Élysée 2022 – ANOTHER LOOK AT THE HOSPITAL ... ALSO FOR POLITICIANS
26.11.2021 - Philippe LEDUC, Director, Think Tank Economie Santé
After a "Journey to the heart of the healthcare system" * and the collection of "100 testimonies to learn to manage with and after the crisis", Hervé Dumez and Etienne Minvielle deliver a strong and convincing plea. From the outset, they acknowledge that "management and management have a bad press in the health system, that they are associated with cost containment and financial constraints. Whereas precisely a hospital service only fulfills its mission if it is well managed. "Quality of care and quality of life at work and cost control are not necessarily mutually exclusive when they are based on local management, centered around the best care path for the patient. The key that is sorely lacking today is practical skills on coordination, teamwork and innovation.
The first part is fascinating, made up of the testimonies of the actors and their vision of the management of the crisis, during the first three waves. Direct, without emphasis. Who took power?
The lessons of a crisis management are detailed in the second part. How to have the capacity to react to the unexpected? Because an anticipated crisis ... is not a crisis, by definition.
Of course, it is the third part that is the most decisive because it analyses the orientations for tomorrow. The word "performance" is not taboo. This is based on the achievement of specific objectives, openness to the outside world, internal processes and human relations. Neither is the word "autonomy". In contrast to the prevailing discourse, the most important thing is "changes in individual and collective attitudes, rather than structural transformations. The latter being a "form of laziness in managerial thinking". With three axes: the collapse of hierarchies, not forgetting the patient, reconciling expertise and openness to the outside world.
This work by widening the angle of view on the hospital, refusing a reductive approach, brings a stone to the edifice of reconstruction not to be underestimated.
*Journey to the heart of the health system - 100 testimonies to learn to manage with the crisis. Hervé Dumez & Étienne Minvielle. 245 pages, published by ESKA