Methodology and Organization Also Help Stop the Pandemic
If doctors and nurses on the front line are the silent heroes that we are all learning about, managers, those who put healthcare workers to work in the best possible conditions, are also crucial to get out of a crisis like the one we are experiencing. "Which is also the quintessence of what a good manager should always do", explains Andrea Capponi, Master in health management at the SDA Bocconi School of Management, today director of the Hospital of Novara, "listen to everyone and dictate the line".
Today the hospital directed by Capponi has 162 beds reserved for Covid patients ("but the situation is constantly changing"), with the largest number of intensive care units among Piedmontese facilities, and daily work on widespread and profound adaptation. "Every day we revolutionize entire departments, we have to think about the supply of medicines, the equipment, manage the new sick patients who arrive and the healed ones we send home. Even for a discharge there are a myriad of administrative practices to attend to. To do this we have set up a crisis unit of which I am the coordinator ", continues the manager," and which includes some key figures at an administrative level ".
To keep the rudder steady and avoid risking shipwreck, Capponi turns to his experience and preparation, but also to some personal attitudes that help a lot: "I am a very orderly and methodical person and this serves me a lot at work. We do nothing extemporaneously, even at the internal communication level we have a single documentation as a reference for everyone as regards the forms and updates with the new measures from the authorities".
Future scenarios are not predictable, and all planning is very short term, two to three days at most. How do you work in these conditions? "It is difficult, but we are doing it thanks to everyone's professionalism. The departments not yet involved are sometimes a little skeptical, but when we turn to them, they throw themselves into work with the utmost conviction. I set up a series of micro-teams in contact with each other in Whatsapp sub chat practically 24 hours a day, seven days a week, "says Capponi," but we are moving forward thanks also to the support of the people. Not only the beautiful banners thanking us seen on TV but also many small and large gestures. Cash donations, for example, but there are those who send us 300 pizzas, 200 brioches and more. This is extremely motivating. "