MUMC +

Alongside Maastricht University Medical Centre, we developed an internal communication policy that included a communicative change approach. This was first put into practice in the Operating Theatre.

Client

MUMC+ is the Maastricht University Medical Centre, and the “+” represents prevention and the promotion of healthcare. 7000 employees work there and 4000 students in the Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University gain their practical experience there.

Question

Or rather questions: we have already been working for a long time with MUMC+ on the development of an IC policy and a communicative change approach. We embarked on developing an IC policy to gain clarity about what the communication work should and should not include.

We also designed a change approach, which we initially put into practice for the Operating Theatre. Its structural renovation was tied in to a new way of working for the employees. The changes in the Operating Theatre immediately turned into a test case for the change approach, which would form the basis for changes in other MUMC+ departments. One example was the Material Management programme, which entailed major changes in working methods relating to the distribution and use of all sorts of materials in the clinic.

We elaborated the IC policy in conjunction with the IC team, based on the re-focused vision, mission and ambition of the MUMC+.

Approach

Those responsible for IC at MUMC+ and consultants from Involve held talks with important officials within the hospital and gradually developed the IC policy. The focus was on making choices for content, enhancing line communication and the targeted deployment of resources, so that important topics were focused on the approach, using them to strengthen discussions around them.

For the Operating Theatre, we went along and talked with as many people as we could, to experience what operating was like in an organisation open 24 hours a day, where the people worked in line with established protocols and fixed methods and places. Using the IOC policy as basis, we tested an approach that could be used as a blueprint for change communication.

Result

The result of this collaboration was a clear IC policy, supple enough to cope with the context of the MUMC+ and offering structure and focus to the IC team. It also led to a change approach that has been deployed effectively in both the Operating Theatre and Material Management, one that the IC team is now using independently for changes in Intensive Care.