Frere’s shift from protest to praise

Her smile quickly faded though when she realised the welcoming committee was in actual fact angry workers demanding money due to them.

Three years on, Wagner’s management team and staff hail her leadership as catalyst to turning things around at the facility.

Soon after arriving, Wagner realised that in order to ensure her vision for the hospital would materialise, her staff would have to be happy.

So she made promises and then ensured she delivered on them. Today morale is high and the efficiency of the hospital is evident.

Speaking to the Saturday Dispatch from her office on the facility’s 4th floor, Wagner said: “The vision that we are selling is that Frere is going to be a world-class facility that ensures all of our patients have the best positive outcome, that they have a positive experience of care and that they have value for money because NHI (National Health Insurance Scheme) is coming, and our patients will have the ability to choose where they go for their service.

“The past three years have been a very steep learning curve for me because most of my previous experience has been at a provincial level.

“At head office level the main focus is on policy and strategy development. So you’ve got the luxury of time, because strategy takes time to develop and to implement.

“But the past three years have been at operations level, so your organisational clock speed needs to be quicker. I’ve been very blessed, my colleagues are the best, they are very experienced.”

One of the first things she did after arriving was to add to her executive management team. Where in the past it consisted of five directors, she added a further 10 to ensure the smooth running of every aspect of the hospital.

With her team over the years Wagner has managed to:

lResolve accrual issues;

lMore than triple the maintenance budget;

lEngage organised labour resulting in no strikes during her tenure;

lIncrease staff numbers, especially nurses and clinical support services, cleaners and porters;

lDecrease complaints and increase compliments from patients;

lCreate a conducive working environment by creating training opportunities and incentives;

lSeek solutions from staff;

lCreate a more patient-centred environment;

lDevelop public private partnerships; and

lBecome the only hospital in the public sector to have a website and Facebook page aimed at educating the public, patient advocacy, and creating a platform for interaction.

Asked about her leadership style Wagner replied:

“When I was director of hospitals I was very fortunate to attend a weekend with a guy called Benjamin Zander, the director of the philharmonic orchestra in Boston.

“I had written to them and said I’m interested in leadership and they invited me out there.

“I spent a weekend with him and his wife, and he had written a book called: The art of possibility.

“One of the things he said struck a chord with me. He said, he’s the director but he’s the only musician who doesn’t produce a sound. He’s dependent on a beautiful sound from the musicians, so he has to direct them in order to get a beautiful sound.

“That’s my leadership style. I lead with and through others because I’m not the one who sees the patients in the ward – my staff and cleaners do. So I have to lead through them and with them.”

Wagner is currently doing a second masters and working on a meta-leadership framework which involves leading with others.

“We’re very blessed. The only reason we have successes here, and those successes are sometimes attributed to me, but in actual fact it’s because I have the cooperation and support of my peers, my colleagues in Bhisho, the stakeholders in the private sector, the executive, the MEC (Dr Pumza Dyantyi).

“The politicians are really supportive of what we do. Our successes here are because we lead together with them.”

Going forward Wagner said the team would build on what they had achieved.

In the next three years the aim is to strengthen collaborations with health facilities in the region to offer patients the best possible care. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za