cognitive institute logo 2x
  • Australia 1800957888
  • International +61735115000
  • Home
  • Programmes & Courses
    • Accountability and Professionalism
    • Clinical Leadership
    • Communication in Challenging Situations
    • Safety and Reliability Culture
    • Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience
    • Individual Performance
  • Case Studies
  • Insights & News
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Our Team
    • Our Partners
  • Contact

Promoting Professional Accountability Programme in Practice

Ramsay Health Care

Watch the video story

“This programme is already paying dividends. We can see our culture is improving and we’re getting better clinical outcomes”

Chief Risk Officer (Australia), Ramsay Health Care
Chanelle McEnallay

Discover how Ramsay Health Care improved clinical outcomes and patient care

Ramsay Health Care is a global private hospital group with more than 77,000 employees and a large footprint across 11 countries. Promoting a strong professional accountability culture is an important part of Ramsay’s continuous improvement agenda to deliver safe care for their patients. Starting with an Australian implementation, their aim was to integrate an evidence-based accountability framework that would scale across their organisation and fit with their existing human factors programme.

We wanted a programme with strong integrity we could implement globally

Download the full story

The challenge

As a large healthcare provider, with over 530 hospitals, day surgeries, pharmacies, treatment facilities, rehabilitation and psychiatric units around the world, Ramsay is aware of the professional accountability challenges facing healthcare organisations. Their focus is to address staff behaviours that do not align to the values of The Ramsay Way; a set of principles defining their culture of quality and safety.

Ramsay undertook extensive research to find an evidence-based accountability framework to fit with their existing human factors programme, which focusses on all staff speaking up in the moment. It was also important the programme could scale, to be implemented internationally across their entire organisation. In the initial implementation across Australia, Ramsay’s scope of delivery for the accountability framework in their private hospital facilities was for doctors. In their public/private facilities the scope included all clinical staff.

The solution

The Promoting Professional Accountability programme was ideal for Ramsay’s needs. The programme’s sustainable, organisation-wide framework proven to address unprofessional behaviour has been helping Ramsay to achieve the highest levels of safety and reliability.

Built on the work of Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in the United States of America, the programme has been implemented in Australia, the UK and Asia to help Ramsay identify and address behaviours that do not align with The Ramsay Way. The programme is assisting to contextualise unsafe behaviours and provide the tools and mechanisms to address it.

The Promoting Professional Accountability programme helps identify, engage with and hold accountable staff who demonstrate repeated unprofessional behaviour. It provides a framework for defining critical safety and professionalism standards, and identifying, measuring and addressing behaviours that undermine them. The framework aims to create a checking culture, where people can speak up in the moment and it is welcomed. In the event it is not safe or effective to speak up, a peer-to-peer support model delivers feedback and provides the opportunity for professionals to self-regulate.

  • 73 Australian facilities
  • 35,000+ staff

The programme in practice – Ramsay’s approach

Ramsay adopted a two-stage approach to rollout the Promoting Professional Accountability programme in Australia. The first stage was a large pilot encompassing 10,000 staff, implemented over nine months.

Ramsay cited the benefit of the pilot stage was the opportunity to develop a high level of understanding about the programme nuances, and align it to The Ramsay Way. Once the pilot was complete, Ramsay systematically implemented the programme across their other Australian facilities. Overseen by the Executive Project Lead, each Ramsay facility had an Executive Working Party with responsibility for local programme implementation. A series of implementation and communication plans has ensured a consistent rollout across all 73 facilities. Systematic communication at every stage of the programme has been critical for its success.

Ramsay discovered it is important to engage all levels of staff on programme delivery and timelines, and celebrate milestones throughout the implementation. It was vital to continuously define behaviours undermining a culture of safety and quality. Ramsay learnt delivering the right messages at the right time is important for overcoming staff resistance.

Programme results

Clinical indicators have consistently improved over the six years since the implementation began in 2016.  Ramsay Australia achieved its first ever 12 month period with zero sentinel events in June 2020 (01.07.2019-30.06.2020).

Ramsay believe the programme helps define behaviours undermining safety. They discovered staff did not always realise the impact certain behaviours can have on patient safety. For example not being available for clinical handover or after hours calls; being late for theatre etc. In addition to Australia Ramsay Health Care has now implemented the programme across their facilities in Malaysia, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

 

The feedback from doctors and clinicians has been extremely positive. They are encouraged by the programme, and feel supported to speak up

This programme is a driving force in improving hospital culture significantly

Discover how Ramsay Health Care improved clinical outcomes and patient care

Watch the video story

  • Home
  • Programmes & Courses
  • Insights & News
  • About
  • Contact

Programmes & Courses

  • Accountability and Professionalism
  • Clinical Leadership
  • Communication in Challenging Situations
  • Safety and Reliability Culture
  • Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience
  • Individual Performance

Contact Us

AU: 1800 957 888
Int:  +61 7 3511 5000

Connect

Email:
or submit a form
Postal: PO Box 1013,
Milton QLD 4064 Australia

© 2023 Cognitive Institute | Privacy | Website by Excite Media

Cognitive Institute is the trading name of Cognitive Consulting Group Pty Ltd (“CCG”) ABN 47 070 825 188. CCG is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”), a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 36142 at Level 19, The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG. MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.

  • Mastering Open Disclosure course enrolment

    Please use this form to register your enrolment in this course and a member of our team will be in touch.

  • Standard Price: $595 Earlybird Price: $495*

    *The earlybird rate is available for payments made more than three weeks from the event, thereafter the standard rate applies

  • Terms & conditions

    Before registering, please ensure you have read and agree with the terms and conditions. Cognitive Institute reserves the right to cancel the course if the minimum number of registrations is not reached. A full refund will be provided. All materials are made available for personal use only and are subject to copyright.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Cognitive Institute develops and delivers a range of consultancy educational solutions for healthcare professionals and organisations around the world. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept