Challenging the status quo of uncomplimentary worker attitude and pushing the frontiers of transformational leadership could be the best attempt at describing the wind of change at the Ashanti Region’s only Tertiary Referral health Facility.
Besides playing a pivotal role serving the middle and northern belt of Ghana; the hospital has become the preferred medical facility for patients in Ghana’s Neighboring countries requiring specialist care.
Several commendations and positive reviews from patients, staff, partners and users of the hospital continue to pour in under the notable leadership of the fairly new CEO of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Prof. Dr. Dr. Otchere Addai Mensah.
In the past six months of taking office after his nomination from the President H.E. Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo – Addo, Prof. Dr Otchere Addai Mensah’s vision to enhance the hospital’s image among the league of leading facilities in healthcare, research and specialist care; has culminated into a number of milestones worth summarizing.
1. Supervision is now topnotch with a renewed charge on managers to maintain physical presence at all operational areas through constant visits.
2. The hospital has successfully instituted Directors’ weekend and holiday duty roster to ensure executive presence and supervision at all times at the hospital.
3. To reduce avoidable service interruptions, the hospital’s payment systems have been streamlined and sanitized to avoid delays in payments for essential supplies and services.
4. Prompt and timely service delivery is now a Key Performance Indicator with the enforcement of timely commencement of clinical services in all Consulting Rooms.
5. The convenience of patients through digitalization has been prioritized as KATH goes cash-light with the full commencement of payment of hospital bills by Mobile Money and POS for the first time in the history of the hospital.
6. Prof. Dr. Dr. Addai Mensah has spelt a new dawn leveraging private partnerships through an aggressive drive to mobilize private sector resources to improve the logistical and infrastructural base of the hospital.
The hospital is currently undergoing a facelift as Neuce Paints Company and other companies have offerd to provide painting materials for beautification projects at the Doctors’ Flats, ENT Block, Kitchen/Canteen and Laundry blocks.
7. Human Resource efficiency and effectiveness is on a high pedestal with strict enforcement of discipline among the rank and file of members of staff resulting in a number of suspensions of staff including senior doctors.
8. The CEO has kept to his word to operate an open door, all-encompassing inclusive administration by instituting a quarterly meeting with all union executives, directorate teams, management teams and other stakeholders. Staff of the hospital have hailed this move as the best way to improve management-staff relations and exchange of information and ideas.
9. Operational efficiency has been beefed up with the introduction of courier services for refill medicines for chronic but stable patients in partnership with the Ghana Post.
10. Staff might not be aware whom they might be serving. The Management now have an independent system of monitoring with an improved mechanism for facilitating feedback from patients. Mystery clients are periodically deployed to proactively determine, review and enhance quality of care at the hospital.
11. Enhance staff motivation packages through an increase in the levels of allowances by up to 50 percent. Staff end of year get together allowance has for instance moved from Ghc200.00 to Ghc250.00. Heads of Directorates allowance increased from Ghc1, 000.00 per month to Ghc1, 500.00.
12. Staff welfare has also received considerable attention under Prof. Dr. Addai Mensah. The staff medical package has been reviewed upward from Ghc3, 000 a year per staff to Ghc4, 000, the first upward review of the package in 11 years.
13. The management has shown tremendous support for a “No Business As Usual” policy where no ‘Nos’ and excuses are permitted for execution of tasks. There is deliberate and constant application of positive pressure on directors and key line managers with the insistence on strictly meeting deadlines for the delivery of services.
14. To support staff ward off distractions and to curb the long held complaints of negligence, access to YouTube and other social media platforms have been blocked on all hospital computer systems.
15. Strengthened and empowered the Quality Assurance Unit to prioritize quality of care issues, patients’ feedback and system improvements at the hospital.
16. As part of the drive to elevate the quality of clinical services to patients, the hospital has completed the appointment of a Deputy Medical Director to oversee clinical operations at the hospital.
17. Prof. Otchere Addai Mensah sustains advocacy for better patient care and observation of their rights as part of his vision to build KATH into a world class facility that prides itself as a compassionate care giver.
18. As a long standing academic who rose through the ranks to the office of Vice Dean at the Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology, the CEO is poised to sharpen the training capacities of the hospital. The hospital has taken bold steps to bridge the huge divide between the hospital and the clinical consultants from the School of Medicine and Dentistry of KNUST which was seriously affecting the quality of services delivery and training at the hospital.
19. Staff motivation and conviction for the values of applying themselves diligently to duty in line with their call is on a conspicuous high. This has been attributed to Prof. Addai Mensah’s policy of constant engagement with staff members, professional associations and other stakeholders of the hospital in line with his consultative management style.
20. To empower all units in the Hospital, Prof Addai Mensah is pursuing a decentralization push. His office has begun a process to effect a devolution of power and financial autonomy to the directorates and units to ensure efficiency in service delivery at the various operational areas.
21. Prof Addai Mensah has taken particular interest in honoring His Majesty, the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as part of the Asantehene’s 25th anniversary Legacy Projects. He has constituted a technical team of engineers and other professionals to prepare a master plan for the comprehensive renovation of the old “GEE” blocks for the first time since their construction in 1955.
22. Arrangements are far advanced to get a one-million-dollar Catheterization Laboratory (CATHLAB) for the hospital under a placement scheme. Information available at the time of writing is that, this unit will provide advanced diagnostic and interventional cardiac care at the hospital. When completed, this will be the first in the history of the hospital and first of its kind in the northern half of the country.
By: Ivan Heathcote – Fumador.