As one of Australia’s most respected leaders in facility and asset management in the healthcare sector, Project Director Jonathan Woodman has led teams across several Ventia health contracts.  

Currently based in Victoria on our Austin Health contract, Jonathan moved back to Australia after spending over two years in New Zealand standing up our centralAlliance contract. Prior to that, he led the team at Sydney’s Northern Beaches Hospital during the initial years of that contract, which is now in its seventh year. And that’s just his time with Ventia!

Enhancing the patient experience

Jonathan says his focus across all the contracts and facilities he’s worked at has been on enhancing the patient experience. “Ultimately what our customers want to deliver, and therefore what we as service providers must deliver, is the best possible experience for the patients and their families who are utilising these health facilities,” Jonathan says.

It’s also important for Jonathan and the teams he leads to ensure that the clinical staff at the hospitals can focus on their jobs, knowing that the maintenance and management of the assets and facilities around them is taken care of.

“Good communication is critical in this,” Jonathan says. “Building positive and collaborative relationships with the wonderful clinicians and support staff that work in these hospitals, and then keeping them up to date with anything that impacts their day-to-day roles, makes things run so much more smoothly and leads to enhanced staff satisfaction particularly at a clinical level.”

Drawing on organisational values and strategic focus

“Delivering service excellence within a hospital setting has been made easy for me by the underlying pillars of the Ventia brand. Defining who we are is fundamental to our connection to care delivery,” he explains.

“It might sound simple or obvious, but when you’re moving quickly from one thing to the next, remembering to keep all your stakeholders updated sometimes falls away. For me, that’s not an option.”

The vast knowledge and clinical-interface experience Jonathan brings adds considerable value to our operations - ensuring risks are identified and mitigated to prevent disruption to customer operations.

Health facilities can be quite complex, and managing that complexity is another skill Jonathan brings to the table.

“Those of us in healthcare really had to bring our A-game over the past few years, but especially in the early days of the COVID pandemic,” Jonathan says. “The usual complexity of hospital operating environments increased further and the strength of your processes as well as the trust you had in your team was critical.”

Working in a complex operating environment

Being able to pivot from ‘business as usual’ to a constantly changing environment of complexity was also important, and Jonathan recognised that as the leader of a support team, his customers relied on him to know when to lean in.

“There were some daily tasks that just weren’t as important during peak periods, and others that really needed additional resources,” Jonathan says. “Our team was there to provide those additional resources when needed, and our customers appreciated that flexibility and team spirit.”

Executive General Manager Social Infrastructure Rhys Barker says that Jonathan’s reputation as a respected leader in health is clear.

“We’re really proud to have Jonathan on our team as we know that he brings knowledge, experience and a passion for doing good work that our customers appreciate,” Rhys says. “As one of the largest providers of health facility management services in Australia and New Zealand, and with great operators like Jonathan on our team, we are well placed to continue being the partner of choice for large healthcare organisations for many years to come.”

About Jonathan