Organisational innovation in hospitals and healthcare was the main topic of the 2017 HOPE AGORA, HMI President, Lucy Nugent said when she opened the three day event in Trinity College, Dublin, which was attended by over 300 health managers. Maureen Browne reports on AGORA 2017.
During the AGORA – which was organised by the HMI – healthcare managers reported on innovations they had seen in 17 European countries where they had spent a four week training period as part of the HOPE Exchange Programme.
Ms. Nugent said this was the 36th HOPE Exchange Programme. The HMI was delighted to be invited to organise it. She welcomed delegates from all over Europe and thanked the sponsors who, she said, were a key element in achieving a conference of this scale.
HOPE (the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation) was a European non-profit association founded in Rome in 1966. It promoted improvements in the health of citizens throughout Europe and aimed to foster efficiency, effectiveness and humanity in the organisation and operation of hospital services and of the health systems within which they functioned
Ms. Nugent said HOPE members covered almost 80% of hospital activity in the EU and included representatives from national hospital owners’ organisations of the 28 Member States of the EU, Switzerland and Serbia.
The HMI President said one of the basic objectives of HOPE was to promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise within the European Union and to provide training and experience for hospital and healthcare professionals in the European context. As a professional association the HMI has similar objectives as HOPE which is to “Inform, Educate and Involve” its members.
She said organisational innovation was a broad topic that in the context of the Exchange Programme should be seen as the implementation of a new method or process in relation to the use of new technologies, to health services provision, to human resources management and patients’ empowerment or involvement.
