Improving Quality of Life: A Key Challenge for Hospitals Today
Hospitals aren’t just places where diseases are diagnosed and treated. At the core of every process is the care of patients who are physically and often psychologically vulnerable, and separated from the comfort of their families and daily lives. Quality of Life and well-being are essential to their recovery.
Today it’s critical for hospitals to guarantee excellent support services at the best price. When health care establishments know that essential facility services are well provided, they are better equipped to keep pace with maximum occupancy rates. And staff is free to focus on their highest priority – treating people. That’s why Sodexo has developed expertise in providing a comfortable and nurturing environment for patients, families and health care professionals.
4 Steps to Better Quality of Life for Patients
Support: A friendly welcome and help with orientation can reduce patient stress. Right from check-in, Sodexo’s human touch provides warm guidance to patients throughout the course of their care.
Comfort: Meals help improve patients’ well-being and aid speedy recovery. As the world’s largest private employer of dieticians, Sodexo offers a range of customized food options. Both menus and delivery modes are adapted to the nutritional requirements and preferences of patients.
Privacy and dignity: Hygiene, clean linen and minimal noises and odors are all vital to well-being. The patient’s belongings and privacy are worthy of respect. Sodexo has developed specific behavioral training after extensive health care research and observation. It focuses on understanding patient habits and vulnerabilities, instituting a culture of compassion and respect.
Safety: Attentiveness to air quality, temperature, and cleanliness is not only a mark of respect; it can also sharply reduce risk for vulnerable patients. Sodexo’s procedures for cleaning and disinfection adhere to the strictest standards in the industry.
3 Steps to Better Quality of Life for Loved Ones
Visits from loved ones – vital to patients’ well-being and morale – can play an essential role in recovery. Family members help take care of the patient and provide emotional support. When health care facilities are overly restrictive with visitors, or when – even inadvertently – they create an environment that discourages interaction, hospital walls can become barriers between patients and their families and friends.
Opening up health care facilities to the outside world means:
- Receiving, informing and guiding visitors with ease.
- Providing a welcoming environment so visits are enjoyable.
- Creating conditions for privacy so parents can play with their children, spouses spend time with each other, and families share a quiet moment in a friendly setting.
3 Steps to Better Quality of Life for Health Care Professionals
Finally, a hospital’s most important resource is its staff. Increasing staff satisfaction and reducing stress with a pleasant, thoughtfully structured working environment helps the hospital attract and retain the best talent in the industry.
For Sodexo, ensuring the Quality of Life of health care professionals means:
- Guaranteeing that functioning medical equipment is the right place at the right time.
- Using a single provider to integrate processes. This optimizes interaction, reduces time lost, and ensures clarity and accountability.
- Enhancing employee benefits and services to alleviate pressures that can affect work-life balance. Sodexo’s programs –expressly tailored health care professionals – improve motivation, enhance the attractiveness of hospitals, and help reduce employee turnover.
Putting Quality of Life at the heart of its processes is an excellent performance guarantee for health care facilities. And as the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, Sodexo can help you understand and care for the needs of every patient, family member and employee.