Leading complex change in healthcare: 10 lessons learned

This article reports on the transfer of perinatal services at St. Joseph's Health Care, in London, Ontario, to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The transfer of perinatal programs, services and people/providers to LHSC generates concern in key stakeholders with respect to a potential negative impact on the quality of care delivery, staff work life and morale, team performance, recruitment, retention and other performance indicators. Our main task was to establish "readiness and capacity for the change" in the years leading up to the actual transfer, with a strong focus on attending to the human side of the change, clinical and cultural alignment. We describe the external and internal challenges of the transfer and the approach that we took in building readiness, and end with 10 lessons learned and applied throughout the change process.