Admin PO WINA

Administration and Management in Prosthetics and Orthotics
Name: Harashdeep Grover ID: 5718037
Prosthetics and Orthotics is a field or a healthcare service provider, which
works in a very systematical way due to having various procedures to follow.
It is a combination of the multidisciplinary team for all professionals who
have the ability to provide patients with a good quality of life. The work of a
prosthetist and orthotist requires management and administration, as it begins
with examining patient followed by assessing patient’s history, muscle
strength testing and evaluating range of motions. Manufacturing a prosthetic
leg or an orthotic device requires several procedures which include Casting,
Rectification, Fabrication, Fitting, Delivery and Follow up. Hospital
administration and management work diligently to regulate and control the
clinical operations inside a prosthetic/orthotic healthcare facility. Due to a
high demand of services in the prosthetic and orthotic department, the
services must meet the demands as much as possible.
During my third clinical experience at Veterans General Hospital, I was
able to notice the management system in this hospital, which is quite different
from the other hospitals leading to various advantages that benefit to the
services of the patients but also disadvantages that can be improved to
provide more efficiency. In this hospital the technicians and the certified
prosthetist/orthotist, both have the authority to assess, cast, fit and deliver
device to the patient. This can be seen in a positive way in terms of Effective
and Efficient management in human resources management system, which
focuses on the flexibility and mission more than the rules. Also using good
governance principles in terms of Equity, Effectiveness and Efficiency.
Similar to the concept of the Swiss Cheese Model, active failures or errors
are very likely to happen if the work is divided like the other hospitals, where
the CPOs only focus on the assessment, casting and fitting procedures. This
hospital avoids errors by one man specializing in one device, from the first
procedure until delivery (Division of Labor). This is called Risk
management. Patients can access their files and medical history as soon as
they walk-in (Timeliness).

They can directly contact the CPO or technician in the administration room
(Node 2) managing patients flow providing them with appropriate,
continuous and efficient services until the day of follow up. On the other
hand, it is against the code of Ethics, which results in lack of leadership in
this healthcare. A technician is not licensed to cast, assess, fit and deliver the
device to the patient, but only fabricate the device.
Furthermore, there were few more things that benefited the hospital, such
as keeping phones in every room for easy contact with every worker. This is
called Lean management, where quality aim is important so saving time
increases more efficiency by reducing motion. Motion includes extra effort
and movement in performing action. This hospital also has a storage unit
where they prevent over-processing, where there is no unnecessary
repetition of recounting instruments. This task is only done by one skillful
person in the storage unit. Due to having lean management, they improve the
delivery time, patients can come for fitting two to three days after casting
due to less wastage of time since the working environment is accelerating
momentum. New tools are being updated and used every now and then like
the fire alarm bell and lockers for keeping heating guns, to provide quality
and safety to the workers as well as the patients.
According to my opinion, every healthcare service whether it’s a private or
a public sector, will have Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and
Threats (SWOT). The strength of this hospital is Quality processes and
procedures is done by each person doing each device (specialization), patient
safety and quick services meeting up to patient’s demand. Opportunities of
this hospital include new instruments or tools used to provide faster service
such as casting a transfemoral amputee using an aluminum brim which helps
in quick casting and quick rectification. The weaknesses are lack of
managerial depth, lack of rules and ethics in terms of profession, lack of
safety for the workers in the gliding room. The threats are other hospitals
provide more advanced devices and components than this hospital.