It was an uplifting day!
We’ve been searching for a way to bring our entire team together, with the aim of helping the different groups working in our organisation develop a greater appreciation of what each team does.
The hope is that this will lead to better teamwork.
It’s not enough to throw together people with different skill sets into the same clinic & expect that they’ll work together effectively and efficiently.
A lot of lip service is paid to multidisciplinary care, but getting that care bit correct takes hard work to achieve.
So, we decided to close all our clinics on Friday 18th September and collect our team at Q Station at North Head to partake in our inaugural internal conference.
40-odd people. We wanted our receptionist and admin team there. We mixed our doctors with our exercise physiologists with our physiotherapists, massage therapists and dietitians.
The morning started with a photo essay to reflect our 12 year journey. We then heard from 2 patients invited to help us understand their journeys, their expectations and how we could improve our service. Many thanks to Maxine & Liz.
Our special guest was Jannine Jackson, CEO of Arthritis & Osteoporosis NSW. She provide us insight about the role of her patient organisation and discussed special challenges facing patients with arthritis in regards funding and disease awareness. It was a great call to action and BJC Health will be trying to help.
This was followed by the rheumatologists and the reception/admin teams having their own sessions in breakout rooms. It was a rare opportunity for people working in different clinics at different times to meet in one place.
The allied health teams who do regularly meet, instead involved themselves in a session of self-defence followed by an Ikea-building challenge. Team bonding they all seemed to enjoy!
Post lunch, we collected as a group. Every service was involved in a range of presentations. This session was based on what & how we’re currently doing things and how we can improve:
The late afternoon session was about Big Ideas. New considerations to move us forward:
Diverse talks, with the common thread of improving service delivery and outcomes for our patients/clients.
It was lovely to see various team members appreciate what their colleagues in different disciplines do. An example of this was the insight gained by our receptionists on the patient’s journey. This will translate to how they interact with our patients at the front desk and on the phone.
I share this with you because the day really exceeded our expectations. Many do not get much chance to take the podium so it was a proud moment seeing hard work and meticulous preparation pay off.
We want a culture of curiosity, innovation & continuous improvement. This was an important step.
