LENMED AIR 2019.pdf

Helicopter Emergency Medical Service in the Group, in partnership with key local EMS providers, with a view of driving trauma, cardiac, stroke and paediatric referrals to our facilities in the region. The response to date has been very positive. Our rest of Africa operations continue to grow, providing previously unavailable treatment to these areas. Bokamoso Private Hospital’s cardiac programme has shown impressive results, with good volumes and patient outcomes achieved. The hospital recently started a vascular surgery service, as well as commissioned the only nuclear medicine facility available in the country. Maputo Private Hospital has been equally impressive, launching the only private neurosurgery and psychiatric units in Mozambique. We are pleased to note that the Group, in line with its strategy, has been awarded licences to develop a day hospital at its Shifa Private Hospital facility, as well as a psychiatric unit at La Verna Private Hospital. Planning around these initiatives is well underway, with construction expected to commence early in the new year. The Group has a number of further licence applications pending at the various provincial Departments of Health and is confident of receiving these approvals in due course. Patient outcomes and satisfaction Our patients and specialists are at the core of everything we do, with the delivery of quality care and superior outcomes our priority. The Group’s Customer Experience Management system provides valuable real-time insights into patient satisfaction, allowing us to optimise the patient journey. We continue to invest in our people and infrastructure to enhance our patients’ experience throughout all our facilities. During the year, Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre and Shifa Private Hospital were recognised as Discovery Health Top 20 hospitals, an achievement we are especially proud of. We continue to work hard to achieve further representation on this prestigious list. The Group continues to support its doctor base by providing the necessary facilities and equipment proven to improve clinical outcomes. We have a highly experienced, professional and competent doctor pool in the organisation with whom we collaborate to improve quality, patient satisfaction and address key industry concerns frommedical aids around cost efficiencies in the market. Several new initiatives, including the development of individual doctor practice reports, an incident management reporting system and the introduction of the Bluebird infection surveillance system, were launched during the year. Human resources Human resources, specifically the availability of skilled specialists and nursing staff continues to pose a challenge. While Lenmed remains competitive in attracting and retaining quality staff and doctors, the shortage of these skills will become more challenging going forward if left unresolved. We are working, together with the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) to tackle these issues through the development of public private training platforms. We have undertaken a comprehensive leadership assessment of all senior management within the organisation, to gain a more scientific understanding of the strengths, gaps and areas for improvement of the Lenmed leadership team, the results of which were very encouraging. It is envisaged that this process will be rolled out to the next layer of organisational management in the ensuing year. Funder relations Medical aid membership has remained stagnant for the last four years. We continue to see an increase in the number of Designated Service Provider (DSP) and Efficiency Discount Options (EDO) arrangements being introduced, with medical aid members more amenable to restricted choice in return for discounted premiums. The lower tariffs expected by funders are a necessary trade-off to secure volumes required to maintain margins. Lenmed, through its membership of the National Hospital Network (NHN), has had good success in securing participation in these arrangements, most notably the Discovery Health Day Surgery Network and Polmed Hospital Network. Negotiations with funders are increasingly complex, with various efficiency, utilisation and quality metrics coming to the fore. To ensure we are negotiating from a position of strength, the Group strives to enhance efficiencies on a total cost per event basis and improve on key quality metrics, including patient satisfaction, thereby creating a strong value proposition to schemes. Lenmed has implemented an internal toolkit measuring doctor efficiency, clinical performance and patient satisfaction against our peers. We engage regularly with key funders, both in our own capacity and through the NHN to discuss concerns and forge close working relationships. Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) is becoming increasingly important in our industry, especially in the area of DSP and EDO tenders. Lenmed has been rated as a Level 4 contributor in accordance with the Department of Trade and Industry’s B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice. Regulatory matters Government continues in its quest to achieve Universal Healthcare Coverage through the implementation of a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. The Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA), together with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) are representing the interests of the sector in this regard. The NHI has been classified as a priority programme of Government and is now under the direct oversight of the President of South Africa. The industry is awaiting more detail of the proposed structure, financing mechanisms and care package to be covered. We are, however, encouraged by the willingness of the Department of Health to forge a closer working relationship with the private sector during this interim period, with a view of establishing public private partnerships in the areas of doctor training and treatment of non-insured patients in private hospitals. Lenmed, together with the NHN, has engaged the Competition Commission, in respect of the Healthcare Market Inquiry, presenting the views and challenges faced from an independent provider perspective. Its provisional report has been tabled, with NHN providing its commentary thereon. Due to a lack of funding, the Inquiry was temporarily postponed with the process now expected to be completed by the end of the 2019 calendar year. Reflections from our Deputy Chief Executive Officer continued 20 CREATING VALUE IN A SUSTAINABLE MANNER THROUGH OUR STRATEGY