Commission with a Mission

It’s not often in one’s career you get to be part of creating and shaping something new, bringing to the fore your vision and innovative flair; quietly confident in the knowledge that positioned and resourced correctly it can make a lasting difference.

Has that intro piqued your interest a little?

I hope so as I am referring to the newly established Commission on Excellence and Innovation (CEIH) in Health in South Australia.

A key aim of the South Australian Government is to rebalance the health system in a way that represents the values of the community, delivers the highest standards of safe and quality care and is economically viable for the future.

No single agency can do that of course and certainly the Commission doesn’t have delusions of grandeur of riding in on a fine looking horse and singly achieving that aim. No, none of that. But it is well positioned and resourced to:

• Bring together clinicians, consumers, health partners and other key stakeholders from across the State to share learnings and innovations that improve health outcomes
• Share improvement science resources and expertise to support and bolster the efforts of healthcare teams and organisations across the local health networks and more broadly
• Become a recognised and shared centre of excellence for the system, contributing to system and service redesign

Professor Paddy Phillips, the former Chief Medical Officer and Chief Public Health Officer for SA Health, has been appointed by the Premier as inaugural Commissioner, with a dual reporting line to the Minister of Health and Chief Executive (DG equivalent) SA Health.

We feel very honoured to be partnering with Paddy to recruit to the role of Executive Director Clinical Improvement and Innovation, a key appointment in his leadership team.

The ED Clinical Improvement and Innovation will work with the CEIH’s partners to:

• Develop best practice principles, methods and tools to support clinical improvement in the health system
• Develop clinical improvement capacity across the system
• Promote and support best practice in clinical improvement projects
• Identify and disseminate innovative practice across the health system

However, one of the very first things they will be doing is partnering with Paddy to determine the right structure and resourcing for their unit, including direct reports, and then setting about establishing their foundation team.

What a great career opportunity to not only be part of establishing the Commission itself but also your own team from the ground up. From there it’s about setting in motion the right strategies to enable the Commission to reach its full potential.

Check out the candidate briefing pack and if on reading it, this really does sound like your moment let’s talk.