Today I received, with distinction, my University Diploma in the Direction and Management of Health and Social Care Institutions from Université Côte d’Azur, for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Care institutions are often described through operating metrics: capacity, staffing ratios, occupancy, capital expenditure and compliance. As an operator, I work with all of them. But none explains what a facility feels like on an ordinary Tuesday.
I wanted to understand what happens between a decision made in a boardroom and the daily experience of the person receiving care. That requires looking closely at how residents or patients, families, physicians, nurses, care assistants, therapists, hospitality teams, administrators and regulators interact.
An institution is a living system. Every actor brings a different expertise, responsibility and constraint. Management is not merely directing that system; it is creating the conditions in which those perspectives can work together without losing sight of the person at the centre.
I am particularly grateful to Thierry Costanzo, who was my mentor throughout this journey. He taught me to connect the detail of operations with the human purpose of care, and to never treat one as separate from the other.
Going beyond the business of care means understanding where policy, clinical practice, operations and human relationships meet. That is where quality is created – or lost.