A study of leadership and implementing a regional trauma care network in the East Midlands

This dissertation focuses on issues of innovation and leadership in healthcare. It examines these issues in the context of the reorganisation of trauma care services in the East Midlands into a regionalised trauma network. It is a qualitative study using a general inductive theoretical approach to examine interview data from a sample of 6 members of the network as they discuss issues of management and leadership. Trauma care services are a significant area of study, because the long term effects of poor trauma care include disability and death, and affecting people less than forty years old more severely. This places a burden on society that could be prevented (Albert and Phillips, 2003). Leadership has been shown to present an opportunity for providing better quality of healthcare. This can be through helping implement new healthcare initiatives, improving teamwork in a healthcare environment and reducing fragmentation of care (Millward and Bryan, 2005). This study begins with a literature review which helps frame and contextualise the issue. It covers the specialisation of trauma services, theories of leadership and innovation and shows how this research contributes to existing literature on this subject. Following this, there is an assessment of methodological approaches to studying trauma services as well as conducting qualitative research, which culminates in a study design. Finally, the analysis section summarises and discusses the concepts created during data analysis and synthesises them with literature from the review to produce the research findings. The argument I present is that the reorganisation of trauma services in the East Midlands presents evidence clarifying the role of leadership in healthcare restructuring. Specifically, this dissertation identifies evidence for leaders facilitating the implementation of healthcare innovations, the redefinition of trauma care as a profession, and the inclusion of outcome concerns beyond acute care and mortality statistics. Most significantly, this dissertation combines these theoretical considerations in an area lacking in qualitative studies; trauma care

A study of leadership and implementing a regional trauma care network in the East Midlands

This dissertation focuses on issues of innovation and leadership in healthcare. It examines these issues in the context of the reorganisation of trauma care services in the East Midlands into a regionalised trauma network. It is a qualitative study using a general inductive theoretical approach to examine interview data from a sample of 6 members of the network as they discuss issues of management and leadership. Trauma care services are a significant area of study, because the long term effects of poor trauma care include disability and death, and affecting people less than forty years old more severely. This places a burden on society that could be prevented (Albert and Phillips, 2003). Leadership has been shown to present an opportunity for providing better quality of healthcare. This can be through helping implement new healthcare initiatives, improving teamwork in a healthcare environment and reducing fragmentation of care (Millward and Bryan, 2005). This study begins with a literature review which helps frame and contextualise the issue. It covers the specialisation of trauma services, theories of leadership and innovation and shows how this research contributes to existing literature on this subject. Following this, there is an assessment of methodological approaches to studying trauma services as well as conducting qualitative research, which culminates in a study design. Finally, the analysis section summarises and discusses the concepts created during data analysis and synthesises them with literature from the review to produce the research findings. The argument I present is that the reorganisation of trauma services in the East Midlands presents evidence clarifying the role of leadership in healthcare restructuring. Specifically, this dissertation identifies evidence for leaders facilitating the implementation of healthcare innovations, the redefinition of trauma care as a profession, and the inclusion of outcome concerns beyond acute care and mortality statistics. Most significantly, this dissertation combines these theoretical considerations in an area lacking in qualitative studies; trauma care