700 Section - Exemplary Leadership in a Rehabilitation setting: Integrity and Creativity as Foundations for Transforming Disability-friendly Hospitals

Hospitals, as pivotal referral center, are mandated to deliver high-quality Medical Rehabilitation services that address functional disorders, disabilities, and management, ultimately fostering optimal independence. The WHO's 2030 Rehabilitation initiative aims to enhance medical rehabilitation services, emphasizing the need for strong leadership from sub-national to global levels. This study elucidates the transformative power of exemplary leadership, characterized by integrity and creativity, in metamorphosing hospitals into disability-friendly institutions and illustrates how drive organizational change and enhance care for individuals with disabilities.

Design: This study employed a qualitative case study approach, integrating self-reflection and data analysis to examine the transformative power of exemplary leadership highlighting integrity and creativity in driving positive change in a rehabilitation unit, 2020-2025. This study utilized the Values-in-Action self-assessment questionnaire to identify the leadership characteristics with the greatest influence within the rehabilitation unit. Key Performance Index, continually evaluation and controlling were incorporated to assess improvement. The identification of challenges encompassed human resources, infrastructure, administrative systems, and service delivery aspects. Data were analyzed to identify the achievement.

Results: The study reveals that exemplary leadership, grounded in integrity and creativity, is essential for fostering a culture of inclusivity, improving care quality, and enhancing patient satisfaction. The achievement are quality improvements in human resources (increased discipline, mean=90%; knowledge of hospital accreditation standards, mean 80%; and communication skills), infrastructure (clean, complete facilities), administration (digital and open), and services (patient satisfaction, mean=80%; growth score >2). An unanticipated outcome is the recognition from the Ministry of Health, with a national award in 2022 as an exemplary doctor.

Conclusion: The conclusion is that exemplary leaders with integrity and a creative approach can drive improvements transformation of rehabilitation unit into a disability-friendly hospital. Future research is needed to explore the influence of exemplary leadership with different methods on organizational performance and health services.