Going to the hospital and getting some health care tends to be a lot more simplified and predictable than it was before. Efficiency as one of the four main components of Mcdonaldization plays an important role within hospitals and healthcare. Efficiency is the service offered to allow consumers to move quickly from one state to another. For instance, back in the days patients knew their doctors on personal levels and had family doctors, whereas, nowadays, the relationship between doctors and patients are less personal and more efficient. The existences of appointments have increased the efficiency, rather than having patients turn up randomly without previous appointments. Some times patients have to call ahead of time book appointments. Other times, they may need to book an additional appointment to follow up. In addition, the roles of nurses play another essential responsibility in making Hamad Hospital more efficient. They tend to examine the patient, while the patient is waiting for their appointment. Sometimes, they even provide preliminary diagnosis without having to see the doctor. They actually have a room for preliminary examinations.
In order to process patients in an efficient cooperation, Hamad Medical Corporation needs to endure quantification and calculation. Quantification is the numerical indicators that enable consumers to evaluate a service easily. In this situation, the numerical indicators are the health card ID numbers, files, and even the numbers you get as soon as you walk to the reception of the hospital. This is when the patients gets their waiting numbers before even getting to the receptionist and inform them that they’re attending. Then, the receptionist would get their file ready by searching for the health card ID number. Obviously, we could infer that Hamad Hospital is not only using quantification and calculation, but also a scientific management to administer the hospital. Scientific management is the attempt to analyze the work and to identify the most efficient way to accomplish the given task. In this case, Taylorism comes into play, where everyone in the hospital has a specific role. The receptionist get files ready and the numbering machine counts and manage the patients without having long ques.
Predictability, consistency, discipline, routine and order are the principles I noticed at Hamad Medical Corporation. Predictability is the expectation that a service will be the same no matter what. In this instance, the predictability I encountered and noticed at Hamad Hospital was that individuals had their specific role and everything was in order. For instance, if I were to be a patient, Id know how to get an appointment and see a doctor. I would first call for an appointment, attend on the day, get a number, go to the receptionist in order for them to get my file ready, wait in the waiting area, have them call out my name, complete any necessary preliminary examinations, see the doctor and get a diagnosis in regards to the situation, and later on, get a follow-up appointment if necessary.
Last, but not least, control plays an extremely vital role within the health care system. In a sociological sense, “control is the guiding or regulating, by planning out in detail, the production or delivery of a service or product,”(Joan Ferrante 2011). Doctors have the final say in our well being, especially at the Hamad Medical Corporation emergency section. They make the final decision in extreme situations, where they decide on whether which patient is more critical and in more desperate need than another. For instance, in worse case scenarios, the doctors decide on transplants, blood donations and even with life/death circumstances.
Efficiency, quantification, predictability and control are all four main driving forces behind Mcdonaldization. The simple process of Mcdonaldization has come to dominate other industries of the society. The sociologist George Ritzer invented the term Mcdonaldization and the sociological phenomenon of the rationalization of institutions and our society. But, this is not where it ends; the process could possibly be applied to every aspect of our lives, even with listening to music and shopping.
