The support team is another important unit that helps support the work of all units in the organization by working as one, working with the goal of providing the best care for patients at Thammasat University Hospital.
From the previous episode, we got to know the unit that is infiltrated in every unit, providing close support 24 hours a day. It is a job to take care of and provide services behind the scenes without having direct contact with people, but instead, it is in contact with tools and equipment. That unit is the medical equipment team.
Now we have reached the turn of the department that has collaborated with the medical equipment team as well, and it is the department that the medical equipment team has also secretly mentioned. The department that we will be going to see behind the scenes of their work now is the Planning and Finance Management Team. We will talk to Ms. Usanee Milapha, Director of Planning and Finance Management, Ms. Natthakrita Ontham, Acting Head of Finance, and Ms. Nongyao Silpkrapob, Head of Donation Unit, Thammasat University Hospital personnel who will take us to understand the work behind the scenes of this department.
“The team behind the frontline work of patient care.”
The Planning and Finance Management Team is a team that has sub-working into the Planning and Finance Management Team, which consists of finance, accounting, revenue, procurement, inventory and supplies registration, policy and planning, donation unit, and central delivery. Each team has different operations, but overall it is a mechanism for the hospital to operate in terms of proper administration and management.
“If a doctor needs it, we need it. If a patient needs it, we need it, 24 hours a day.”
Working now has completely changed. In the past, it would be working according to the plan, according to the policy, with a budget to support it. But when COVID-19 came in, everyone saw that they could not work according to the original policy. Patients are the most important and patients cannot wait. Medical equipment, medicines, everything must be managed to be sufficient and timely for patients and the needs of personnel in all units.
“The cost of treatment is increasing while hospital income is decreasing.”
What happened in the COVID-19 situation is that the hospital had to divide personnel and find volunteers to take care of COVID-19 patients and risk groups, which have very high treatment and care costs. In addition, it also requires a lot of human resources, tools, and equipment. At the same time, the income coming into the hospital has decreased because the hospital cannot provide services to treat patients as usual due to COVID-19.
How Finance Works
The main job of finance is to invoice medical bills and collect them as quickly as possible so that the money can be returned to the hospital system as soon as possible. However, the problem is that many external organizations have been affected by COVID-19, making it impossible to collect money as quickly as planned.
“Donation Unit: A New Role for Finance”
In the COVID-19 situation, finance has played a part in changing its role to help with donations. There will be a division of personnel to support the donation unit, dividing shifts to take responsibility and monitor various donation points. Most of the items donated by people include rice, ready-to-eat food, or money. This donation unit will be the center for sending donated items to the points that need them appropriately.
“The doctors and nurses took such good care of me that I feel like coming back to repay them.”
The donation unit told us that many patients or service recipients have come in to ask what the hospital needs or lacks so that they can donate the right amount. Most of them are patients, alumni, and people from the neighborhood. When they see this, they come in to ask for help. These things make the staff at the donation unit very grateful and proud. Part of the result is the good care from the frontline staff, which makes the patients who come in to receive services feel like giving back.
Where does the donated money go?
When a certain amount of money or items is raised, a spending plan will be developed and allocated according to the donor’s objectives. In the past, there have been purchases and constructions of items that are lacking or insufficient to provide services to COVID-19 patients. Finance will use some of the money as a reserve in case there is a need to improve, extend or procure more, such as adding negative pressure rooms for COVID-19 patients or ICU rooms, etc.
When a certain amount of money or items is raised, a spending plan will be developed and allocated according to the donor’s objectives. In the past, there have been purchases and constructions of items that are lacking or insufficient to provide services to COVID-19 patients. Finance will use some of the money as a reserve in case there is a need to improve, extend or procure more, such as adding negative pressure rooms for COVID-19 patients or ICU rooms, etc.
Financial and accounting specialist
The work he did was to submit medical expenses for the Comptroller General’s Department. In this part, he was concerned about how to submit the claim in order to bring the money back to the hospital in time. Fortunately, he saw that Thammasat University Hospital was the first field hospital, so he received great support from the Comptroller General’s Department, which made the claim submission on time.
“No staff has ever asked to work from home.”
Finance and accounting work is paperwork. Before COVID-19 hit, hospitals had a lot of financial documents because the hospital grew rapidly. But now those documents are gone, replaced by data entry and on-site documentation of patients who come in and out every day. Everyone works very hard, traveling to work with high risks. But they are still willing to travel to work at the hospital every day without anyone complaining or asking to work from home.
“We come to work with peace of mind and serve the people with willingness.”
This unit is the unit that must support frontline work, such as overtime work, payment of various compensations, purchase of materials, creditors, checking documents, checking various data. Therefore, this work cannot be done at home. In the hospital, there is a unit called IC, which is the unit that provides knowledge and teaches the correct methods of behavior for safety. If working outside, it may cause more concern because working in the hospital, everyone takes care and protects according to the advice of IC. Therefore, you can be confident that working at the hospital is safe.
Hospital response planning
Normally, the agency must prepare a financial contingency plan for the hospital when a crisis like COVID-19 occurs. It will estimate and plan whether the hospital’s money will be sufficient or not. Will the equipment and tools be sufficient for the needs of the hospital’s staff and patients? For example, the hospital uses 5,000 masks per day. It must plan how many masks should be stocked per month to be sufficient, both in the case of a decrease and an increase in patients, etc.
In the dire COVID-19 situation, what everyone showed the most clearly was their unity. Everyone was kind to each other, helped each other without any discrimination. Everyone was able to help each other with tasks that they had never been able to do before. Finance personnel went to help receive donations, take care of donors, and help with service work that was not the responsibility of finance. They volunteered to go by themselves. Some went to the vaccination center, set up registration points, asked for history, and even went to the screening point.
Conclusion
These things come from the heart, the heart that wants to help, wants to be a part of the fight against this terrible COVID-19 crisis. The support team, they work beyond their usual jobs by having to do their own work, but they never complain and are also willing to volunteer to help other units.
“They sacrifice and are proud of what they do, not for themselves, but for the organization, the country, the people. This is the core of Thammasat.”
The support team behind the scenes who have to work non-stop and without the word Work From Home | Thammasat University Hospital Work From Home |
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Recommended articles:
Medical Equipment Team, Treatment Support Technology, Thammasat University Hospital
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