Sonia Coleman

Worked alongside the West Metro HSP (WMHSP) Executive Director to lead the strategic design, development and delivery of the WMHSP Planned Surgery Recovery and Reform Program.

• Strategic Stakeholder Management: Successfully managed complex stakeholder dynamics across diverse organisational contexts, ensuring actions aligned with overarching strategic goals at the system level.
• Leadership Through Change and Uncertainty: Led a high-performing WMHSP Delivery and Innovation Team through the challenges of COVID-19 disruptions, staff burnout, workforce shortages, and rising demand. The WMHSP Planned Surgery Recovery and Reform Program, implemented from January 2023 to March 2024, has delivered tangible outcomes benefiting patients, staff, and the broader healthcare system. One of many key WMHSP achievements include the saving of 2,601 bed days saved through ERAS+ and Same Day reform initiatives delivered across the region.
• Driving System-Wide Collaboration and Partnership Development: Experienced in cultivating collaborative relationships across diverse stakeholders and organisational contexts, with a demonstrated ability to identify strategic opportunities and foster partnerships that improve operational efficiency and achieve collective objectives. Established strong alliances with six Premier Metropolitan Hospitals, resulting in multiple surgical partnerships that facilitated the sharing of infrastructure, workforce, and specialist expertise. These initiatives increased access to planned surgery, benefiting an additional 2,694 patients across the region.
• Clinical Service Development, Quality Improvement and Innovation: Led the design, delivery, and evaluation of the ERAS+ and Virtual Surgery School (VSS) projects:
  ERAS+: Delivered a system-wide approach to quality improvement, aimed at addressing variation in perioperative care and mitigating rising surgical risks in high impact cohorts across 5 hospitals. Since its launch in 2022, the project has positively impacted over 800 patients, enhancing access to planned surgery while significantly improving patient outcomes and experiences. Notably, care variation has markedly improved, with average clinical protocol compliance across participating sites increasing from 48.07% to 73.56% in less than 12 months. Hip and knee replacements saw significant reductions in length of stay by 57% and 35% respectively, 68% reduction in readmission rates were achieved for Gynaecological procedures and a 21% reduction in complications for Head and Neck surgery. Independent evaluation underscores the project's cost-effectiveness, yielding a return of $2.62 for every dollar invested and a net present value of $4.8 million.
  Virtual Surgery School (VSS): Developed a scalable prehabilitation model of care, virtually accessible to patients and carers. The VSS package includes a comprehensive suite of 22 educational videos, co-designed by consumers and multi-disciplinary teams and translated into 6 languages. Adopted across the State of Victoria, this resource supports delivery of a universal model of care aimed at improving the management of modifiable risk in patients to optimise their health and wellbeing prior to surgery.
• Governance and Risk Management: Proficient in governance and risk management, with a strong track record in strategic oversight and effective risk mitigation.
• Data driven Planning and Prioritisation: Led the design and procurement of multiple regional projects to identify pockets of excellence and generate innovative thinking that could be translated into action. These projects supported planning and prioritisation of reform initiatives and included:
  Best Practice and Policy Implementation Review
  Regional Theatre Utilisation Review
  Development of a Regional Waitlist Forecasting Model
• Financial Management and Grant Coordination
  Budget Oversight: Successfully managed a $9 million budget, ensuring fiscal responsibility and supporting equitable allocations across diverse organisations.
  Grant Coordination: Orchestrated complex regional grant submissions and funding applications totalling over $300 million in bids under the COVID-19 Catch up Plan for capital projects, recovery efforts, and healthcare reform activities.
  Strategic Funding Acquisition: Demonstrated expertise in identifying funding opportunities, crafting compelling grant proposals, and navigating regulatory requirements to maximise financial support for WMHSP goals.

Clinical Service Redesign and Strategic Business Development to establish a commercially viable Centre for Prehabilitation & Perioperative care (CPPOC).

• Established a Governance and Leadership framework.
• Expanded the model of Prehabiitation and Perioperative Care across multiple tumour stream domains.
• Improved access to CPPOC for patients in regional and rural areas.
• Operationalised the integration of evidence based ERAS and prehabilitation pathways into routine clinical practice.
• Supported the ongoing development and expansion of a Perioperative & Prehabilitation Research Program
• Established the development of a professional development and clinical training program for Prehabilitation & Perioperative Care.
• Consolidated an evaluation and reporting framework for the Centre, with quality assurance & clinical audit activities to drive continuous improvement processes and ensure the delivery of high quality patient-centric care.
• Completed an Innovation fellowship with the Alan and Kate Gibson Foundation, participating in an international VBHC collaborative. Partnering with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Harvard Business School, undertook a time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) project as part of the multi-centre U.S. THRIVE initiative. The TDABC project provided an opportunity to determine accurate estimates of cost and capacity utilisation of resources used to deliver a full cycle of care. With more accurate costing and an understanding of how different services relate to patient outcomes, clinicians and administrators will be enabled to identify priorities for process and quality improvement and better manage staffing mix to enable teams to work at the top of their licence.

Owner Director, Active Solutions Ascot (Private Practice)
Director of NHS Clinical Services, Active Solutions Ascot (PPP)

Director of In-house Physiotherapy Services, BBC & British Airways London

• Assisted the National Health Service (NHS) in England via a public and private partnership to scope, analyse, plan and implement a stakeholder-centric service model focused on improving outcomes for patients identified as suitable candidates for hip and knee joint replacement surgery.
  Project delivered reductions in joint replacements by 17% with over 80% of patients diverted from surgery. In addition, the new service model reduced long waiting lists for joint replacements, avoidable hospital admissions and 30 day readmission rates across a significant outlier region.
• Three times awarded "Business Of The Year" by Arc Leisure, London.