Abstract

Protecting the dignity of the patient is a must for any hospital, both for compliance with the laws of the land and for preventing bad word-of-the-mouth. This fictitious case (based on generalized experience) discusses a crisis situation that emerges out of the violation of a patient’s dignity due to the action/inaction of paramedical/medical personnel in a tertiary care hospital that was well-known for providing service with a humane touch, and the role of the management systems and the Medical Director in crisis prevention and crisis management.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Dignity of the customer (patient) and the Consumer Protection Act
• Role of training, corporate culture, reward systems, and disciplinary action in ensuring service quality from medical and paramedical personnel
• and Role of corporate communications (internal and external) in crisis prevention as well as crisis management.

Keywords

Patient dignity, Medical and paramedical personnel, Service delivery, Service quality, Services marketing, Tertiary care hospital, Conflict resolution, Corporate communications, Crisis management, Control systems, Training, Human resource management policies, Disciplinary action, Corporate culture, Consumer Protection Act, Medical Director, Hospital administration, Chain of corporate hospitals