In fact, it looks like the situation is getting worse with report of patients being housed in temporarily setup air-conditioned tents and corridors of wards. Patients at hospitals facing bed crunch are also sent to other hospitals with spare beds. Not only that, some patients waited up to 24 hours for an inpatient bed despite boosting capacity.
As a patient, this is a very unpleasant experience. Imagine you are suffering from some acute illness and need to be warded for medical treatment. Yet, you are made to wait for a bed. And when you get one, you end up at some place along the corridors with visitors walking in and out. I don't think anyone want others to see them looking haggard and in pain. You won't be able to rest well too.
So what caused the bed crunch?
If what was reported in the news is accurate, the problem has been around since 2008. Did the situation get worse this time? Or perhaps the situation has not improved at all after all these years.
Of course, hospitals do not run like a hotel where you know exactly the available capacity at any one time. Sometimes, a patient may be fit for discharge but the family members want to extend it for another day to monitor the situation. It's a decision the doctors have to make daily based on the patient's condition.
Mr Liak Teng Lit, head of Alexandra Health which runs Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, described the situation as abnormal as public hospitals usually experience a dip in patients during this period.
On the other hand, Dr Chia Shi-Lu, a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, said the crunch may be due to the holiday season rather than a spike in illness.
Immediately, there was a public uproar over his comment. Frankly speaking, is there anyone who rather choose to be admitted to the hospital during the holiday season than stay home?
But if you think about it, it may be true. Mr Liak explained how some patients refuse to be discharged because their families are on holiday, and there is no one at home to take care of them. So does it mean that this kind of thing happens every year during the holiday season?
And if this is not due to spike in illness, what really caused the bed crunch? Was it due to controllable or uncontrollable factors?
Will building more hospitals solve the problem?
And what can you learn from this?
1. Taken out of context
While what Dr Chia said may have some truth to it, but the way the message is put across is distorted and different from what the public perceived.
Most people do not read like how you write or listen to all you say. When you are crafting your message, you have to be careful not to let your message be taken out of context. You have to be very clear and precise about what you say.
2. Substantiate your statement with proof
Even with Mr Liak's explanation about how some patients refuse to be discharged, do you think the general public is going to believe him?
If you want to support your argument or point, support your comment with proof. Otherwise, it is just an opinion. If Dr Chia or Mr Liak are able to provide statistics of the comments they made, like exactly how many patients refused to be discharged and the various reasons, they would probably be more convincing.
In your message to your customers, provide as much proof and evidence as you can to support your comments.
3. Check your data
Do the hospitals have data about the kind of illness reported every month? Are there any trends from month to month? What about data for the holiday season over the past years?
If you have data, you can find out exactly the cause of the bed crunch. If it is due to certain reason not seen historically, probably there's no need to build more hospitals. If there is a trend, could there be other more effective measures to improve the situation, apart from building more hospitals?
Do you actively collect data about your customers? Careful analysis of the data can helps you uncover valuable information about your customers.
4. Look at the real reason
What is the real cause of the bed crunch? Is it really due to patients refusing to be discharged? Or is it due to the discharge procedure? Instead of speeding up the discharge procedure, can they revamp the whole accounting procedure instead? Is it due to people rushing to do their annual insurance covered check-up at the last minute?
In your business, you have to find out the real reason for your problem. You have to find out the real problem of your customers. Only then can you implement the most effective solution to solve the problem.