and we have restructured our nursing division by appointing two Deputy Nursing Managers
Hillcrest’s four-pillar approach has resulted in a growing patient base
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which provides a holistic service to renal patients, while the establishment of the new nursing structure and expansion to the Neonatal ICU has focused our approach in driving quality and achieving better patient outcomes. “Due to the fact that the healthcare environment is competitive and it’s fairly easy to replicate buildings and equipment, our critical differentiating factor is in our supporting specialists and the level of quality and care that is provided to patients.”
T-Systems: delivering future healthcare solutions today Access to quality healthcare is essential to economic growth and stability, however, the South African healthcare sector faces a number of challenges including skills shortages, complex, disparate systems and inefficient manual processes. Information Technology (IT) can resolve many of these challenges, enabling more integrated, efficient back-end services, seamless flow of information and improved healthcare service delivery in a digitised environment. Future solutions today T-Systems South Africa is working to address the need for effective healthcare systems with their innovative healthcare solution based on SAP technology. The elements covered in the solution include patient administration, billing, clinical records and care with a single patient index; integration between hospitals and pharmacies to ensure accurate dispensing; stock and materials management for cost recovery from healthcare funders; employee self-help platforms that provide staff with access to information and processes; and operational insight based on real-time information, supporting better decision making. The offering also includes integration with third-party partners such as medical aids, banks and switching houses. There are at least three state of the art healthcare facilities in Kwazulu-Natal, leveraging the SAP Business All-in-One healthcare solution from T-Systems to provide world-class healthcare services to its patients. The result is a highly digitised healthcare facility with a fully integrated end-to-end patient lifecycle. Key business benefits include pervasive access to real-time information, enabling timely, fact-based decision-making, as well as enhanced management of variable costs and optimised admission processes. Furthermore, group reporting across hospitals provides deeper insight and visibility into the financial performance and operations of the business.
“Real-time billing, improved collaboration between the hospital, medical aids, radiology department, retail pharmacies and hospital entities enable faster financial month-end closures and optimised debtor days. In addition, employee satisfaction is improved through better access to information and enhanced internal communication. It boosts efficiencies and delivers cost savings,” says Johann Joubert, Sales Manager at T-Systems Africa. The 2016 T-Systems Healthcare vision “Building on the success of the T-Systems SAP Healthcare offering, we are constantly improving our solutions to create further incremental business value to Healthcare Professionals and enhance the patient experience,” says Peter Mills, Head of Systems Integration Sales at T-Systems South Africa. “T-Systems South Africa is evaluating global healthcare solutions for localisation to drive the early adoption of new technologies in the African market. These include accident and emergency resource management, mobility and personalised healthcare offerings. The organisation is also focusing on the integration between clinical and non-clinical systems such as wearable devices, as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) data integration to mobile applications and patient clinical records,” he adds. The 2016 T-Systems Healthcare vision is addressing the challenges faced by healthcare facilities today through a combination of technology, innovation, skills and experience, extending services in new, innovative ways to the African market.
T-Systems South Africa (Pty) Ltd International Business Gateway New Road, Midrand 1685 T +27 11 254 7400 www.t-systems.co.za
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Continuous education
The consequential commitment to continuous quality and care that is achieved is another key differentiator, and the Hospital has had to balance this dedication with its need to meet ever-growing capacity requirements with the future in mind. Occupancy has grown 14 percent year-on-year while theatre cases have also escalated by 20 percent over the same period. “These are all indications that the Hospital is showing good growth versus the previous year, despite the fact that new private hospitals have opened in 2015,” de Villiers notes. As a result, an improvement of facilities, as well as simply an expansion, has occurred with the quality of care still far more pivotal than the quantity of care services on offer. The Hospital Manager continues: “During 2015, the centralised management structure was dissolved and brought back to a hospital level, to allow for better patient interaction and coordination. “A number of suites were also refurbished to cater for the needs of practising specialists and new equipment was purchased for surgeons in theatre.” As with any business or establishment expansion, however, the challenge in not only adding to and improving the existing service, but integrating it into the traditional values, is never an easy one to overcome; and this has proven to be an especially prominent concern for Hillcrest amid the past year of progress. “One of the key challenges is to ensure that the hospital recruits the correct staff with the same attitude and ethos to quality and patient outcomes,” de Villiers affirms. “Hence, one of the key drivers is to make Hillcrest Private Hospital an employer of choice. “A number of initiatives have been launched during 2015 to ensure that management provides a positive environment for staff to work in.
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Paediatrics
Operating theatre equipped with state-of-the-art machinery
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These include our Employee Forum, Professional Nurses Forum, ‘Town Hall’ meetings, and our open door policy to all senior managers. “The Hospital has also embarked on an aggressive policy to ensure that continuous education is provided to staff, to ensure that their skills are upto-date with current trends.”
For the hospital, the key differentiators are our supporting doctors, the quality of the staff that we employ and the level of quality and service that we deliver to our patients
Positive outcomes
All-told, Hillcrest’s workforce has expanded by a sizable 11 percent over the past 12 months, and the Hospital’s commitment to personnel development is certainly not confined to the walls of the building either, as its corporate social responsibility facet evolves in equally prominent fashion. “For Hillcrest Private Hospital, it is important from a director and management perspective that we involve and participate in the community,” de Villiers explains. “During the past year, the Hospital has been involved in numerous projects, including: a Santa Shoe Box
Hillcrest is to continue building on its key differentiators to further improve the level of service delivered to patients
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Charity Christmas drive to provide clothing and stationery to rural underprivileged children; a Winter warmth drive, collecting clothing for the underprivileged; a breast cancer drive; the Sunflower fund – a bone marrow donor organisation – supporting their yearly bandana drive; and free community screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.” Close affinities with local schools to nurture the next generation of healthcare professionals also integrates smoothly into the Hospital’s overall ethos, which, unsurprisingly, places quality care at the centre of all
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Glenn de Villiers, Hospital Manager
initiatives and investments. “For the hospital, the key differentiators are our supporting doctors, the quality of the staff that we employ and the level of quality and service that we deliver to our patients,” de Villiers concludes. “The year of 2016 will be one of great change for Hillcrest, as the hospital gears itself for the development of a vascular theatre, provision of a catheterisation laboratory and the provision of more medical and surgical beds. “However the fundamental ethos of the business will continue to remain the same. A focus on delivery of quality care and positive outcomes for patients remains our top priority. “Linked to this is the need to ensure that, as a hospital, we are still responsive to the needs of our doctors that support the Hospital and to the needs of the community in which we operate.”
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HILLCREST PRIVATE HOSPITAL Hillcrest Private Hospital 471 Kassier Road Durban 3610 South Africa T: +27 31 768 8000 E: info@hillcresthospital.co.za
www.hillcresthospital.co.za