The People Bulletin

One private hospital group found that a move away from the command and control style of management to a more commercial approach with devolution to individual hospitals has resulted in improved employee engagements – and profits.

Spire Healthcare, a £620m company and the second largest private hospital provider in the UK, had invested £500,000 in management development programmes which it believes has been directly influential in the 9.2% improvement  in its bottom line (£150m). 

Management training prorammes 

Two management training programmes were run in 2010. ‘Management Fundamentals’, piloted in 2009, aims to accelerate the performance of managers early on in their career and ‘Leadership Essentials’, launched this year, teaches experienced managers about inspiring leadership and how to lead a successful team to deliver strong business results. More than 100 managers attended in the first half of 2010. 

The group offers its own degree (BSc) programme. Modules are clinically based and relate to the clinical and business needs of the hospital – helping us introduce new ways of working and new services, while increasing the quality of our services to patients and consultants. Spire continues to offer National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) to enable staff to develop new skills and qualifications.

e-learning 

In addition, an e-learning  platform was launched in January to allow Spire staff to access online training modules, including child protection, infection control, protection of vulnerable adults and safe blood transfusion. By the end of June, 18,491 modules had been completed. 

All-round satisfaction 

Spire ran an employee engagement survey during September 2009 and 2010 among 5000 employees, and 70% of them voted the healthcare company ‘a great place to work’ compared with 62% one year earlier. More employees feel they have ownership and accountability for Spire’s business performance (increased by 29%). Patient research seemed to support the findings that staff attitudes were positive.  A poll conducted in October 2010 among 11,303 patients found that 90% rated the service from the hospitals ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ and 75% of patients said staff went out of their way to make a difference. 

In the past three years the decision-making has been decentralised to the individual directors of all 37 hospitals, enabling them to purchase equipment appropriate to local needs.  Ashley Sumner, head of clinical services and deputy hospital director at Spire Gatwick Park, had been on the leadership essentials training course and came up with a a new approach to staff management.  This involve the creation of a new business plan driven by the staff with each staff meeting allowing anyone to raise an issue they feel is important to the success of the hospital.  Sumner confirmed that complaints are down from 50 per quarter to less than nine and her staff are so motivated she has the right sort of problem now – her staff are so highly valued that “hospitals in the area are trying to poach them”.