The importance of occupational health and well-being for protecting patients and staff in healthcare was discussed at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s (WCM-Q) Grand Rounds.
Peter Bohan, director, Occupational Health and Wellbeing at Sidra Medicine, explained how the rights and safety of patients and staff can be protected by healthcare institutions that implement effective plans. He also discussed the serious risks posed to the health and well-being of patients and staff by institutions that fail to create or properly follow such plans.
Bohan said, “In the healthcare sector, inadequate occupational health and well-being policies and processes can lead to serious illness or even death for patients. The well-being of medical and administrative staff can also be seriously impacted by poor policies or implementation. For these reasons it is really important to understand that well-being is not an add-on; it is an integral part of management, leadership and processes that must be constantly monitored and never underestimated.”
Bohan outlined the key elements of well-being as physical well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being, both at work and outside of work. To achieve these well-being indicators, Bohan said management must ‘buy into’ occupational health and well-being and champion the cause for the rest of the organisation.
Services must be aligned to deliver the model, there must be transparency and a willingness to acknowledge things that have gone wrong, and results must be meticulously measured, reported and analysed.
Bohan said, “Good leadership is extremely important. Staff need to be inspired in order to be engaged and when this happens performance across the institution is high and we see positive results in wellness of both staff and patients. We must also recognise that occupational health and well-being in organisations is a constant, not a one-off.”