By Maung Maung Win

NOWADAYS, the world is more traumatized by the oppression of vari­ous diseases than ever before. The incidence and prevalence of these diseases are on the rise. These can be ascribed to changes in diet and lifestyle, poverty, malnutrition, climatic changes and more stressful situ­ations. In the event of a disease, the public goes to a hospital to seek a cure. When patients and their family members arrive at the hospital, public relations in the hospital commence. In this context, public relations mean a two-way communication process between the hospital and its in­ternal public (all hospital staff) and external public (patients, their families, their communi­ties, and social media, among others). This article focuses on how to improve the public relation between patients and hospital staff.

Hospital staff are obliged to deal with many patients every day. The Emergency De­partment and the Out-patient Department are two channels through which the hospital staff start their relations with the pa­tients. Therefore, the hospital needs to equip the staff posted in these departments with high social and organizational skills so that people will be willing to attend the hospital without any anxiety in case of a disease.

The Emergency Depart­ment is the best resort for se­riously ill patients and persons severely wounded due to acci­dents and disasters. Usually, the minds of patients arriving there are overtaxed with financial con­straints, social problems and psychological upset. Therefore, the staff should extend a warm welcome to these sorrow-strick­en patients with a sweet smile on their faces. They should not wear a stern face in the pres­ence of patients and their rela­tives. The staff on duty should be in their uniforms which can boost patients’ confidence in them. Moreover, the staff should be kind, courteous and helpful to patients. The staff should lis­ten to them attentively and deal with their inquiries politely. In addition, the staff should guide them in detail and treat them in an encouraging and consoling manner. The staff should always remember to say “Thank you” to every patient. This can prevent the patients from lodging com­plaints and creating conflicts. But, if a complaint or a con­flict occurs inevitably, the staff should curb his or her emotion, report the issue to the senior staff, find the root cause and negotiate to reach a solution.

In the outpatient depart­ment, the medical staff should examine the patients carefully, give them instructions to do nec­essary investigations and pre­scribe treatments for them. For the investigations to be done, the attendants of the patients rush to the laboratory and the Radiological Department and wait nervously for the results. For more convenience of the waiting patients there, wait­ing time should be minimized. Waiting facilities should be sup­plied adequately. Queue jumping should not be allowed. Waiting areas should be spacious and well-ventilated. There should be enough power and water supply. Clean toilets should be provided sufficiently.

For a patient to be admit­ted to a ward, the admission procedure should not be cum­bersome and over-processed. Unnecessary delay should be avoided. Prompt attention and effective care should be given to him or her. The staff assigned to the ward should respect the dignity of the patient and the confidentiality of the information about his or her disease. Privacy should be given to the patient if necessary. The ward should be furnished with all necessary physical facilities to solace the worried patients and their at­tendants.

During the hospital stay, the family members and rela­tives gather round the patient to encourage him or her. So, the need to satisfy the desire of the patient to see the family mem­bers and to limit the number of visitors should be balanced. However, enough guest hours should be allowed.

Blood requisition and blood transfusion processes are very important for a patient who is seriously ill and anaemic. The patient’s family members would not tolerate any delay in receiv­ing blood from the blood bank and transfusing blood into the patient. As blood transfusion is a life-saving procedure, all the staff concerned should try to understand and empathize with the patient and his or her family members. Therefore, they should concentrate their attention on doing a timely blood transfusion for the patient; oth­erwise, it could cost his or her life.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) should be fully provided with sociable and efficient staff and intensive care facilities. As a rule, only one attendant is al­lowed for a patient. But, if nec­essary, the number of attendants should be increased. The ICU staff should keep a close eye on the changing situations of the patient at all times and encour­age the attendants as well.

In the process of removing a dead body to the mortuary from a hospital ward, which is a most sensitive case, due respect should be shown to it. The mourning family members should be consoled with sympa­thy and empathy. The process should be done with the least disturbance to others in the ward. If there is a plan for an autopsy, it should be undertaken immediately after asking per­mission from a family member or a close relative.

In all dealings with the pa­tients, the hospital staff should be patient-centred. They should be free from bias and discrimi­nation in providing their servic­es. They should always practise optimism, harmony and under­standing towards the patients. They should explain to the patients about their diseases. At the same time, they should engage the patients in making decisions regarding their cases.

Today, a hospital is the haunt of the various media. The report­ers frequent the hospital to elicit the news of the hospital from the staff. So the hospital staff should take much care in dealing with the questions of the media and, at the same time, they should be on amicable terms with them. To be able to evade the traps laid by shrewd reporters, they should have problem-solving, diplomatic, discourse analytical and public presentation skills.

The hospital staff tend to work more energetically and actively in a happy and pleas­ant work environment. So, they should be motivated by giving in­centives of various forms. These should include good salaries, pay raises, cash rewards, the welfare of employees and their families, different kinds of leave, flexible scheduling, words or letters of appreciation for their perfor­mances and achievements, job transfer to a better position, job promotion and opportunities for further education. Only then, would they become motivated staff. The staff would motivate the patients. However, one im­portant point is that the admin­istrative team and heads of the wards should exercise just cul­ture but avoid blaming the staff.

In conclusion, it is observed that the public relation of a hospital depends much upon the efficiency, performance, and attitude of its staff and the physical facilities. Therefore, it is suggested that regular train­ing courses in public relations should be given to all the staff, that a sufficient amount of staff should be appointed, lest the staff would be overloaded with tasks, and that new generations of ef­ficient, industrious and dutiful staff should be recruited reg­ularly. Moreover, a public rela­tions management office should be opened and, at any rate, no stone should be left unturned in undertaking all the measures to improve public relations in the hospital. It is also aware that the motivated, satisfied staff can make the motivated, satisfied patients, that the mo­tivated, satisfied patients can find speedy recovery from their diseases and that, as a conse­quence, this hospital will be re­puted to be a prestigious one among the public. Therefore, this hospital would, undoubtedly, become their choice if the pa­tients, their family members and relatives are afflicted with a cer­tain disease. Hence, it is taken for granted that the promotion of public relations in a hospital can serve as an impetus to its development and good image.