Organization Structure of Hospital, Medical staff: Pharmacy Practice Notes
The organization of modern-day hospitals is a complex network of committees, departments, personnel, and services. The hospitals are not only caring, people-oriented institutions but also many-faceted, high-tech businesses. They operate like other large businesses constantly concerned about their bottom line and have a hierarchy of personnel and channels of authority. However, the number of administrative personnel depends on the hospital’s size.
The organization of hospitals includes the following:
- Administrative staff,
- Medical staff,
- Associated medical services, and
- Supportive paramedical services and staff.
Administrative Staff
The administrative services of a hospital are controlled by a chief executive officer or president. They have day-to-day responsibility for handling all the hospital businesses. He or she is the highest-ranking administrative officer who manages all the administrative departments associated with financial operations, public relations, and personnel. In
many large hospitals, a chief operating officer manages the activities of certain departments, and a chief financial officer guides the financial activities of the hospital. These key administrative officers are corporate vice presidents of the hospital.
The huge number of employees and the extensive collection of individual skills needed to staff a hospital calls for a personnel or human resources department with specialized labor expertise. This department is also headed by a vice president for human resources. Nursing is a great component of the hospital’s service operations, thus larger facilities also have a chief nursing executive at the vice president level.
Medical Staff
Each hospital should have a medical staff with the aim to provide medical care to the patients as per the ethical conduct and professional practices of their membership. The structure of medical staff is different in every hospital.
Following are the divisions of medical staff in large hospitals:
- Residential Medical Staff: These staff members remain available for 24 hours to attend to the patients. They are also responsible for organizational and administrative duties.
- Associate Medical Staff: These staff members include the physicians allotted to different services similar to the members of the active medical staff. These can be progressive as the residential medical staff.
- Consulting Medical Staff: These staff members include medical physicians of known professional ability.
- Honorary Medical Staff: These staff members are like the part-time consulting medical staff. These members are retired physicians or physicians possessing a clinic and providing nominal facilities to the hospital.
Associated medical services
Medicine Division:
i) Internal medicine, ii) Cardiology,
iii) Gastroenterology, iv) Nephrology,
v) Pulmonary diseases, vi) Psychiatry and neurology,
vii) Infectious diseases, viii) Allergy,
ix) Skin and venereal diseases, x) Endocrinology,
xi) Geriatrics, xii) Immunology, and
xiii) Paediatrics.
Surgery Division:
i) General surgery, ii) Obstetrics and gynecology,
iii) Orthopaedic surgery, iv) Ophthalmology,
v) Otolaryngology, vi) Dental and oral surgery,
vii) Nephrology, viii) Neurological surgery,
ix) Cardiothoracic surgery, x) Plastic surgery, and
xi) Anaesthetics.
Radiology: It is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnostic and therapeutic application of radiant energy in the form of roentgen X-rays and radium. The radiology department is headed by an M.D., who provides services on receiving a written order by a member of the medical staff.
Radium or sealed radioactive sources can be therapeutically used by those physicians who have been given permission in consultation with the radiologist and/or radiation safety committee. Radioactive substances should be handled by appropriately trained and experienced personnel. This department includes physicians trained as radiologists, physicists, technicians, radiotherapists, isotope -pharmacists, nurses, assistants, and secretarial persons.
Modern radiology departments also have facilities for sonography, Computer-aided Tomography (CT) scanning, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image), etc.
Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry Services: These services provide the facility of collecting samples of blood, urine, sputum, feces, etc., in order to detect the presence of pathogenic infection or abnormality in biochemical parameters such as sugar, urea, etc. The related processes are done as per the instructions of the physician, surgeon, etc. A medical person qualified in the branch of pathology or medicine is appointed as the head of these services.
Blood Bank: This service provides a facility for collecting, processing, and supplying blood and its products (blood plasma, etc.). A blood bank is a store or a bank of blood and its components collected (from blood donations), s stored, and preserved to be used later in blood transfusion.
Final Year B Pharm Notes, Syllabus, Books, PDF Subjectwise/Topicwise
Suggested readings
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Pertussis Vaccine: Why It’s Essential for Preventing Whooping Cough
Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSPE): Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
Trump Halts HIV Drug Distribution to Poor Countries: What It Means for Global Health
