Editorial

Citation

(2013), "Editorial", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs.2013.21126caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Leadership in Health Services, Volume 26, Issue 3

Introduction by the Editor

Last June, I was fortunate enough to attend the 4th Canadian Quality Conference at Carleton University Ottawa courtesy of Emerald Insight and also MacEwan University here in Edmonton where I am on faculty. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the conference. Not only did I get to work with my former editor in chief from Emerald, Mary Miskin, but I also got to meet the Chairman of the Conference Dr Madhav Sinha.

It was Dr Sinha who suggested that it might be a good idea to include the papers from the conference as a special issue for Leadership in Health Services. Dr Sinha was familiar with Emerald, and our journal, and also acted as a catalyst for the participants, encouraging them to take the professional step of publishing their papers.

I attended many of the conference sessions. Not only was I impressed by the breadth of scope of the presentations but also by the obvious dedication of many of the presenters to making health care service more dynamic and effective. Often the papers described simple sounding program suggestions for change that produced profound ramifications for service and delivery.

Jo and I as editors of LHS realize that it is rare to be able to have so many papers in one place related to our theme of health service as we did at this conference. We also recognize that it is unusual for a special issue of this kind to be dedicated more to Quality than to Leadership – especially when Emerald has a sister journal which is specifically devoted to Quality. Sometimes Quality and Leadership do overlap. Perhaps this is one of those occasions. Overall this seemed like too good an opportunity to be missed. For me it was a personal pleasure to work with the leadership from Emerald and the conference. This special issue contains descriptions of some rich and diverse programs which deserve to be shared as broadly as possible. Thanks to everyone involved for making it timely and possible.

Jennifer BowermanEditor, LHS

Guest editorial

The collection of papers in this special issue of Leadership in Health Services Journal come from the presentations made at the Fourth Annual Canadian Quality Congress, organized by the Canadian Society for Quality (CSQ) held at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Two unpublished papers from the previous year’s third congress that was held in Winnipeg city, Manitoba, are also included in consummate with the theme. Ten world-class keynote speakers and 35 highly qualified research scholars from 16 countries from around the world including from Canada participated in the two-and-a-half day event.

The papers selected in this special issue cover a wide variety of interesting topics. From a discussion on how the world-famous ISO 9000 model of quality improvement can be applied in healthcare settings to thinking of a whole new system engineering scheme to help provide solutions for acute bed shortage problems in hospitals, and using QFD and SERVQUAL to gauge patient satisfaction in hospitals, to how Deming’s management model can provide insights into a large scale overhaul in top management strategic thinking, this Special Issue gets even more interesting if you would follow it from cover to cover.

The lessons learned are that tremendous progress is being made throughout the world in applications of manufacturing style quality methodologies to healthcare industries and the results are getting amazing acceptance by top management community. I am sure you will find every paper worthwhile, excellent and stand up as rigorously researched contributions helping to chart a better course of direction for tomorrow.

To begin with, the paper by Hatice Camgöz-Akda and her team of researchers employ Quality Function Deployment methodology for translating customer needs and expectations in a private hospital setting. This case study illustrates how an existing approach of SERVQUAL and QFD integration can give amazing results on quality improvements in hospitals.

Next author, Leonardo Fons, presents a new approach on how the traditional quality cost model that is usually implemented in manufacturing companies can also be applied to healthcare organizations to manage their processes according to ISO 9000 quality management standards. To further simplify, a guideline on managing quality costs in healthcare organizations is provided with examples.

On the question of how to look at the formidable task of preventing, if not completely eliminating, the problem of bed shortages in hospitals, a paper by Linda Hathout and her group applies a systems engineering approach to one of the largest healthcare facilities in a Canadian province of Manitoba. The results speak for itself: tripling in the throughput with a 35 percent increase in operating budget, elimination of diagnostic handling and treatment start delays and yielding an increase in treatment rates for positively diagnosed patients from 55 to 70 percent. The systems approach used in the study included population demand analysis, value stream mapping and refining the clinical service objectives.

Robert Gerst, in the next paper, has many reasons to ask whether we have learned enough lessons in total quality management to help improve the quality of services provided by our healthcare facilities. Why the quality of patient care is going down every day? Citing damming results and frustrating stories of patient dissatisfactions read in newspapers every day, a case is built on how Deming’s philosophy can save customer’s and top management frustrations. It is emphasized that the assumptions of command and control thinking combined with a limited enumerative, as opposed to analytic understanding of the system is indeed largely responsible for the present crisis in healthcare industries.

In the area of nursing, how organizational restructuring in healthcare facilities has impacted the ability of registered nurses in their performance without their participation and any strong influencing voice in decision making process and what can be done about it – is the subject matter of a paper by Cheryl and Nick Kadash. They show that at a time when nurses’ responsibilities are intensifying because of the increases in patient acuity, technological advances, complexity of care and the increased demands put on by aging population and dwindling resources, it is imperative that quality improvements programs must take into account these vital role played by nurses and include factors to establish nurses’ connection in all networking and future reorganizational decision-making opportunities to keep them effective.

The last paper by Daniel Roberts and his team describes the integration of a group of hospital based intensive care units into a regional service delivery model that was developed to meet the needs of a provincial population. The authors have created a city-wide integrated critical care service model in order to improve patient access, quality of care and cost effectiveness. A population demand analysis was carried out and service objectives were defined. A gap analysis was the basis of their integrated service model design and implementation plan.

In concluding remarks, I would like to say few words of my own personal thanks to all our team members of the Canadian Society for Quality (CSQ), and the Editorial and Technical Program Committee members who have shared their valuable time, talent, energy and ideas to enrich our collective knowledge by contributing to this endeavour. I am grateful to Professor Vinod Kumar, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada for his scholarly help in timely reviews and editorial responsibilities.

The start of the Canadian Society for Quality (CSQ) has been an extraordinary event in the Canadian history. The word is getting out and the news is spreading. Greetings and well-wishes are coming faster than expected.

Last but not the least, I want to thank Nikki Chapman, Managing Editor of the Leadership in Health Services Journal along with her technical staff at Emerald Publishing Group, and to Jennifer Bowerman and Jo Lamb-White, the editor and co-editor, respectively, of this journal, without whose help and guidance it wouldn’t have been possible to finish on time the publication of this special issue.

I welcome everyone to attend the 5th Canadian Quality Congress taking place September 23-25, 2013 on the campus of the University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I look forward to welcoming you all there!

Madhav SinhaGuest Editor/President, Canadian Society for Quality, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada