More than 200 staff across IHH participated in the inaugural Operational Excellence Symposium themed “Path to Excellence”, aimed at developing a ground-up culture of continuous improvement in advancing healthcare management.
The event on 21 September, which formed part of the two-day IHH Quality Summit 2023, saw an array of speakers from diverse, non-healthcare organisations sharing valuable insights into how embracing continuous improvement principles can drive enhancements in patient satisfaction, process efficiency, and data analytics.
The symposium also highlighted how employee change management is crucial to the adoption of new digitalisation initiatives, noting that successful digitalisation requires the fusion of "hardware" (such as digital ordering and table service) and "heartware" (cultivating a culture of hospitality, evolving roles, and training).
Also important is streamlined data flows to better manage stakeholder relationships and navigate complex processes along the entire patient healthcare journey. The event explored strategies for developing an innovative organisational mindset to expedite operational improvements, anchored in the foundational use of data.
At the end of the day, what’s key to achieving consistent operational excellence is this: establishing a culture of continuous improvement at all organisational levels and implementing targeted Lean Six Sigma improvement initiatives.