Choosing a hospital for effective treatment

 Choosing a healthcare facility is a stressful and daunting task. Many factors, like finances, traveling time, patient care, treatments and specialties offered by the hospital can affect this decision. It is necessary for a patient to know what to look for in order to be able to choose the best hospital suiting their requirements.

Making a list of the preferred hospitals in the area with some prior queries is definitely a good step. Not all hospitals offer the same treatments. Tallying the patient’s needs with the services rendered by the local hospitals will greatly reduce the time taken in deciding a hospital.

So, how does one choose a good hospital? The following pointers should be kept in mind to make a reasonable decision -

• The Hospital ratings – Generally, hospitals are given a rating by an authority, based on the parameters, like:
  • Patient experience: Patients rate the hospital on basis of factors, like ease of communication with doctors and nurses, pain management, surroundings and daily care.
  • Patient outcomes: These ratings provide information on how well the hospitals prevent bloodstream and surgical-site infections, and chances of a patient having to be readmitted to a hospital within 30 days of the initial discharge.
  • Hospital Practices: The two measures taken under this are the efficient use of electronic health records and the appropriate use of CT scanning facilities.
  • Safety scores: These scores give a summary of several key categories related to hospital safety, like avoiding infections and readmissions, information about new medications and discharge, appropriate use of CT scans, the ability to avoid serious complications and mortality rates.

• Availability of Medical Insurance – It is necessary to understand what your medical insurance plan covers in case of an emergency and whether a hospital accepts a certain plan or not. This will help avoid unwanted surprises with the hospital bills. Your insurance provider will help verify critical features of your plan and if possible, obtain this information in writing from your insurer to avoid disputes later on.

• Is the local hospital good enough – In the event of a serious disease, the first priority of most patients and their families is to look for a hospital offering the best treatment for the patient’s condition, even if it entails traveling. Such traveling comes with its own set of pros and cons – a rare condition may be treatable only at few institutes or a difficult procedure needs to be performed, for which the local doctors do not hold adequate skills. However, your medical insurance may not cover such charges as Health insurance rarely covers travel and lodging. Also check to see if these costs might be tax-deductible. You will also have to consider the prospect of being treated by a new set of doctors, and getting familiarized with them might be challenging at first.

• The Doctor’s credentials – If your insurance company approves a list of doctors, then ask your primary-care doctor to recommend a physician, especially for complicated or unusual ailments. Without a solid recommendation, it is wise to read up on the prospective doctors with the help of other resources.

Spending time in researching different aspects of a medical facility will assure the patient and his family that the treatment he is receiving is appropriate. If you are looking for the best Orthopaedic surgeon Mohali or even the best Orthopaedic surgeon Chandigarh then look for SGHS Hospital.