Healthcare

The activities and functions of Lodewijk de Beukelaar:

• Chairman of the Board of Management of Groene Hart Ziekenhuis in Gouda
• Member of the Supervisory Board of Laurens Rotterdam
• Arbitrator Health Care Arbitration Tribunal
• Member of the board of directors of Dutch Hospital Data, Utrecht

In my job, I am ultimately responsible for the quality and safety of care. It is therefore logical that I have an ever-growing interest in risk management. Also in my role as an employer; just think of working with hazardous substances and the hospital's many equipment. Active risk management contributes to a better and safer functioning hospital.

Covid-19 is accelerating the transformation in healthcare. In contrast with ‘ordinary’ innovation and transition, there has been a significant shift in both professionals’ work and their identity that is visible at all levels: from their individual roles and responsibilities all the way up to the management of their organisations. Covid-19 has highlighted the significant degree of problem-solving ability professionals can demonstrate: the right conditions can make established paradigms, rules and guidelines more flexible. This has shifted the focus of the healthcare transformation from technology to social science.

Bio:
From the moment he qualified as a doctor, Wouter A. Keijser dedicated himself to overseeing care innovations and e-health. Over the past 15 years, both as a change expert and as an expert reviewer for the European Commission, Wouter Keijser has been involved with several regional programmes involving ‘e-health enabled integrated care’. In addition to his scientific research and teaching at the University of Twente, Keijser advises and coaches healthcare directors, managers and professionals in complex organisational development issues. At the end of 2019, Dr Keijser gained his PhD (with distinction) on the topic of 'Opening up medicine: Physicians and leadership in times of transformation'.

In crisis times ‘Personnel Capacity Management’ is key

In times of crisis it comes down to it. Is enough resilience ingrained in the system to be able to react to peaks and waves? To what extent are we dependent on others to cope with our own peaks? Organizing 'extreme resilience' is costly. We can't all have a spare capacity ready, as the fire services, for example, has. But it is all the more important now to have sufficient personnel flexibility measures on the shelf. In order to be able to scale up and down now that it is so badly needed. All the lessons of capacity management (strategy, control measures, insight into the system, analysis of needed and available capacity) are learned in a hard way in times of crisis. From an HR perspective, it remains challenging to take a broad look at this personnel capacity issue.

Bio:

Dr.ir. Jan de Leede is assistant professor Human Resource Management (1.5 day per week) and owner of ModernWorkx, a consultancy firm. He received his MSc in Management Studies from University of Twente in 1992 and his PhD from University of Twente (Bottom-up innovation; self-managing teams and product and process innovation) in 1997. He worked as senior researcher/consultant at TNO Work and Employment (2001-2008) and is since then owner of ModernWorkx. He is focussed on research in the field of HR Analytics, working times and capacity management, flexible labour, virtual teams and new ways of working. His consultancy work is focussing on design and evaluation of worktime policies and shiftwork systems, design of ergonomic friendly rosters and self-rostering and capacity management. Both in industry, public services and healthcare.

The current situation has made the deployment of healthcare staff more flexible. To make sure that staff are well prepared for future crises, many services have arisen to help professionals work on their own vitality, such as a vitality app for professionals, a social page that collects Covid experiences and a public group that deals with “supply and demand in staff deployment”. There is a real focus on employees’ vitality, although it is hard to predict whether or not we will be prepared for what the future holds.

Bio:
Ina Braam-Veltrop is a professor of Public Management at the University of Twente with the care organisation Treant Zorggroep. In addition to her other duties, she is responsible for organising prospective risk inventories (PRI) and coordinating the internal audit system. The experience she has gained as a nurse, manager and patient safety adviser serves her well now, in her role as an external auditor with the Netherlands Institute for Accreditation of Hospitals (NIAZ).

The Guarantee Fund for the Health Sector (WFZ) guarantees loans to healthcare facilities, which are facing significant uncertainty as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Although these facilities have received financial support, the scope of the funding has not yet been specified. Will more support be made available in the event of a second wave? And when we finally move past coronavirus, will care facilities then be expected to contribute to the government’s “coronavirus bank account”? The WFZ will need to consider these additional risks when assessing new requests for guarantees.

Bio:
Erik Achterberg is the Head of the Risk Analysis department at the Guarantee Fund for the Health Sector (WFZ). I’m fascinated by both healthcare and figures, and it’s great to be able to bring those two interests together in my work for the WFZ.

A new risk has been added to all the existing risk evaluations in our forensic healthcare sector: coronavirus infection. Policies are in place and measures are being taken to stop coronavirus getting into the organisation. This is having a big impact on the day-to-day work of our staff, whose resilience is really being tested – not least by some colleagues being unable to come to work – and on the everyday lives of clients in both closed and secure facilities. Their resilience is being severely tested by restrictions on leave and visits, quarantine measures and a lack of daytime activities and work.

Bio:
I trained in the commercial sector. For over 15 years now I have been working in strategy and policy development and in the care of disabled people, for the past three-and-a-half years in a forensic setting. In my free time I relax by working hard in my garden, and I’m always glad when my daughters come home from university for the weekend.

The current crisis brings a lot of direct and indirect suffering, but also new insights. Suddenly you discover how pleasant you live, how valuable health is, that other ways of working are also possible and that on vacation in the Netherlands is also possible, what a beautiful country it is! I hope that some of this awareness will lead to a sustainable different way of thinking for a better world'.

Bio:

Dr. H.J. (Henk) Doeleman is a strategist at the municipality of Rheden and a part-time associate at the University of Twente. Henk is developer of the A3 methodology as a form of agile & lean strategizing. His publications include A3 methodology (Kluwer, 2009), Leadership in planning & control (Vakmedianet, 2014), Leadership in the public sector (Vakmedianet, 2014), A3 methodology: Work and introduction book (2020) and later Naar strategie op één A3 (2021). He is currently developing an approach for making more open and data-driven choices in vision and success factors, and understanding the impact of plans: A3 online. He is also developing A3 online into a way of working for sustainability reporting based on international guidelines and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. See www.a3methodiek.nl or www.a3online.nl.

The crisis has a major impact on our lives, which brings with it many changes and challenges. The resilience of organizations is now even more related to being able to respond quickly to these changes on a strategic level. In this way, I work with today's challenges to achieve goals and sustainability in tomorrow's changing world. 

Bio:
Cynthia Wertwijn did for her masterat the University of Twente a graduation in collaboration between departments. She applied this as a project manager at municipalities and then at her start-up. Her goal is to deliver long-term value. She does this by bringing people together, providing tools for strategic business plans and making the connection between people and IT. An example of this is A3 online.

Improving, connecting and developing are, in my view, key words when talking about what is everyday practice and not just now in this crisis called COVID19. Connecting employees, merging employees from different departments and locations is now made possible. In this crisis, I see employees developing and growing in their role as healthcare professionals. Working together across location and departmental boundaries and together representing the complex care of COVID19 patients and their families. 

Bio:

I have been working at Treant Zorggroep since 2001. Grown from nurse to manager. In 2019 I completed the course Management in Care.  At the end of 2019 I supervised several teams during a major transition and also built up the Acute Admission Department (AOA). A new concept for our organization. A dynamic department with a motivated team are the ingredients for me as a manager to make a department a success. Since the COVID19 I am also an executive at the COVID department of Treant. Again forming a team with employees from different locations and departments of Treant. As a manager, I am allowed to be the connecting link between the different employees, in which we are continuously allowed to develop and grow as healthcare professionals.