Barely seven months after becoming an Angels consultant, something Zsófia Reichert seems quite certain of, is that it’s people who create change. Not standardized practices, although they help shrink the change. Not new protocols, even though they’re necessary to help deliver change. Not even quality monitoring, although without it you wouldn’t know where to start or how far you still had to go.
“Key people matter,” she says about the process that saw Baranya and Somogy, two counties in south-western Hungary, become the first Angels Regions in her country, and among the first 15 in the world.
The right people can change the entire conversation about stroke.
People are at the heart of the 100 Angels Regions strategy, with its focus on creating safe communities for stroke. To become an Angels Region, targets must be met in four categories – hospital coverage, hospital performance, EMS performance and public awareness. With better outcomes for stroke patients as their shared goal, leaders at hospitals and emergency services, in schools and local government have to work together – because for anyone to succeed, everyone must succeed.
Zsófia was “born into” the regions strategy, joining Angels just days before the goal to convert 100 regions by 2027 was formally announced at ESOC in Basel last May. She had a lot to think about on the trip home from Basel to Budapest where fortunately, despite being the only consultant in Hungary, she was not completely alone.
Her predecessor Zsolt Lakatos had left a legacy for Zsófia to build on, and he made himself available to share his wisdom and experience.
Zsolt’s work as an Angels consultant had included interventions in Baranya and Somogy which were now well on the way to becoming Angels Regions. Somogy County Kaposi Mór Teaching Hospital and the University of Pécs Clinical Centre in Baranya were comprehensive centres and in terms of access to treatment, adequately served the populations in their respective counties. Both had achieved ESO Angels Awards in 2024.
Although the boxes were therefore already ticked for hospital coverage and performance, Zsófia listened intently to Zsolt’s insights about the merits of a person-centred approach and how adopting an emergency mindset helps optimize the stroke pathway.
Zsolt’s strategy had been to identify potential change-makers at target hospitals, invite them to attend Angels-facilitated training, and then ask them to train others. The experience made these doctors more serious about stroke care, and prepared to set an example. Bright spots became leaders.
The approach resonated with Zsófia. She finds it easy to put herself in the shoes of someone young and perhaps feeling a little overwhelmed who knows they can make a difference if given the chance. And she’s been around long enough to know what a beautiful thing it is when you reach someone’s soul and they start to change. She says, “You can see the light in their eyes.”
In Hungary, she says, “if you give people a chance you will find a lot of stars.”
Among the stars who light her way are some who have been shining brightly for some time. Zsófia has found an invaluable ally in Dr László Szapáry, head of stroke at the University of Pécs Clinical Centre, president of the Hungarian Stroke Society and a 2021 recipient of the ESO Spirit of Excellence Award. Dr Szapáry is also Hungary’s RES-Q coordinator, and a member of the Angels Steering Committee in Europe. He is very effective at facilitating communication between Angels and the Hungarian stroke community and Zsófia is deeply grateful for his involvement and active support.
Key people matter.
Good relationships matter too.
A picture taken at the October 2024 conference of the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM), is one that will almost certainly be kept and shared with future generations. In it, Zsófia is being literally carried on the steady hands of Hungary’s diamond award winning EMS chiefs. It’s a picture so filled with goodwill and collegiality it’s hard to believe that some of them she had only just met.
The Hungarian National Ambulance Service, the OMSZ, is already the stuff of legends. They made history in 2023 when all seven regions of the OMSZ won diamond awards – testimony to the director-general Dr Gábir Csató's innovative leadership, the embrace of AI-driven performance analysis and improvement, and of course their hard work.
Prior to 2024 the OMSZ only submitted their data in March, but Zsófia encouraged them to take part in the global data collection activation, Angels Insights Month, in September as well. Just in case you were wondering how the Hungarian heroes turned seven diamonds into fourteen last year.
The final piece of the puzzle would turn out to be the hardest one. Due to uncertainty surrounding data reporting processes, it was initially difficult to verify the data for FAST Heroes implementation (necessary to meet the awareness target for Angels Regions). When it emerged that there was a gap to be closed, a massive last-minute effort got Baranya and Somogy over the line and into the record books before the end of 2024.
Barely seven months after becoming an Angels consultant, Zsófia Reichert knows that change is hard and changing can be even harder.
“It’s been a long journey from any perspective,” she says of a rollercoaster year that included a September wedding. “This job really gives me the feeling that I’m not just improving at a professional level, but also at a personal level. I keep feeling my borders are pushing me far from my comfort zone.
“Sometimes it’s not so convenient. Changing can mean hard times.”
Zsófia hopes that the new year will bring more balance into her life and that focusing on physical as well as spiritual health will reflect in her work too.
“I have to believe that I am doing my best,” she says, acknowledging that she can be hard on herself. Accustomed to measuring herself against her peers, as the only consultant in her territory she’s had to adapt to rating her performance against herself and to keep improving by her own standards.
Being part of a bigger team helps. She can count on the support and encouragement from colleagues in her territory and in the core team, and on Zsolt cheering her on from the sideline.
In her first full year as a consultant, Zsófia will work with a large number of hospitals including, in Budapest, a diamond hospital whose reputation precedes them. She has heard about the boundary-pushing achievements at Péterfy Hospital and has met some of the diamond-winning team at local congresses.
“They’re really motivated to be first,” she says.
She cannot wait to learn from them.
