Healthcare Management: Systems Approach and Clinical Engineering

This report delves into the application of a systems approach within healthcare management, specifically focusing on the role of clinical engineers. It examines how a systems approach aids in assessing process changes, selecting appropriate solutions, and improving patient care, particularly in palliative care settings where medication delivery via syringe pumps is crucial. The report emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, highlighting the clinical engineer's role in working with various healthcare professionals to enhance organizational efficiency and patient outcomes. It addresses challenges such as patient transfer delays in emergency departments and the need for clinical engineers to maintain medical equipment and apply engineering skills to life science applications. The report underscores the necessity of continuous learning, ethical environments, and strong leadership to foster improvement within healthcare systems.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Response to question 1
Systems approach will assist the clinical engineers in the assessment of the various
process of changes thoroughly and will also guide the entire team to test and to select the
most appropriate solution (Hegarty et al. 2017).
As a clinical engineer I would like to work with other clinicians in order to improve
the clinical care process via the use of the systems approach. Palliative care is
multidisciplinary care process that is involved in the improvement of the quality of life and
their associated process who are suffering from life-threatening disease (Carayon et al. 2014).
When the oral administrations for such patients are not possible then the delivery of the
medicines take place subcutaneously. This means that the medicine are given via the syringe
pump. This process helps in the delivery of the diluted low-volume medicines over a defined
period of time that is usually over 24 hours. The systems approach emphasizes on the fact
that the organizations should change. Thus the clinical engineer should work together to
change the organization in order to improve the quality of care for the patients. In order to
change the organization it is important that the healthcare professionals understand the recent
condition of the organization and the future recommendations that will be required for the
management of the organization (Hegarty et al. 2017).
It is also important that the clinical engineer along with other allied healthcare
professionals should emphasizes on the learning and the improvement of the various process
in a supportive environment. This will be done under the strong leadership and the main
focus will be on the continuous improvement of care. In order to work with all the other staff
it is important that they maintain an ethical environment for the maintenance of harmony and
the improvement of quality of treatment for the patients (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013).

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The clinical engineers are the few groups in healthcare system who have
multidisciplinary relationship with the colleagues inside the system as well as the external
industry. Inside the organization the clinical engineers work with the managers, facilities,
clinicians, and finance. The external healthcare industry who work with the clinical engineers
involve the regulatory sector and the medical device sector. Thus their nature of working is
interdisciplinary (Hegarty et al. 2017). They can thus, enable all the other healthcare
professionals to come together for enabling the development for change. As these people
have the innate quality to apply a systems approach, thus they are in a privileged position and
they can work with the allied healthcare professionals. As the healthcare professionals have
the knowledge, ability and skill that can be applied to the healthcare system and in order to
bring the change the improvement demands the help from clinical leaders who are more close
to the clinical engineers. This will help in the application of the leadership qualities as well as
their expertise in the management of the healthcare organization (Dawson, King and
Grantham 2013).
Thus, the skills that are required to have a systems approach is the development of
communication skills that will help in the relay of the information with the interdisciplinary
team. This will help in the efficient working of the team as well as improve the patient
outcome.
Response to question 2
In this case study all the interdisciplinary team members are working together with
the main objective of delivering the medicines by the use of syringe pump delivery method.
In order to make the treatment process effective it should be made sure that that each and
every team members overcome the burden that is preventing the complete achievement of the
systems approach (Dawson, King and Grantham 2013). The major problem that is found in

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the team is the inability to transfer of the patient with the through the Emergency Department.
In order to maintain the correct flow of the patients through the Emergency department it is
important that the clinicians, clinical engineers and the other associated healthcare workers
work together in the process of delivering the quality of care to all the patients (Hegarty et al.
2017).
While there is transfer of the patients from the emergency department there are a
number of factors that has to be taken care which includes the distance of travel at the time of
transfer, arrival time at the second hospital and so on. The patients who are arriving by the
ambulance who arrive in the Emergency department experience a lot of delays. These delays
can create a very significant impact on the care of the patient and the use of the ambulance
services (Hegarty et al. 2017; Dawson, King and Grantham 2013). Thus the clinical engineers
should always try and be on time for the quick transfer of the patient. This will help on the
improvement of the quality for care for the patients. As the clinical engineers are always
concerned with the delivery of care and the maintenance of the medical equipment that
should be taken care at the time of transfer (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013).
This will help in the effective transfer of the patients from the Emergency department.
They should check the proper functioning of each of the equipment that will allow the
transfer to be smooth and easy. They should also enhance their knowledge and apply the
skills of engineering to the life science applications in order to achieve the clinical demands
of the patients as well as the doctors and the nurses (Glasgow et al. 2018). This can enhance
the quick transfer of the patients from the Emergency Department via the help of the
advanced biomedical technology (Kindermann et al. 2015).
This will also include the promotion of the new and safe use of the technological tools
in the treatment of the patient. Therefore the clinical engineers must take part in a number of

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educational activities that will help them to maintain a broad range of expertise (Hossain et
al. 2015; Sun and Qu 2015). This will help them to show their ability of leadership and will
also be able to demonstrate their ability to use and maintain the safe technological tool
system that can be used in the patient environment. This will help the entire team to get the
desired outcome (Hegarty et al. 2017).

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References
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