4 minute read
Blazing the trail in Culture Change
By Edel Q. Mwende
The Kenyatta National Hospital Division of Pharmaceutical Services is a trend-setter in initiating culture change and quality improvement.
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This is aimed at honoring their staff (pharmacists, pharmacutical technologists and pharmacy auxilliary staff) who go above and beyond to provide exceptional and distinguished service and help deliver on the division’s mission which is; “To optimize patient experience through pharmaceutical care, facilitate training and participate in national health planning.”
A publication by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement written by Pidson Kamugisha on Thursday, December 2, 2021 “How Shared Ownership Supports Sustained Quality Improvement,” highlighted that proper implementation of Quality Improvement (QI) strategies can not only increase productivity and efficiency but can also improve quality and safety.
This, however, requires a dedicated team to effectively carry out the changes.
Cultural change is the process in which an organization encourages employees to adopt behaviors and mindsets that are consistent with the organization’s values and goals. The culture change initiatives at KNH were introduced in the FY 2021/2022. The Pharmaceutical Services Division identified some key activities among the recommended options in culture change which included coaching and mentoring, office rotation and staff appreciation.
The Division established a collaboration with Phillips Therapeutics Limited to offer training for its twenty-seven (27) team leads who underwent a 3-day “Phillips Top100 Leadership” training which was conducted February 7th to 9th 2022 as part of coaching and mentoring the staff in the Healthcare Environment about leadership.
The fully sponsored training which took place at the Diagnostics and reporting Centre incorporated execution as a leader, leadership styles, effective communication, and powerful presentation skills.
A significant part of the collaboration was the support towards initiating the “Pharmacy Awards Program.”
The Phillips Therapeutics Top 100 Training is targeted to Retail, Wholesale, or even Hospital Pharmacy owners and provides methods, best practice skills, and tools to help in Therapeutic soft skills upgrade.
The Business modules are intended to support Retail and wholesale Pharmacy owners with business skills to successfully, start, grow, or expand their business.
The Pharmacy management recognizes that every team member plays an important role in achieving the Division’s performance targets.
Recognizing this effort and encouraging others to raise the bar with regards to meeting set daily and monthly targets was a driver to initiating an award mechanism to recognize and celebrate exceptional accomplishments of the staff who demonstrate good leadership and teamwork.
The Division’s performance monitoring team will be responsible for selecting the winner of “Pharmacy Team of the month.”
Every month, each pharmacy will be scored on its performance with regards to pre-determined criteria that includes quality and timeliness of reports, productivity assessment, inventory management, team engagement and adherence to pharmacy standards among others.
On Thursday March 24, 2022, the Phillips Therapeutics Limited representatives handed over the trophy which will be used to awards the “Pharmacy Team of the month.” Phillips Therapeutics donated the trophy following a request to start recognition of good performers after Phillips Top 100 Leadership in Pharmacy & Healthcare Training. Speaking during the trophy handover, Phillips Therapeutics Limited Marketing Lead; Dr. Eric Githaiga congratulated the KNH pharmaceutical services team for their relentless efforts in maintaining outstanding performance in service provision.
KNH Pharmaceutical Services Division ‘High Performance Team Award’ trophy
PHOTO | YVONNE GICHURU
He was accompanied by Phillips Therapeutics Limited Key Accounts Manager; Jotham Nkonge.
“We are very grateful to Phillips Therapeutics for sponsoring the culture change training for our Pharmacy leaders and for going an extra mile in providing a trophy for motivating our teams to ensure quality improvement,” said KNH Director Pharmaceutical Services Dr. Alfred Birichi.
Dr. Dorothy Aywak, Head of Unit- Pharmacovigilance, Poison & Drug Information added: ‘We thank Phillips Therapeutics for assisting us to achieve our objectives for this financial year which include quality improvement, recognition of outstanding staff, coaching & mentoring and teamwork.”
The trophy was received by Dr. Alfred Birichi, Dr. Aywak and Dr. Faith Tuikong, KNH Assistant Chief Pharmacist.
The Pharmacy team that wins the trophy three months in a row will benefit in sponsorship for conference attendance at PSK (Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya), KPA (Kenya Pharmaceutical Association) and HOPAK (Hospital Pharmacy Association of Kenya).
As Phil Crosby said, “Improving quality requires a culture change, not just a new diet.”
