The Middle East is currently witnessing a growth in healthcare opportunities. According to the report from the US-UAE business council, the healthcare business in the UAE alone has grown from $17 billion in 2017 to $21.3 billion in 2021.

Starting your own hospital or clinic can be an exciting way to take the practice of medicine into your hands along with the freedom to control your business as you would be the owner of this venture. However, this can be very troublesome and challenging.

The inherent risk, upfront expenses, and difficulty in managing the administration may become a hurdle for your ambitious thoughts of having a successful business in the healthcare sector.



For a health care business to be successful, one needs to understand the variables and have a clear and detailed plan accordingly on how to implement it. Here comes the need for a standard to meet accordingly with your business and the expectations of your customers, which is SOP.

Indeed, anyone aspiring to start their healthcare business in the Middle East Countries like Saudi Arabia should not neglect the importance of Standard Operating Procedures.

Why develop SOPs: Standard Operating Procedures

The Standard Operating Procedures acts as a predominant factor when it comes to its increasing the efficiency and performance within an organization. SOPs are crucial documents and provide step-by-step instructions as to how employees within an organization must work about completing their tasks efficiently.

They help to obtain uniformity in the execution of a specific function. Where an SOP is in place, it is expected that the procedure would be followed as described by all the employees within the organization.



Well, the types of SOPs vary according to the type of business. For instance, a hospital or clinic requires SOP to run efficiently, however, an important question arises here is what should be mentioned in the SOP for hospitals or how to make SOP’s of hospitals? For hospitals and clinics, SOPs serve as a specific set of practices that has to be followed when certain circumstances arise and thus all such circumstances need to be mentioned in the SOP document.

For example, emergency room doctors should have SOPs for patients who are in an unconscious state; nurses to have SOP for OPD for the forceps and swabs that they hand over to the operating surgeons; and laboratory staff to have SOPs for managing, testing, and consequently discarding body fluids collected from patients. Similarly, different SOPs are required for a trauma team, staff nurse, paramedics, logistics department, communication department, and transport services, etc.

Another key department that requires well-managed SOPs is the medical billing and insurance department or in other terms, we can say that an SOP for hospital administration is very crucial. To put it out simply, developing standard operating procedures for hospitals in the context of clinical trials, either with regard to the functioning of ethics committees or with regard to screening, consenting, assessing, and treating patients across the course of the clinical trial is very important.

An introduction of SOPs into routine clinical practice, not for some patients, but for every patient in everyday clinical care is something that should not be overlooked. For instance, how often in routine practice do we ask patients about their complete medical history or any preventions that they may have adopted? Does the clinic record these details? Chances are that such information is not regularly obtained for every patient.

In reality, this information should be sought and recorded at every consultation (whether initial or follow-up) with every patient. If SOP hospitals are available mentioning that these details are important, it is less likely to be ignored.

Besides this, an SOP for disaster management in hospital, SOP for hospital pharmacy, SOP for emergency department in hospital, SOP for the front office in hospital are some other important areas or departments that should be taken into account. Also, in these recent times of pandemic, online counselling, appointments, prescriptions are several factors that need well planned and functioned SOPs.

How SOPs can help Hospitals & Clinics

The Standard Operations and Procedures can help the hospital or a clinic overcome many challenges that the healthcare businesses face in the market, such as marketing the clinic and hospital’s name, a well-managed administration of the hospital staff, inter-department communications and logistics, emergency department, medical billing and payments service, accounts and insurance policies partner or ethical issues. For this, the first step is to ensure the meeting of the board or members depending on the model and scale of the business.

Next is to ensure that a well-documented protocol for each and every department related to the business is defined after the meeting.



SOPs offer a lot of advantages for any business venture and healthcare is no different. For instance, when it comes to ensuring 24*7 maternity and emergency service or the creation of a rapid response team, SOP for clinics or hospitals could be a lifesaver for the respective manager or managing committee.

Staff monitoring, staff absenteeism, the backup plan for staff shortage, a clear staff sick leave policy, making the staff feel safe by providing justified insurance cover, ensuring shift rotation and self-care for clinical staff also require SOP for hospital housekeeping.

Also, in times of COVID-19, it is really essential to have a well-planned documentation process as hospitals are overcrowded with patients and the staff has to do overtime in keeping the mind the moral duty of their profession. All these tasks can function well only if all the representatives of the above department are well-trained and documented with SOPs.

Coming to logistics, managing additional beds inwards or cots in corridors, lobby or extra space, keeping a check on additional stock fuel, dressing materials and adequacy of medical equipment could be kept in check if proper SOPs are documented. A good managed SOP can also ensure properly timed blood donation camps and adequate blood supply along with a contingency mechanism for collection and disposal of human and biomedical waste.

An SOP is a must for prompt interdepartmental communication, for contact with nearby authorities according to the demographics of the hospital and for an efficient transport service with a 24*7 ambulance service. This department especially has to work smoothly in order to run your healthcare business successfully.

To say it all, with SOPs in place, it is easier to keep track of all the front office information and operations of the healthcare business. Establishing policies, implementing procedures and compliance documentation could smoothen the machinery of the health care business and this is impossible without SOPs.

Why YRC to define “Standard Operating Procedures”

At YRC, we understand that Standard Operating Procedures are very crucial and essential documents, especially for the healthcare and pharma industry. Hospitals and clinics need a very high level of operational excellence and very controlled management to ensure that the best care quality is offered to the patients.

YRC offers SOPs for every aspect associated with your healthcare business so that your business can be more organized and perform well in their area of business. As we completely understand, the healthcare industry is a progressive one and requires a great deal of management and services.



The process specialist at YRC will help you strategize everything related to SOPs that a hospital or clinic business needs. At YRC, we believe that an SOP for clinics and hospitals is definitely the need of the hour.

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