TY - JOUR
T1 - Leadership and transformational change in healthcare organisations
T2 - A qualitative analysis of the North East Transformation System
AU - Erskine, Jonathan
AU - Hunter, David J.
AU - Small, Adrian
AU - Hicks, Chris
AU - McGovern, Tom
AU - Lugsden, Ed
AU - Whitty, Paula
AU - Steen, Nick
AU - Eccles, Martin Paul
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - The research project 'An Evaluation of Transformational Change in NHS North East' examines the progress and success of National Health Service (NHS) organisations in north east England in implementing and embedding the North East Transformation System (NETS), a region-wide programme to improve healthcare quality and safety, and to reduce waste, using a combination of Vision, Compact, and Lean-based Method. This paper concentrates on findings concerning the role of leadership in enabling tranformational change, based on semi-structured interviews with a mix of senior NHS managers and quality improvement staff in 14 study sites. Most interviewees felt that implementing the NETS requires committed, stable leadership, attention to team-building across disciplines and leadership development at many levels. We conclude that without senior leader commitment to continuous improvement over a long time scale and serious efforts to distribute leadership tasks to all levels, healthcare organisations are less likely to achieve positive changes in managerial-clinical relations, sustainable improvements to organisational culture and, ultimately, the region-wide step change in quality, safety and efficiency that the NETS was designed to deliver.
AB - The research project 'An Evaluation of Transformational Change in NHS North East' examines the progress and success of National Health Service (NHS) organisations in north east England in implementing and embedding the North East Transformation System (NETS), a region-wide programme to improve healthcare quality and safety, and to reduce waste, using a combination of Vision, Compact, and Lean-based Method. This paper concentrates on findings concerning the role of leadership in enabling tranformational change, based on semi-structured interviews with a mix of senior NHS managers and quality improvement staff in 14 study sites. Most interviewees felt that implementing the NETS requires committed, stable leadership, attention to team-building across disciplines and leadership development at many levels. We conclude that without senior leader commitment to continuous improvement over a long time scale and serious efforts to distribute leadership tasks to all levels, healthcare organisations are less likely to achieve positive changes in managerial-clinical relations, sustainable improvements to organisational culture and, ultimately, the region-wide step change in quality, safety and efficiency that the NETS was designed to deliver.
KW - Leadership
KW - Lean thinking
KW - NHS reorganisation
KW - Quality improvement
KW - Transformational change
U2 - 10.1177/0951484813481589
DO - 10.1177/0951484813481589
M3 - Article
C2 - 25594999
AN - SCOPUS:84890182070
SN - 0951-4848
VL - 26
SP - 29
EP - 37
JO - Health Services Management Research
JF - Health Services Management Research
IS - 1
ER -