Higher production and better distribution of workload

Integrated capacity management is of added value not only in hospitals, but also in rehabilitation care. For good cooperation within an organisation, it is necessary to have a detailed consultation structure and appropriate governance. Why is that? What does this way of working achieve? And what are the most important factors for success and the biggest challenges? 

We asked the experienced experts Rick Verbers (Capacity Manager) and Mark Varekamp (Director of Care Operations) from Libra Rehabilitation & Audiology, a healthcare organisation with six locations in North Brabant and Limburg which focuses on specialist diagnostics, treatment and guidance for adults, children and young people with physical, cognitive and/or hearing impairments.

Doing more with less

“The challenge of our time is that we have to do more with less,” says Rick Verbers. “Staff who can provide care are also becoming scarcer in rehabilitation care. This means that we have to be economical with the professionals we have in-house and deploy them as efficiently as possible. An additional challenge is financial constraints. In the integrated care agreement, it has been agreed that the costs of care may not increase even though, for example, wage costs are increasing. At the same time, the patient population is growing due to the aging population. We therefore have to do more with fewer resources. That’s where capacity management comes in.”

Everyone wants to provide the best care in their own way, but not everyone ultimately serves the same interests.

– Mark Varekamp | Director of Healthcare Operations

An important challenge in the context of integrated capacity management is achieving productivity increases. “The planning horizon and the way of thinking about plans often does not extend beyond a few weeks,” says Mark Varekamp. “But we want to use an integrated capacity management agency to look much further ahead in order to achieve optimal coordination between care supply and demand. And that starts with developing a clear vision for integrated capacity management. Performation, part of Enovation, has made an important contribution to this.”

Well-organised capacity planning

Varekamp does not have to think long about the other bottlenecks where external expertise has been very welcome. “One of my projects involved setting up an integrated capacity management agency. But how do we set up something like that? What type of roles, skills and competences do we need? Another point of attention had to do with the data and the tooling in order to be able to process, present and discuss information in the right way. In addition to those substantive points, Performation (part of Enovation since February 2025) has helped us a lot in the process of weighing up all our different interests internally and making decisions.”

Rick Verbers, Capacity Manager

In order to organise capacity planning properly, Libra needed operational and tactical planners, directed by a manager responsible for developing and shaping the agency. That manager is Rick Verbers, who has been in the role for one year now. “I am actually a result of what has been previously discussed,” he concludes with a smile. “People have now been recruited for the roles and the Works Council now has our plan for the further development of the planning. The tactical planners have been put in place and (the operational and tactical) planning consultations are now underway. We spar intensively with our colleagues in the primary process about planning and bottlenecks, and we work in a ‘short-cycle’ way to ensure that the available capacity is used as efficiently as possible.”

The data analyses clearly shows that the new way of working is of added value for us.

Governance and consultation structure

“For me and the operations managers, the new consultation structure is very important in order to connect people, allow them to express their concerns and talk about what we are doing,” says Mark Varekamp. “Everyone wants to provide the best care in their own way, but not everyone ultimately serves the same interests. In order to be able to have a constructive conversation about this, the right infrastructure (for those consultations) is very important. Together we look at what is going on and how we can do things better and differently based on the data.”

“These conversations are very important for the connection between the planners and our colleagues in primary processes,” adds Verbers. “Thanks to the available data, we can also gain insights into how things can be improved. The governance and consultation structure are therefore very important for creating that connection and making agreements that we can hold each other to.”

Better distribution of workload

Concrete benefits of the new way of working are higher productivity and a better distribution of the workload. Varekamp: “By productivity we mean direct hours spent face-to-face with a patient. The data shows us where there is space. Gaps in the schedule can also be very deliberate, due to arrangements for certain patients or time is needed to catch one’s breath, for example. Based on this information, we can also adjust the schedule, so that we can better distribute the workload and see increased job satisfaction.”
“An important success factor for this process is putting the right people in the right place,” says Verbers. “In our case, I am mainly referring to the tactical planners who have to advise the primary process so that those people can do their job well. Moreover, the most important thing for a good conversation is having the data in order. We are taking those steps, but the rehabilitation sector is lagging behind the hospital sector, where I worked before.”

Training, coaching and support

Mark Varekamp, Director of Healthcare Operations

Varekamp emphasises the need to accentuate the value internally. “What does this new way of working mean in terms of productivity, income and job satisfaction? Performation has helped us a lot in formulating our vision, mission and goals. Our own task has been to get everyone within the organisation to look in the same direction. After all, we can be very convinced of the importance ourselves, but it is important to include the organisation — from client and works councils to the management team and medical staff — in these developments, ideas and intended goals. That also means training, coaching and supporting people to allow them to grow to the right level.”

Varekamp also emphasises the importance of defining the basic agreements — the so-called ‘planning frameworks’ — together. “Imagine we want to plan six weeks in advance, so we want clarity about everyone’s availability no later than six weeks in advance. That sounds like a very simple agreement, but healthcare professionals prefer maximum flexibility when planning their schedules. These are interesting processes, in which an external agency can help clarify those interests and convince professionals of the usefulness and necessity of such a planning framework. It was very nice to have Performation as a partner in this.”

Capacity management has more than proven itself

“Capacity has more than proven itself as a digital solution in hospital care,” concludes Verbers. “In rehabilitation care, it is still in its early stages, but the data already clearly shows that the new way of working is also of added value for us. With the help of Performation, which has the expertise to organise capacity management well and achieve strategic objectives.”

If you would like more information about Capacity or our other solutions within the Enovation Platform, we would be happy to discuss this with you further.

Performation is part of Enovation