Leadership for Improvement: The Kings Fund Seminar 22nd May 2012 – by Rebecca Minton, Clinical Leadership Fellow & Psychological Therapist

I had the privilege of attending a fantastic seminar hosted by The Kings Fund on ‘Leadership for Improvement.’ The event brought together 80 key names in the field of healthcare leadership and we heard talks from four experienced and inspiring leaders.





Maureen Bisognano, President and CEO for IHI presented three inspiring case studies where applying ‘improvement science’ led to better patient care and improved outcomes at a lower cost. One example: Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka model of care – designed with the Alaskan population at the heart – listening to their views, designing a system around their values and preferences, providing integrated health and social care, and focusing on wellbeing rather than disease. Can the NHS do more of this? And should ‘improvement science’ be included in clinical training? – the majority of the roundtable believed so. Maureen Bisognano said clinicians have two roles: clinical work and improving care. Would all clinicians agree? I do! The IHI holds R&D days where staff are given problems to solve in order to learn new ways to use improvement science – could the NHS adopt this too?






David Fillingham, CEO of AQuA, stated that successful leaders need technical know-how, improvement know-how, and personal effectiveness to achieve results, not hierarchical power. He also stressed the importance of having the time and headroom to develop these skills, and career opportunities structured for breadth, not just depth, gaining learning from elsewhere (the Diagnosis Intern Network perhaps!?)






Bettina Fitt, General Manager at GE Healthcare, talked about the open, collaborative, ‘we’ culture where staff engagement is key, leaders inspire and listen to their staff, and results from staff opinion surveys are used to drive performance.






Professor Richard Bohmer promoted the need for clinical leadership and emphasised that clinical leadership is: a) respectable and b) work - so needs to be valued (yeh!).






So key points to take away:





- Communicate purpose and model leadership behaviours
- Talk about tomorrow not today
- Focus on how problems can be prevented rather than solved
- Learn from the voices of patients
- Step outside the walls of the hospital
- Look outside and understand the real needs of the population
- Engage and listen to others
- Use improvement science (or learn it first!)


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It was very exciting to be in a room with so many great people and hear everyone speak so passionately about leadership. I feel very privileged to have had this opportunity to hear the knowledge and wisdom of respected healthcare leaders from across the world (thanks for the invite Emma!). It was great to hear that they want to encourage and learn from young emerging leaders and I’m now even more inspired in my role as a new clinical leader. Now I can’t wait to tell my cohort of clinical leadership fellows all about it!...