Doctors Taking The Lead – an Australian case study 15 Nov. 2018 Birmingham Paul W. Long and Erwin Long

About the study Since 2011, significant effort and resources have been invested in activity designed to enhance medical engagement at Monash Health, Victoria’s largest public health service. In 2016, a large scale organisational restructure was effected where the medical directors for the clinical programs were given responsibility for organisational performance such as budget and resource management. The aim of this study was to assess the level of medical engagement at Monash Health, and understand the factors related to the assessed level of engagement. The definition of medical engagement includes: “the active and positive contribution of doctors, within their normal working roles, to maintaining and enhancing the performance of the organisation, which itself recognises this commitment, in supporting and encouraging high quality care”(Spurgeon et al. 2015).

Method A mixed methods approach was used which involved collection and analysis of data gathered using qualitative and quantitative methods, including a survey of all 2800 medical staff using a medical engagement scale (MES) instrument and interviews with senior medical staff.   Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured questions posed to respondents in person or on the telephone. Initially 7 Program Directors (PD) were interviewed. Subsequently to interviewing the PDs, Unit Heads in the 4 of the Programs were also interviewed. In total 50 senior medical staff were interviewed.

Paul W. Long paul@chleadership.org