Peter Bohan
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) now control around two-thirds of the NHS budget, influencing healthcare provider priorities and playing a key role in implementing the NHS plan. However, significant failures in healthcare have highlighted a dissonance between expressed values of leaders and everyday routine practices. This research explores the leadership behavior of Commissioners and the role it plays in determining quality and safety in healthcare. The research took a two phase approach: phase 1 used focused video ethnography to observe commissioners in a mock board room setting; phase 2 employed a quantitative questionnaire to determine the leadership behaviors that subordinates would expect their commissioners to adopt. The findings of this research identified that the leadership style most prevalent within the commissioners was transactional in nature. The questionnaire to subordinates of commissioners identified that transformational leadership had the best outcome on staff performance if this was linked to positive leadership style. In addition, commissioners appear to lack consistency when analyzing risks effectively and holding providers to account, citing issues such as â??professional driftâ?? and concerns over further scrutiny, as validation for this approach. This confusion of leadership behaviors, allied with poor analyze of risk leaves commissioners prone to repeating previous healthcare failures. The learning outcome of this research identifies the video-observation methods can be used in the field to evaluate leadership behavior, capturing naturalistic leadership actions. CCGs should establish the behaviors expected within the group and define how they can tease out poor or good decision making processes. Developing general techniques to determine risk tolerance, flow charts for action to be taken when risks are identified, and controls if not effectively implemented. Finally learning lessons from enquiries are focusing more on culture than targets and finance closing services that cannot run at safe staffing levels or provide safe clinical systems.
Email: bohan869@btinternet.com