Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) successfully conducted the first ever Managerial Effectiveness Lab (MEL) for hospital administrators in the first week of October. Senior medical consultants and administrators across India participated in the three-day programme.
The objectives of the programme were to develop expertise in planning, organising, and managing hospital administration; become skilled at managing self and people (hospital management, doctors, paramedic and office staff); enhance communication skills; develop a more confident personality; create a niche among patients and bystanders; become better in terms of development and execution of ideas and plans; fortify skills as a team member and as a team leader; solve problems creatively; handle crisis situations assertively; motivate others and be self-motivated.
In the current scenario, the conventional skill-set of managers who only deal with basic functions is inadequate due to the changing nature of the health services market. Healthcare managers perform a wide variety of roles. To perform these roles effectively, they must possess specific competencies to produce the desired outputs. Administrators are expected to have viable relationships and interaction with the staff of other departments, and to be thought of as ideals of others.
Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, said, “Managerial Effectiveness Lab is designed to help hospital administrators at every level gain the communication and soft skills they need in binding the combined potential of fellow team members towards achieving set objectives.”
Programme Coordinator, Deepa Sethi, who conceptualised and designed the lab further added that her interest, research and experience in the area of healthcare communication has inspired her to design programmes such as MEL for hospital administrators.
Learning experience
The institute also offers another programme called Interpersonal and Soft Skills Effectiveness Lab for Health Professionals (Doctors), conceptualised and spearheaded by Prof Deepa.
The experiential learning experience gave a number of insights to the participants. Dr Srinivasan Ramananthan, Consultant Intensivist, Dept Of Intensive Care, Lilavati Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Bandra, Mumbai, said, “Being a student of science and a clinician at practice, I have always wondered if communication skills could have ever been scientifically added as part of my medical curriculum. Being into IIM-K and under the perfect vision and leadership, I have sharpened aspects of my communication skills, learnt many aspects of finance, team building and leadership, importance of IT in the hosp sector, marketing for hospital sector, to name a few that have helped to enhance my lateral learning which is required for growth in life.”
Another participant, Krishna Madhu, Manager HR & Quality Control, Daya General Hospital Limited, Thrissur, added, “One of the most creative and entertaining learning experience which has helped me in enhancing my understanding on modern managerial concepts. All credit goes to the entire faculty for the wonderful experience.”