Towards Superior Performance In Public Hospitals: An Assessment Of Strategic Capabilities - The Case Of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital

ABSTRACT Improvement in health service delivery has become an issue in recent times all over the world with Ghana not being an exception. In Ghana, Public Hospitals have come under severe media and public criticism for poor service delivery. To be able to meet the expectation of the public, these hospitals must possess certain resources and competences. Not only should public hospital improve on their performance but should also do their best to excel in the health care industry. This requires that the resources and competencies, which are necessary for health services delivery, must be distinct from that of others in the health service industry. The study therefore sought to find out whether Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) possessed any distinct resources and competencies and how they could be exploited for superior performance. The study employed a multi method approach of data collection. Structured questionnaires, documents and archives were used to get information on the hospital’s past performance and also identify the resources and competences that Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital possessed. The study showed that Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital had almost all the resources central to health service delivery as well as distinctive resources. KATH, compared with its competitors, was found to be endowed with physical resources like facilities for special cases. For example, Neonatal unit, Radiotherapy Centre, state-of-the-art X-ray and Family planning facilities. However, the facilities at the hospital were over utilized and some of its equipment needed to be changed as they were old. KATH had a strong human resource position as it had staff with vast expertise especially in the clinical areas. The hospital’s relationship with the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah contributed greatly to this advantage. The lecturers provided services through their teaching. However, the performance of activities (competencies) was not encouraging. The resources had not been fully deployed to create competences in the performance of critical activities. From the overall assessment of KATH’s competencies no unique competencies were found. In the area of Service Delivery/Operations the performance was ordinary. It would have been expected that with the good human resources position of the hospital, it would have a unique competence in this area. As a teaching hospital which has research as part of its mission, KATH’s performance in research and development was poor. It even had the personnel to undertake research. It could use research to improve on its services. Managements of Public Hospital should not think that due to the resource constraints that they face improving performance or excelling in performance cannot be attained. They should know their organizations by doing an internal assessment to identify strengths, which could be exploited and the weaknesses which ought to be strengthened and improved for superior performance.