Needs Assessment for the Facility in Ambulatory Care Clinic

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Introduction

The project of redesigning the Ambulatory Care Clinic is developed to address the health care needs of the community members. The process of identifying the stakeholders’ needs can be discussed as rather challenging, but it is important to develop the project of redesigning the facility successfully. The effective needs assessment process directed to identifying the stakeholders’ needs should include a range of carefully administered stages in order to receive credible data and develop effective solutions. Thus, the process of identifying the stakeholders’ needs in relation to the project of redesigning the Ambulatory Care Clinic should be discussed as the extensive needs assessment process in relation to which it is necessary to focus on such aspects as the general approach to needs assessment, the needs of the facility and staff, the needs of the community, the other possible needs, the process of determining the needs to address, and the plan to address the major needs.

Needs Assessment as the Process to Identify Needs in Relation to Redesigning the Facility

To determine the areas of priority in relation to redesigning the Ambulatory Care Clinic, it is necessary to conduct an effective needs assessment. Thus, the needs assessment process includes such significant stages as the start-up planning stage during which the structure and organization of the needs assessment are developed and confirmed. At this stage, such stakeholders as the facility’s staff, administration, patients, and the whole community are determined (Petersen & Alexander, 2001, p. 34). Furthermore, the assessed needs are categorized in relation to their type to focus on material, spatial, ethical, and other needs.

The second stage of the conducted needs assessment process is the operational planning stage during which the persons responsible for administering the needs assessment are determined. The selected method to collect the necessary data is the interview and the use of the short questionnaires spread among the community’s members. It is also planned to identify the need indicators according to which the needs can be discussed as requiring to be addressed. The determined need indicators include the frequency of mentioning the need and the rationales for addressing the mentioned needs. During the third stage of the needs assessment process, it is necessary to focus on collecting the data with the help of conducting interviews with the facility’s staff and administration and spreading questionnaires among the community’s members as potential users of the clinic’s services.

The fourth stage is one of the most important stages in the process of assessing the needs, and it includes the analysis of the collected data. At this stage, all the data received with the help of interviews and questionnaires are reviewed and analyzed in order to prioritize needs according to the need indicators and determine the possible workable solutions to address the needs (Petersen & Alexander, 2001, p. 34-36). This stage provides the fundament for the further development of the project the realization of which can address the identified needs.

Needs of the Ambulatory Care Clinic’s Staff

The needs assessment forms and questionnaires for the facility’s staff include the questions on the number of staff members available per shift in the clinic, on the average number of patients served during a day, on the types of patients served daily, on the convenience of the existing rooms for the staff, on the convenience of the examination rooms and rooms for the patients (Guenther & Vittori, 2008, p. 54). It is found with the help of the needs assessment questionnaires that the staff of the Ambulatory Care Clinic requires redesigning the examination rooms and rooms for the personnel in order to receive more space to locate medical instruments, to perform medical procedures, and to rest. It is also noted that the number and size of the existing waiting rooms are not relevant to address the needs of the staff while working with the regular number of patients coming daily.

Needs of the Community

To address the needs of the community, it is necessary to refer to the community members as the potential patients and users of the clinic’s services and to analyze the community members’ answers to the questions proposed in the needs assessment forms. The identified community’s needs include the expanded territories of the ambulatory care center, the improved design of the waiting rooms and corridors in order to place more patients, the increased number of the rooms for ambulatory patients because the Ambulatory Care Clinic is the main health care center in the community which needs to address the needs of the hundreds of patients every day (Petersen & Alexander, 2001, p. 34-36).

The Other Needs to Address

The list of the other needs to address during the period of redesigning the Ambulatory Care Clinic includes the necessity to correlate the clinic’s design with the community’s urban design standards and to expand the parking territories according to the local regulations and norms (Porter, 2010, p. 102). The redesign of the clinic should also address the norms and standards associated with meeting the needs of people with disabilities.

The Process of Determining the Needs to Address

The process of determining the specific needs to address during the project’s realization is associated with the stage of the needs assessment process during which it is important to prioritize the needs according to their importance for the stakeholders and community. The needs to address are chosen to meet such criteria as an impact on all the stakeholders, the role for influencing the quality of the center’s care and services, and the role for influencing the patients’ state and needs (Petersen & Alexander, 2001, p. 41).

The Plan to Address the Major Needs

To address the major determining needs, it is important to develop the project of redesigning the Ambulatory Care Clinic center in order to improve the use of the space, improve the location aspects, and improve the design requirements. The proposed plan should include such stages as the phase of determining the persons responsible for realizing the project; the phase of analyzing the identified needs and the facility’s current design; the phase of determining the aspects to be changed, improved, and added; the phase of developing a new design to address the needs; the starting phase of re-building the facility; and the following redesign of the center according to the project’s plan (Petersen & Alexander, 2001, p. 34-36).

Conclusion

The stakeholders’ needs are the main indicators to decide about the necessity to redesign the Ambulatory Care Clinic according to the staff and community members’ expectations. To have the opportunity to address these needs, it is necessary to administer the complex needs assessment process which includes several stages during which the needs are prioritized, and the possible solutions to the identified issues are proposed to develop the further policies.

References

Guenther, R., & Vittori, G. (2008). Sustainable healthcare architecture. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Petersen, D., & Alexander, G. (2001). Needs assessment in public health: A practical guide for students and professionals. USA: Springer.

Porter, W. (2010). Preplanning for EMS. USA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

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