On February 2, 2015 there was an article in the Spanish newspaper “La Vanguardia” with the title “Proposals from Can Ruti’s personnel reduce the waiting list” (“Can Ruti shortens the waiting list with proposals of their staff”). Can Ruti is one of the big reference hospitals in Barcelona. Whereas long waiting lists are a big problem in the Spanish public health care system, Can Ruti has managed to eliminate the waiting list of patients with programmed surgery in 2014.
Big public institutions seem to protect themselves under the current crisis to justify all kind of budget cuts and the problems they suffer. This is why the example of Can Ruti is a positive and comforting surprise. After confirming at the top of the front newspaper’s page that it was not April Fool’s Day, we wondered what happened in Can Ruti?, how did they manage to do it?, what kind of exorcism did they apply to their internal processes?
The article describes “The trick is that the employees, all their employees, were involved in bringing ideas to organize things differently, in every type of problem they found”. We continue thinking these are tricks, a sudden act of magic, an unexpected insight or illumination. As the ribbon in the parcel, the article adds: “The objective … was met without a negative cost impact.”
Our most sincere congratulations to all personnel from Can Ruti, especially to their Management to be so humble – and right – to count on all the employees to find solutions to the problems that, of course, they all suffer.
We are happy to share this as an example of innovation being not only launching new products or market proposals, but affecting internal processes as well. Silent innovation, the one unsettling the inner guts of an organization, is perhaps the most effective one, the one bringing bigger benefits in the long term. It is the sustainable innovation.
Can Ruti is an example of innovation working from its culture, from the way people behave. Undoing this inertia will be difficult – although we must admit one never knows what happens in public institutions.
Involving the people on the ground, asking those who know the pros and cons of what they do every day, those who move the patient beds, prepare the surgery equipment, the doctors bored while waiting for bureaucracy to clear their move to action.
The key is – sorry to state the obvious – asking those who best know the house, asking what is happening and asking what could be done better.
The article ends saying “The participation and contributions of all involved in customer support has been key”.
We can add nothing else. This is a model to follow, and inspiration for Dicere to continue working on what we believe.
Agustín Ramos
Article published in La Vanguardia on 01/28/2015, for total reading has to be subscribed to this newspaper http://www.lavanguardia.com/20150128/54425174502/can-ruti-acorta-lista-de-espera-con-propuestas-de-su-personal-ana-macpherson.html
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