Young doc’s passion lifts hospital
AT JUST 31, Dr NOKWETHEMBA Mtshali-Hadebe might be the youngest hospital boss in SA and believes that her youthful spirit has given her leeway to be allowed to make mistakes while improving the quality of patient care at Bertha Gxowa Hospital.
The hospital in Germiston, Ekurhuleni is one of the busiest public health facilities in Gauteng with 300 beds and serves a population of 530 000.
The four-storey facility has gone through major refurbishment in recent years and boasts unique features such as an elevated helipad, 72-hour psychiatric observation unit, hot water solar panels and digital radiology services.
Despite the nice things, Mtshali-Hadebe seems to be people-centred and literally “walks” with her staff to make things better for clients. She had been acting CEO since last year and was officially appointed two months ago.
Through daring and somewhat unconventional decisions, Mtshali-Hadebe has made significant strides to improve the institution which has received its fair share of bad publicity.
She said one of her assignments was to change the tedious patient filing system that often resulted in patients waiting up to four hours before they could see doctors. The files were arranged according to the day and month of birth of patients, which she scrapped in favour of a digital format.
“My team and I came up with an idea to simplify things. So we made patients put all their cards in a box and when the box is full one person will go and retrieve files. We’ve introduced a computer system that allows us to quickly access the file in five minutes,” she said.
They have 320 000 files that still need to be migrated to the new system. They hope to complete the process by the end of next month.
Other innovations include a system where a nurse can scan patient details and send them to the pharmacy to prepare medication while the patient is being seen by a doctor. As a result, patients don’t wait for long hours at the hospital.
“My attitude and approach has changed since I was appointed officially. Before I was more brazen,” Mtshali-Hadebe said.
“I felt I could do whatever I wanted to do to make sure that things are done and we moved along to help people. “If they [her bosses] didn’t like it, I didn’t mind. They could just not appoint me. It gave me a bit of an allowance. If it works it works and if it doesn’t, then tough. I’ve learnt to be less radical and I take my time in decision-making.”
“One of the biggest challenges is that I work through other people and if one of them doesn’t buy in or has a complacent attitude towards work I have to address it immediately.”
She concedes that her age has worked against her in dealing with older colleagues who would often use their ‘long service’ attitude to challenge her decisions.
“I don’t ignore them. I sit them down and explain how these changes will make them work better and, in the end, help our clients.”
Mtshali-Hadebe, a medicine graduate from University of KwaZulu-Natal, has worked at three government hospitals as a medical officer and dabbled a bit in the private sector as an adviser for a health solutions company.
She believes that public health can be improved through inspiring young, passionate people who are getting into the system as professionals.
“When you are very young and passionate about your work the public sector is not receptive of that. You get older colleagues who would say ‘we see you but you will get tired soon’.”
“What I’ve learnt is that if one person [a leader] can have a goal and a vision then everybody around them can work towards that goal and they can achieve anything. That is the kind of spirit and mentality that I want to bring into the public sector.”
“I’ve learnt to be less radical and I take my time in decision-making