Reddix Hospital* is an NHS (National Health Service) Trust Hospital in the UK. The hospital is located between Leicester and Birmingham and serves a population of over 900 000, a quarter of whom are senior citizens. About one tenth of the total female population is suffering (or is suspected of suffering) from some type of cancer. Most of the senior citizens are suffering from medical conditions that are typical of their age profile (i.e. arthritis and cardiovascular diseases - in particular, congestive heart failure).
The hospital has about 7000 annual admissions, a total of 375 intensive care beds, and a general patient capacity of about 2000. The hospital aims to be an excellent care provider for cancer and cardiovascular patients. The hospital employs around 200 specialists whose expertise includes breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and paediatrics. The hospital also employs around 400 nurses and other caregivers. The hospital has 100 per cent integrated faculties for medical tests relating to cancer and cardiovascular prognosis and diagnosis; the hospital information system is composed of the following six systems:
1 Radiology Information Systems (RIS) 2 Patient Administration System (PAS) 3 Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) 4 Clinical Patient Record (CPR) 5 Pharmacy Systems (PS) 6 Nursing Systems (NS) This lack of interoperability between different, but related, healthcare systems has been cited as one of the main challenges facing the hospital management.
Other related problems stem from the fact that staff are overworked and consequently suffer from low morale; there is a relatively high employee turnover rate. A blind staff opinion survey of all caregivers confirmed that most of the senior and junior doctors felt that they were working on average twice the stipulated hours. The survey also indicated that most caregivers felt that there was virtually no clinical information governance. These problems are exacerbated by the recent annual NHS performance ratings (carried out bi-annually) where Reddix Hospital was ranked in the bottom 10 per cent for patient satisfaction.
Worse still, in both the core clinical expertise (cancer and cardiovascular), the hospital was ranked in the bottom 5 per cent of all NHS trusts offering expertise for cancer and cardiovascular treatments.
The Trust report stated that the one of the main reasons for the low ratings was that about 10 per cent of their patients had suffered from adverse reactions to drugs while under medical care.
The report alarmingly confirmed that in about 60 per cent of the adverse reactions, patients had suffered from serious, life-threatening, or fatal consequences.

Questions

Reddix Hospital* is an NHS (National Health Service) Trust Hospital in the UK. The hospital is located between Leicester and Birmingham and serves a population of over 900 000, a quarter of whom are senior citizens. About one tenth of the total female population is suffering (or is suspected of suffering) from some type of cancer. Most of the senior citizens are suffering from medical conditions that are typical of their age profile (i.e. arthritis and cardiovascular diseases - in particular, congestive heart failure). The hospital has about 7000 annual admissions, a total of 375 intensive care beds, and a general patient capacity of about 2000. The hospital aims to be an excellent care provider for cancer and cardiovascular patients. The hospital employs around 200 specialists whose expertise includes breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and paediatrics. The hospital also employs around 400 nurses and other caregivers. The hospital has 100 per cent integrated faculties for medical tests relating to cancer and cardiovascular prognosis and diagnosis; the hospital information system is composed of the following six systems:
1 Radiology Information Systems (RIS) 2 Patient Administration System (PAS) 3 Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) 4 Clinical Patient Record (CPR) 5 Pharmacy Systems (PS) 6 Nursing Systems (NS) This lack of interoperability between different, but related, healthcare systems has been cited as one of the main challenges facing the hospital management.
Other related problems stem from the fact that staff are overworked and consequently suffer from low morale; there is a relatively high employee turnover rate. A blind staff opinion survey of all caregivers confirmed that most of the senior and junior doctors felt that they were working on average twice the stipulated hours. The survey also indicated that most caregivers felt that there was virtually no clinical information governance. These problems are exacerbated by the recent annual NHS performance ratings (carried out bi-annually) where Reddix Hospital was ranked in the bottom 10 per cent for patient satisfaction.
Worse still, in both the core clinical expertise (cancer and cardiovascular), the hospital was ranked in the bottom 5 per cent of all NHS trusts offering expertise for cancer and cardiovascular treatments.
The Trust report stated that the one of the main reasons for the low ratings was that about 10 per cent of their patients had suffered from adverse reactions to drugs while under medical care.
The report alarmingly confirmed that in about 60 per cent of the adverse reactions, patients had suffered from serious, life-threatening, or fatal consequences.

Questions

(a) What strategy could Reddix adopt to undergo a successful culture change process?
(b) Describe the steps that senior management would have to undertake in order to create, develop and reinforce a pervasive knowledge culture.