St. John of God Health Care: Analysis and Recommendations

This report evaluates the different aspects of St. John of God Health Care, a healthcare facility in Australia, and provides recommendations to the Chief Executive and the Board. It discusses the political and policy environment, organisational design and coordination, leadership and teamwork, financial resource utilization, and attitude towards technology. The report also highlights the importance of data security and suggests improvements in workforce management and capacity management.

ST. JOHN OF GOD HEALTH CARE: ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

Executive Summary
This report has been made concerning the Australian healthcare facility, St John of God Health
Care that began its operations from the year 1895 in west Australia. It was started by Sisters of
St. John of God. Currently the healthcare employs 13,959 caregivers and is the country’s largest
catholic not-for-profit private hospital group. It is the mission of the healthcare to provide quality
healthcare services and all also look after the marginalised section of the society. This report will
evaluate the different aspects of the healthcare such as the policy, design of the organisation,
leadership and teamwork, utilisation of financial resources and technology and made
recommendations to the Chief Executive and the Board.

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
1. Political and policy environment..............................................................................................4
2. Organisational design and coordination...................................................................................4
3. Leadership and teamwork........................................................................................................5
4. Financial resource utilization...................................................................................................5
5. Attitude towards technology....................................................................................................6
6. Recommendations....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
St. John of God Healthcare is a healthcare facility that was established in the year 1895 in west
Australia by the Sisters of St. John of God. Currently the healthcare employs 13,959 caregivers
and is the country’s largest catholic not-for-profit private hospital group. It is the third largest
private hospital operator in Australia. The facility oversaw the administration of $71 million,
which includes partnership funding for social justice initiatives, community services in order to
reach out to people who are from the disadvantaged section. St. John has 24 facilities located in
the Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand. This report will investigate
the health organisation in order to find out how well it is able to meet the organisational missions
and objectives. The recommendations will be made to the Chief Executive and the Board of this
healthcare organisation.
1. Political and policy environment
St. John’s is a leader when it comes to providing healthcare services of high quality and it
includes in the nursing homes, hospitals, disability as well as outreach services in Australia, New
Zealand and the wider region of Asia-Pacific region. The organisation provides ethical as well as
holistic approach to patient treatment and support for service users. In order to be responsible to
the environment, the not-for-profit group returns their surplus to the communities they are
serving and invest in people. Since the policy of the organisation reflects the values of religious
group who founded the organisation, the organisation’s services reflect their generosity of spirit.
The guiding principles are social justice and providing services to the marginalized section of the
society. Regular assessments and evaluations are conducted by the healthcare organisation to
gain an understanding about how the care users feel about the services and quality of care.
2. Organisational design and coordination
St. John of God Health Care is a controlled entity that is wholly owned by St. John of God
Australia Ltd which is civil and canon law organsiation that was set up in 2004 in order to
sponsor the ministry that was previously done by the Sisters of St. John of God. The Board
members are appointed by the non-executive Trustees of St. John. The direction and guidance
are provided to the Group Chief Executive Officer by the Board and it is through the Executive

Officer that the Group Management Committee oversees key operation. In order to create
efficiency in the hospital initiatives and programs are created in order to allow the hospitals
caregivers to spend more time with patients and focus on the improvements. The organisation
had an ethical framework that has its basis on the Catholic Code of Ethical Standards, which is
embedded through the rest of the organisation so that the policies are expressed through the view
of Catholic social teaching. The focus is on supporting the current redesign of the workforce
structure across the organisation so that the activity levels and strategic priorities can be aligned.
3. Leadership and teamwork
At St. John of God Healthcare the Group Chief Executive Officer convenes as well as chairs the
Group Executive Committee that consists of senior members with the responsibility of providing
advice and assistance on operational matters. There is a quarterly meeting of the Committee. The
healthcare organisation focuses on quality leadership and clinical governance. The team of
doctors and nurses at the healthcare facility offers total care to a patient with orthopaedic care
starting from pre-surgery phase to rehabilitation (Sjog.org.au, 2019). Besides this, the Health
Care has research centres that collaborate with universities, clinicians and industry in order to
deliver innovative health services which will translate into improved health outcomes of the
patient. Since the Trustees, Group Chief Executive Office, Board members and senior executives
are commissioned leaders, they have to execute their responsibilities and caregivers.
4. Financial resource utilization
St John of God Health Care uses their financial resources in order to continue investing in
redevelopments at their existing hospitals so that expanded services can be provided and the
overall experience of the patient and the caregivers can be expanded. From 2015 to 2018, the
Greenfield development went on at St John of God Berwick Hospital where new construction of
facilities that was jointly owned by Northwest Healthcare got completed. The new facility had
126 beds and it expanded to include two shelled wards for starting rehabilitation services. St
John of God Geelong Hospital allocated $21 million funds to expand and upgrade the facilities to
offer improved cardiac services (Annualreport2018.sjog.org, 2019). It also refurbished the
critical care unit. St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital used 10 million financial
resources in order to upgrade the facility’s onsite mechanical and electrical infrastructure.

Besides the refurbishment of facilities, the organisation is also strengthening the structure of St
John of God Karori in order to provide protection against any seismic activity in the region in the
future. This also includes improving operational efficiency and expanding the beds so that the
demand for services can be capitalized.
Figure 1: Consolidated statement of St. John of God Healthcare (Source: Annual Report 2017-
18)

Figure 2: Cash flows of St. John of God (Source: Annual Report 2017-18)
5. Attitude towards technology
St John of God is looking forward to enhance their technological capability in order to increase
and improve their performance, flexibility, speed and also the communication both inside and
outside of the healthcare facility. This attitude is also to ensure consistent delivery of quality
patient care. The organisation has introduce an online portal called the “My Admission Portal” in
order to stimulate interactions between the service users and St John of God Murdoch Hospital,
to guide them through the admission process as well as provide financial and payment
information, and healthcare services available at the hospital (Annualreport2018.sjog.org, 2019).
Patients with surgical and obstetric needs are not admitted at St John of God Murdoch Hospital
through the means of new portal and there are plans to roll out this new portal at Subiaco and Mt.
Lawley Hospitals by upcoming financial year. There is also a mobile app for the healthcare’s
doctors at St John of God Subiaco, Bendigo and Murdoch hospitals that give real time
information about the patient along with the key diagnostics of test results. This Doctor Connect
App offers specialists to access important information about the patient in a secure manner,
thereby facilitating timely clinical decision making. The Kronos workforce management system
has been introduced to provider rostering and attendance solutions.
6. Recommendations
Investigation about the different aspects of organisation shows that St John of God Health Care
is doing well in terms of offering quality healthcare to the patients while also giving due

consideration to its caregivers. However, there are certain areas where the organisation can show
improvement. The organisation has started responding and capitalizing on the increased demand
for their services, but at the same time they should also consider the implication of this on the
workforce. In order to reduce the potential turnover rates that might arise due to demand in
healthcare services, the healthcare organsiation should limit the working hours of the caregiver,
bring an improvement in their schedules, for example, single parents should have minimal night
shifts, as well provide sleep hygiene training in order to combat clinician fatigues. While there
are additions of more beds in the hospital facilities of St John of God, the issue of hospital
crowding can be managed by brining a system wide improvement of capacity management and
the flow of patients (Harrison et al, 2019). This should be coupled with support from the
management, measurement as well as reporting about the crowding. Solutions for the long-term
in order to manage the staffing shortfalls involve redesigning the process in order to improve
efficiency. Other measures that will contribute to staff retention following the increased demand
of healthcare services are efficient human resource management, improving interoccupational
relations and improving the climate of workfplace. Only when there is proper employee
engagement, the care and service quality of hospital facility will improve. Dissatisfied or
fatigued medical practitioners will unsatisfied care users. There are other enhancements based on
evidence that shows how physical features and patient rooms add directly to the safety of
patients and also improves the quality of staff performance (Collini et al, 2015).
Besides this, another area that St John of God Health Care should immediately look is their use
of technology. While the organisation is implementing various apps for improving the service
and quality of healthcare that is being provided, they should also invest their financial resources
as much into cyber security. The healthcare facility treats throusands of patients every year and
as such they are in possession of sensitive and personal information of the patients. In case the
information comes into the wrong use or unethical use, the data of the patients and the reputation
of the oraganisation can be compromised (Martin et al, 2017). As per Becker’s Hospital Review,
data breaches in the healthcare sector costs the industry approximately $5.6 billion each year.
The healthcare facility can implement certain measures to improve its cyber security. The
healthcare organisation can maintain a security culture by providing cybersecurity training and
educating each organisational member about their responsibility of protecting the patient data,
thereby creating a culture of security (Perakslis, 2014). Since St John of God has created mobile

app for the healthcare providers which helps in accessing patient data, protective measures such
as encryption should be ensured to make sure that the devices are secure. New recruits should be
provided training on computer use which includes marinating operation system and software.
Data professionals should continuously develop strategies to ensure that sensitive health data are
secure.
Conclusion
St. John God of Helath Care is one of the largest healthcare providers in Australia. The
organisation is continually undertaking various projects in order to improve its healthcare
services and serve the marginalised section of the society. There are certain areas such as data
security which the organsiation should make efforts to secure and contribute to quality services
with minimum error.

References
Annualreport2018.sjog.org.au. (2019). St John of God Annual Report 2017-18 - Home. [online]
Available at: http://annualreport2018.sjog.org.au/ [Accessed 21 May 2019].
Collini, S.A., Guidroz, A.M. and Perez, L.M., 2015. Turnover in health care: the mediating
effects of employee engagement. Journal of nursing management, 23(2), pp.169-178.
Harrison, M., Henriksen, K. and Hughes, R. (2019). Improving the health care work
environment: implications for research, practice, and policy. - PubMed - NCBI. [online]
Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18173168 [Accessed 21
May 2019].
Martin, G., Martin, P., Hankin, C., Darzi, A. and Kinross, J., 2017. Cybersecurity and healthcare:
how safe are we?. Bmj, 358, p.j3179.
Perakslis, E.D., 2014. Cybersecurity in health care. N Engl J Med, 371(5), pp.395-397.
Sjog.org.au. (2019). Executives. [online] Available at:
https://www.sjog.org.au/about-us/governance-and-stewardship/executives [Accessed 21 May
2019].