Hospitals should reflect the needs and values of the communities in and around them, while also being resilient and able to maintain and scale up services in emergency situations. Effective hospitals are designed for their users, with attention to the needs of special populations, such as children and the elderly. A well-designed hospital environment maximizes the effectiveness of clinical care delivery and enhances the well-being of patients and hospital staff.
Adequate and reliable infrastructure, technologies and supplies form the backbone of the hospital. Key infrastructure (such as well-planned spaces, water and energy, telecommunications) must support daily functioning, and be designed with redundancy to ensure continued safe and effective operation, even during a disaster or crisis. Appropriate and good quality medical and ICT technologies and supplies should be available for specialized health workforce to meet the population needs.
Hospital functions and organization vary according to health-care delivery organizations and each hospital’s unique position in the system. Good management structures ensure coordination among staff, services, infrastructure and supply chains to deliver high-quality care. Clinical registries and structured data audits facilitate rapid identification of high-yield areas for improvement. Regular monitoring of service quality with targeted intervention to address gaps drives ongoing improvement
Hospitals
Hospitals complement and amplify the effectiveness of many other parts of the health system, providing continuous availability of services for acute and complex conditions. They concentrate scarce resources within well-planned referral networks to respond efficiently to population health needs. They are an essential element of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and will be critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
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