Brian's Views

CCRC's, SNF's, and Elephants

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:14:00 +0000

I presented a keynote recently, at the Revenue Summit of the Maun-Lemke Group's clients, where I discussed the service-revenue imperative with a group of administrators from continuing care retirement communities (CCRC's) and skilled nursing facilites (SNF's) from across the US. The presentation highlighted the need for this vital sector of the healthcare profession to start taking seriously, the provisions in the PPAAC bill related to CAHPS.

I stressed the importance of CAHPS as a lever to improve not only operations but also service and revenue, and gave a dozen or so cases where the administrators could act immediately (at little or no cost). We discussed the reality of ACO's as an incentive to improve service quality, then moved on to the very real experiences of the hospital sector with HCAHPS.

I told the story of how HCAHPS evolved from 'something I'd read about once or twice' (where the mindset of most in the room sat), to the current reality of Value-Based Purchasing and the reductions in DRG reimbursements to every hospital.

"You think this isn't your future too?"

We then moved on to some practical tips on how to manage resident satisfaction proactively. I'm sure that you know the answer to the old riddle about how to eat an elephant - one bite at a time. Funny how the simple wisdom of childhood riddles can help us attack real-world problems sometimes - or at least get a perspective on them.

The 'eat an elephant' strategy can help a hospital, CCRC, or SNF improve HCAHPS or CAHPS scores:

using your survey vendor's data, find the highest volume unit

find scores by unit (if available)

develop an elasticity table in Excel (if not provided by your vendor)...if you improved the mean on (say) Unit1 by 1 point, what impact would it have on the entire hospital?

focus on the highest-volume units

get staff and leader input...which dimension of HCAHPS/CAHPS should we target first, that will give us the biggest payoff (eg: Communication re Meds, or Quiet at Night?)

which one does staff feel that they can most easily affect, based on their current training, resources, process improvements, and staffing levels?

what additional resources will be required, and can these be reasonably provided?

what are the likely root causes?

can the root causes be removed quickly and efficiently?

how sustainable will the outcomes be?

what type of interim measurement process can we bring to bear, to assure daily forward momentum?

are there any staffing issues that are affecting our current performance (eg chronic shortages, etc)

These are just some questions to challenge you to focus and act!

BL

A Bias for Action

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:29:00 +0000

We strongly recommend using an action-tracking system (such as our GoalMaster system) to not only ignite by focus movement against patient dissatisfiers to maximize HCAHPS performance.

Upon receiving your monthly or quarterly survey results, convene a meeting with all senior managers, and assign ownership of the specific under-performing question directly through GoalMaster.

For example, if ‘Quality of Food’ is the issue, assign (say) the COO as the Level 2 delegatee on the goal of “Improve Quality of Food Score by 3 Mean Points by End of Next Quarter” (or whatever works for your hospital).

GoalMaster will send the assignment to the COO before he/she even leaves the meeting! The COO can then action this item by delegating further to (say) the Director of Food Services, using the GoalMaster interface.

Auto-reminders will be sent to the Director of Food Services, asking for progress updates on a bi-weekly basis, allowing both the COO and CEO to monitor progress, and provide direction and assistance where necessary.

The Importance of Explanations to your 'Overall' HCAHPS Scores

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:34:00 +0000

I read an excellent blog by Robert Heinlein recently, who discussed how HCAHPS scores could be raised with Patient Education.

I agree with Robert that educating our patients - and managing their expectations - is an overlooked, and fundamental aspect of improving HCAHPS scores.

I say 'overlooked' because as clinicians, our first reaction is solve the problem with a clinical solution. We review processes, fine-tune systems, look for root causes, embark on sophisticated training and communications programs, etc, when sometimes a simpler fix may be all that's required.

Case in point is a small mid-western hospital I just visited, who was struggling with patient satisfaction scores in their ED that were less than what their patients (clearly) desired - but were clearly miles ahead of national averages in several key metrics.

...the disconnect? Misaligned expectations. Simple to fix, but often, it takes an outside pair of eyes to help see it.

CLS Continuing Care.com

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:17:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce the launch of our new web site at http://www.ClsContinuingCare.com.

The service connects healthcare providers with long term care providers in the forum of ACO's, as well as provides a comprehensive service for improving the operations of the continuing care providers.

Check it out!

BL

The 8-Hour Service Improvement Manager: Hour 1

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:13:00 +0000

The 8-Hour Service Manager is a new series, designed to help managers integrate service improvement into an already business day.

The suggestions that will be presented are tried-and-true solutions to improve both unit-level and business outcomes. If after adopting each suggestion for a month, and truly integrating it into your routine, and you don't see a positive change, I'll give you not one, but two complimentary registrations to the Healthcare Service Excellence Conference, to be held next January, 2012, in Dallas, TX!
--
Hour 1:

Before you sit down at your desk and check emails, daily reports, and the general paperwork that keeps your job in motion...hit the floor!

Spend 20 minutes visiting with your staff!

Connect with them on a personal level:

- how was the movie?
- what did you think of the game?
- are your kids feeling better?
- did your husband get the car fixed?
- how about this crazy weather?
- did you see that crazy Tosh.0 show on Friday?

...etc.

This may sound silly, but it has a profound effect. First, it takes you out of your 'ivory tower' and engages you with your staff. Before long, the conversations will be less inane, and more sincere, approaching personal level of details. Additionally, you'll begin to plug yourself into the grapevine again, and hear about how problems with other departments are affecting your staff, and your customers.

Your staff will soon turn to you to remove service-related hurdles...something you can accomplish in your Hour 2!

Improve Service in your 8 Hour Shift...Hour 1:

- practice this 'rounding' with your staff for the next 30 days.

BL

How NOT to spend too much on Quality Improvement

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:29:00 +0000

The financial imperatives of VBP are awakening hospital leaders to both vulnerabilities and opportunities in corners of their operation that have previously not been explored as quality improvement targets.

Like Rust (et al), we advocate a return-on-quality approach to assessing performance improvement initiatives that stress that quality improvement must be financially accountable.

Implicit in this is the acknowledgement that it is possible to spend too much on quality improvement activities.

When we work with a client, we develop a comprehensive Return on Quality framework that presents both the potential and the problem, in terms of market growth and cost reduction/risk avoidance. This top-down/bottom-up analysis is very helpful in setting the budget tolerances for the quality improvement project, and assessing the return on quality that can be expected from the project, and over which time frame.

Because quality improvement priorities are often well-known (through HCAHPS, internal patient satisfaction surveys, or even intuitively), the final task is developing the priority action steps that will deliver the desired outcomes – within the appropriate budget.

My Advice:

Before embarking on any quality improvement activity, whether you're considering a tweak to your existing processes or massive procedural and cultural overhauls, take the view that quality is an investment that deserves to yield a fair return.

Then, set about measuring the likely returns of your various improvement options. With return-on-quality as your indicator, you'll have a useful tool to help guide you to never overspend on quality improvement.

The Case for Empowerment in the VBP Era

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:45:00 +0000

You've heard about it for years now, and have likely even read cases about it in B-school.

You may have even wondered how it might work for your hospital or continuing care facility.

I'm talking about empowering your employees.

First, let me put your heart to rest: empowerment is the absolute opposite of abdication.

By empowering your employees, you're not letting them 'run the show'...you're letting them do their job.

By definition, an empowered workforce is a workforce that is highly trained, held accountable to strict productivity and quality standards, and operates with supportive, 'enabling' managers.

Empowerment also requires maturity:

- it requires that the empowering managers (starting from the CEO) 'get' their new roles as coaches, enablers, holders-to-account, and trainers.

- it requires that the employees being empowered 'get' their new roles, and why they are being asked to solve issues that previously were escalated to their supervisors. They must willingly accept this role...want this role...for their own good, their client's good, and the organization's good.

The latter can be a tough sell, particularly if previous relations with management haven't been the best.

Bowen and Lawler, in their groundbreaking work 'The Empowerment of Service Workers' laid-out the six factors favoring a strategy of employee involvement - all of which are present in today's hyper-competitive health and continuing care fields:

They are:

1. Strategy is dependent on competitive differentiation and offering personalized, customized service

2. Relationships with customers are ideally long-term ('customers for life') instead of transient transactions

3. The organization uses complex processes and technologies

4. The business is unpredictable - surprises are routine

5. Managers are comfortable letting employees work independently

6. Employees have a strong need to to grow

I'm a strong advocate of empowerment because:

1. It forces maturity on an organization, which brings rapid, customer-centric change. In this era of Value-Based Purchasing, hospitals simply can't survive without an empowered, motivated, and accountable workforce

2. It forces managers to challenge and re-engineer low-performing business processes.

3. It brings an organization closer to its customers: organizations that have successfully transitioned to a culture of empowerment inevitably enjoy increased customer satisfaction, sales, and profit.

Interested in an Empowerment Diagnostic? Give us a call at 1-800-667-7325.

Create synergy to improve employee engagement.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:14:00 +0000

It's a tough thing to achieve, but it's an unstoppable force when it finally gets moving.

Synergy does amazing things.

By publicly declaring your intent to improve employee engagement in your company, you'll soon find yourself propelled by the power of the declaration and the pull of the expectation of the delivery of the outcome.

Committees will form to study and interpret your engagement survey. Action plans will fall out of these committees. Good things will begin to happen, and some people will begin to feel a sense of 'electricity'.

The challenge will be distributing this sense to every staff member in a disciplined, accountable, and sustainable manner. It gets tougher when other realities set in, such as customer priorities, meetings, financial pressures, and production deadlines.

We recommend that sustainability be engineered into the design of your engagement plan, and consideration be given to hiring external coaches to help guide the synergy.

When logic isn't solving the problem.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:34:00 +0000

Ever been in the situation where you've had a problem to solve, and you've 'tried everything', only to be frustrated, by a continuing lack of progress?

Runners call it 'hitting the wall', writers call it 'writers block'. Its happened to us all at one time or other. It happens most in complex situations involving interpersonal relationships, where feelings, motivation, and passion are just as valid as logic and Excel.

So how do you break through?

Coaching is a particularly effective way. Having someone challenge/rethink the fundamental belief systems that created the problem for you in the first place is often a good way to see a problem in a new light, and forge a truly creative path.

Reflection works too. Through prayer, meditation, or deep thought, inner reflection can also bring about constructive ideas that lead to change. You may find though, that the vacuum of reflection may not be enough to validate your solution, and an external sounding board may be a useful person to guide your new-found wisdom.

Listening and internalizing the ideas of others who've been there is a combination of Coaching and Reflection, and is a very effective way to gain insight, inspiration, and energy. I've found it to be particularly helpful in generating ideas for business solutions.

That's why I recommend the Healthcare Service Excellence Conference, and urge you to save the dates of January 26-28, 2011. The theme of this year's conference is The Inspiration to Lead, the Solutions to Succeed.

...in this rapidly changing world where patient experience as measured by HCAHPS, employee engagement, and leadership skills are vital to solve problems, the first-rate agenda and roster of presenters will be a terrific start to the new year.

I hope to see you there.

Systems, attitudes, and behaviors.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:40:00 +0000

A colleague told me of a terrible personal experience where she had to run a close relative to the hospital over the weekend, with suspicious chest pains. Sitting in the ED waiting room for much longer than expected (fortunately health was OK!), she observed many of the systems and procedures of a busy Emergency Department in action.

After she told me of this story, I reflected on the staggering number of systems, processes, procedures, dashboards, surveys, alerts, analyses, and so on that have taken on 'mission critical' status in our hospitals. Give it a minute, and I'm sure that you too will lose count!

Then, it hit me: how many systems are in place to proactively manage (or even affect) attitudes and behaviors, especially as they relate to the patient experience in a typical hospital?

Not many.

Sure, everyone has an Orientation program, some do employee opinion/engagement surveys, others do management development work that they hope trickles down to the attitude of their employees, which they hope will affect their behaviors.

No wonder HCAHPS scores barely move...who are we fooling here?

To make this point, consider known-excellent performers in other industries, and see how they proactively manage attitudes and behaviors. Marriott and Four Seasons are widely acknowledged to have the best customer service cultures - both highly successful businesses that differentiate themselves largely on their service levels.

Let's take a look at just a few of their methods:

Accountability for guest satisfaction is a big deal at both organizations, and is a priority for both the property managers as well as their department heads. This priority-foundation brings energy, creativity, and daily management of every guest-staff transaction in every area of the hotels. Hospitals can integrate this non-system thinking into their HCAHPS plan, by assuring clarity around 'who owns HCAHPS in this unit'.
Guest satisfaction training and re-training is a vital part of the cultures of each company. Hospitals can integrate this non-system thinking into their HCAHPS plan, by assuring that training on a variety of issues related to improving the patient experience is frequent, understood, and front-and-center in the minds of their employees.
Progress is celebrated in style. Department-level pizza parties, between-shift cookies/snacks, and other ad hoc celebrations happen whenever progress is noted - because it is so important to their mission. Hospitals can do this too!
Guest comments are treated as 'gold'. A single non-happy guest can trigger a morning of investigation, corrective problem solving, and service recovery, with involvement from the Duty Manager, or even the General Manager. These businesses 'get' the fragility of repeat business in the service sector, and they actively seek to satisfy every guest before she/he leaves. Hospitals can do this too!

It's not just Medicare in the VBP mix!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:10:00 +0000

Reading the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, it's tempting to jump to the conclusion that Medicare is the payor most interested in HCAHPS performance (for reasons discussed at length earlier).

No so.

We know of many cases where 3rd party payors are using the externally-validated, HCAHPS data, and integrating it into their payment models.

We've seen it in half a dozen states recently, and we're sure that this is the tip of the iceberg. As other payors validate the HCAHPS/Medicare experience, its a good bet that they'll integrate HCAHPS, or a similar measure into their reimbursement models, shining an even brighter light on the importance of engaging frontline associates in your HCAHPS/patient care strategy.

Good, bad, and surprising news regarding VBP.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:45:00 +0000

By now, most people are aware of the Value-Based Purchasing provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordability Act that was signed into law last March.

The good news is that there will be financial incentives for improvement of HCAHPS scores (achievement or attainment).

The bad news is that there's no new money to pay for the incentives.

Through a somewhat complex model, most hospitals will see their base DRG reduced by 1% on October 1, 2012, to fund the incentive payments described in the legislation. This amount will increase in 2014 to 1.25%, 2015 to 1.5%, etc.

Now here's the surprise to many people: while the incentive payments begin (funded by the base DRG reductions ) in 2012, they'll actually be paying the incentives for HCAHPS performance earned in 2011.

This means that effective Oct 1, 2011, your HCAHPS scores will actually start to 'mean something', as the baseline measurement period begins. So, in less than 13 months, the HCAHPS clock really begins ticking.

It'll be more important than ever to have a coherent strategy to manage the patient experience through the involvement of every frontline associate in your building.

My challenge - questions today are:

1. How effective is your current strategy at really improving your HCAHPS scores through enhancing the patient experience?
2. Do your frontline caregivers 'own HCAHPS'?
3. Who is the executive responsible for championing changes and initiating performance improvement?
4. Where do you stand relative to your competitors - have you done a gap-analysis?
5. Have you assessed the dollars at stake for your hospital under VBP?

Analysis-paralysis, or patient-centered?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Let's face it, we're all getting pretty good at reading survey reports these days, aren't we?

Whether its an inpatient report, HCAHPS, or whatever else, we all seem to be inundated with stats that show 'where we've been' in crystal clear detail.

When do you have enough data to act?
What's your tolerance level to trigger action?

Think about it for a minute, then take a look at your last survey vendor report, particularly at the 'top 10' list:

How long have these items been on your top 10 list?
Why are they there?
Who owns these items, and what is the status of their corrective action plan?
What circumstances are conspiring to prevent your organization from taking meaningful action?
How engaged are your staff in delivering outstanding service levels?
How engaged are your managers?
Is your organization truly 'patient centered', if your top 10 list is essentially unchanged month after month?
Are unit leaders collaborating with their teams to act on the priority issues on their units?

...what do you plan to do next?

Engagement, service, and sustainability.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:32:00 +0000

I've been writing alot lately about how improved communication from managers can benefit the manager's direct reports as well as how this can have an impact on the collective engagement levels in an organization.

As employees become more engaged in their work, they are more likely to expend their discretionary effort in the performance of their jobs...which increases productivity.

...but what of the impact on service?

No matter how pre-defined service levels may be in an organization, by its very nature, service relies on the consistency-of-energy expenditure of the server. Low-energy expenditure, low quality of service. High-energy expenditure, higher quality of service.

At a macro level, managing service really is an exercise in managing the energy expenditure of service deliverers (regardless of the enterprise). If we assume that (nearly) every service deliverer who shows up for work is ready to expend some level of energy, the challenge for managers of service quality is to consistently maximize both effort and ability expended during a shift.

The importance of this challenge is amplified in settings where service errors can be directly quantified as lost market share, revenue, or Medicare reimbursement (as outlined in the value-based purchasing provisions under healthcare reform).

Service workers that understand their role in the organization also understand the organization's objectives, get clear task direction, consistent and frequent feedback, understand safety procedures, and have a healthy relationship with cooworkers are more likely to be involved in their job at a level approaching 'self identification'.

If your staff would say 'yes' to each of the attributes listed above, you're well on your way to enjoying the benefits of engagement, and so are your customers, as higher-than-market service scores accompany market leaders in employee engagement.

...so when you've arrived at this lofty plateau, your challenge is sustaining it!

It's not as daunting a task as it might appear, but it does require consistent focus and determination to remain in your leadership position. Regular organization-wide engagement surveys are a good way to keep this focus, and at the same time signalling to the staff that this is a priority.

Best practice is to punctuate annual surveys with periodic 'hot spot' surveys, to assure that performance improvement plans are being carried-out effectively.

"Hey guys, you need to see this!"

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:22:00 +0000

When was the last time you heard that sentence, or a variant of it, during the rounds of your operation?

It's an important little sentence, because it conveys importance, urgency, and personal line-of-sight, as it sets up an ad hoc communication platform for a skilled manager to communicate to her/his staff.

Why is this important?

Through increased communication, the manager will reap the rewards of increased discretionery effort/engagement
When staff become accustomed to these ad hoc forums, virtually anything can be communicated, from corporate/organization directives, to unit performance improvement requirements
These ad hoc sessions, by nature short (5-10 minute standup meetings), once used to communicate non-operational/transactional information are a natural opener to improved communication to the unit manager, providing the manager with a better sense of the pulse of the operation, and the needs of her/his staff

To integrate this simple transition into your daily routine, or into the routines of the managers reporting to you, I suggest adding it to your PDA schedule now, scheduling the activity for 30 business days, and sending the invitation to each of your direct reports (to get it on their schedules).

...tell me your impressions in 30 days!

"You've Really Got a Hold on Me" - The Benefits of Effective Communication to Employees

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:54:00 +0000

I this blog discusses the benefits of effective communications - from an employee's perspective.

So, assuming that as managers, we've been able to correct our ineffective communication by making sure that our staff do not hear about our actions/initiatives 'through the grapevine', the benefits to our people will include:

Role clarity. They'll have a greater sense of their role in the organization, and how it contributes the unit's and the organization's goals
Through this clarity, they'll find personal alignment between their contributions and the organizational requirements
Increased sense of 'who the information leader is' (that'd be you!)
Increased sense of feeling heard
Increased sense of feeling part of a team, and a higher performing work unit

These attributes affect employee retention, and how they expend their discretionary effort on the job, creating a high performing work unit, improving engagement, and increasing retention.

'Communication' for really, really busy managers.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:27:00 +0000

Every manager knows that communication is central to her/his job. We're taught it in B-school, and it was drilled into us way-back when we were still wet behind the ears.

What they didn't tell us was what the impact of good communication would be.

Did you know though, that a management team that is (uniformly) a group of great communicators links to a 29.5% market value premium of their company? Or, that companies with better organizational communicationl earned shareholder value 50% better than industry peers.

Watson Wyatt, in an '06 report, goes so far to say that communication is a central key to employee engagement, itself a leading indicator of market value.

Yet rotten communication persists.

We see it when branch offices are 'out of the loop' for months on corporate initiatives, or one or more departments are apparently marching to their own drummer when it comes to service, safety, or other items of strategic importance.

It's so common, that as consumers, we've become agile enough (or is it just patient enough?) to navigate around many company's service policies just to complete basic transactions (such as servicing our cars).

As managers, we can improve the communication in our organization, by:

Recognizing the critical nature of communication to the bottom line, and personally committing to improving our skills, discipline, and focus in this area
Position company communications to our employees through the filters of what they're interested in hearing:

- provide a clear line of sight to your company's strategy, so that your employees know how their work affects the 'big picture' and how the big picture affects their work

- provide knowledge so that your employees can affect their performance within this context

- provide recognition, guidance, and accountability, so that your employees know that their effort matters

Comments?

A Challenge for Friday Morning!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:58:00 +0000

Friday marks the second annual Healthcare Professional's Appreciation Day!

The event was launched last year to acknowledge the folks who work in our hospitals, and that we know are under-appreciated for the fine work that they do.

Who is a 'Healthcare Professional?' Anybody that's working in your hospital, that makes a profound difference in the lives of others: orderlies, housekeepers, technicians, nurses, attendants, clerks, cooks, servers, doctors, secretaries, administrators, managers, security guards, ambulance drivers, engineers, surgeons, pilots...and many more.
I urge you on Friday morning to take a few minutes, and express a simple 'thanks' to someone that you know has made a difference in someone's life through their work.

It's easy. Pick up the phone. Send a letter or email, or click here to nominate a deserving healthcare worker to receive a $1000 continuing education scholarship.

The scholarship will be awarded on June 28, 2010, and annually thereafter.

Improving the Patient Experience Through Collaborative Action Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:08:00 +0000

Improving the patient experience is the right thing to do, on every level.

The added wrinkle is the new level of complexity soon to be presented through HCAHPS, which will introduce a financial imperative as described in the PPAC Act with Value-Based Purchasing.

While process improvements can and will make significant improvements in the patient experience (assuming that the myriad of interlocking and often complex root-causes can be isolated and systemmatically removed), there remains a critical 'missing link'...the human element.

....and it is here that almost every process improvement fails.

Let's learn from our colleagues in our other service industries who've mastered complete organizational transformation. Every single case has involved a process redesign, as well as an organization-wide, top-down/bottom-up commitment to service and solving the non-flow-able problems that routinely occur in service businesses.

If it's a people business, the transformation solution must involve the organization's people (or it will stall).

Successful organizations in the service sector (not just healthcare) make service a foundational element of the culture of the organization. It's part of the DNA of the place:

Dissatisfaction is taken personally and resolved quickly, with deep and sincere apology
Once the dissatisfaction is resolved, the case is reviewed, traced and every stakeholder or potential stakeholder is brought into the performance improvement team with an equal voice...to assure the situation never arises again

Other service organizations with vibrant (fanatical?) devotion to their customers implement a 'preventive' collaborative action planning process that might take the form of daily huddles that address the issues of the day, rumors, things that may cause disruption, etc. This highly effective communication process takes no more than5-10 minutes, and can serve the dual purposes of communicating news and problem avoidance.

These daily 5-10 minute huddles are:

Inexpensive
Amazingly effective at enhancing communication
Excellent forums to 'get the antennae up' related to key performance indicators
Not conducted by 99% of all service organizations

We'd be happy to share an outline of a process for this method of engaging frontline employees in problem avoidance and resolution, to create a vibrant service-driven culture that reflects in your HCAHPS performance and (very soon) in your Medicare Reimbursement under Value-Based Purchasing.

For more info, please visit us at http://www.customlearning.com/ or call us at 1800.667.7325.

The countdown clock has started - and this time it could cost you.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:27:00 +0000

Value-based purchasing is a key component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (better known as 'The Reform Bill')...and there's stuff in there that you really need to start paying attention-to now!

Briefly, your hospital's base DRG will be reduced by 1% starting Oct 1, 2012, and accelerating in the years after that. This money goes in to a 'bonus pool' to incent hospitals to improve HCAHPS performance. Hospitals can earn-back their reduction through performance improvements measured by HCAHPS, the greater of either achievement or improvement.

It's a complex formula, that I'd be happy to share with you, and model your hospital for you.

Here's what you need to pay attention to now:

1. The benchmarking period begins Oct 1, 2011. This is when your HCAHPS scores 'start meaning something', and will factor into the equation that determines your Medicare Reimbursement in 2012.

2. You can calculate the cost of your performance (in Medicare Reimbursement dollars) by HCAHPS dimension. This will allow you to develop a meaningful, prioritize plan that links operations and patient experience directly to your bottom line.

3. There are elements in the Legislation that make HCAHPS-VBP a bit of a moving target yet. The more performance improvement initiatives that you have effectively in place now, the more engaged and collaborative your staff are in the process of improvement, the stronger you'll be in just a few months down the road.

4. The financial impact can be very significant.

Give me a call at 403.607.7444 or email me directly at brian@customlearning.com, and I'll present a customized VBP assessment to you.

Ignite consistent service delivery to improve HCAHPS performance.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:31:00 +0000

If your published HCAHPS scores are currently below National or State averages, or (more worrisome), below those of a key competitor, I'm sure you'll agree there's room for improvement.

Through a disciplined, proven process, we'll collaborate with your team to deliver everything you'll need to ignite consistent service delivery to improve your HCAHPS scores within 60 days.

Specific deliverables include the:

- Engagement of leaders, staff, and physicians, you'll gain the enthusiastic support of these important stakeholders, to anticipate and respond to patient concerns

- Implementation of prioritized, proven best-practices, to give a strong foundation for HCAHPS score-improvement

- Strengthening of your system of accountability, to assure that everyone is focused on the same goal of patient service excellence

- Implementation of a robust performance improvement tool, you'll obtain immediate data to drive rapid-cycle improvement of HCAHPS performance at a unit-level

- Sustainability coaching to month six, to assure continued forward momentum.

- Is there a reason to wait?We're pleased to offere multiple payment options...we're serious about getting to work on your HCAHPS scores right away.

Find out how more..

Are you an 'inspirer'?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:30:00 +0000

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy blogs that "Leaders who still believe that inspiring employees should take a backseat to cost-cutting need to look to Apple."

She gives a few examples of inspiring leaders in her article, that, while not necessarily relevant in a hospital setting, are certainly enough to get us thinking outside of the box.

I'm writing to you today on the topic of inspiration, because it's my belief that without an inspired workforce, you're dead in the water. With HCAHPS value-based purchasing looming on the horizon, an inspired workforce that's focused on delivering outstanding service has never been more important.

I strongly urge all Administrators, PI Directors, CNO's, Service Excellence councils and others involved in HCAHPS management to seize the remaining few months before VBP kicks-in, to instill a culture that is fanatical about the patient experience (before it adversely affects your Medicare reimbursement).

One of the most inspirational activities that a manager can schedule is attending the Healthcare Service Excellence Conference. The 11th Annual event will be held January 26-28, 2011 in New Orleans. While details will follow shortly, I urge you to save this date and plan to attend this important event that for the last 5 years has scored 98% in Delegate Satisfaction.

SVEHMAAMYRQP

Save the Date...the Healthcare Service Excellence Conference January 26-28, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:51:00 +0000

Save the Date!

The 11th Annual Healthcare Service Excellence Conference will be held January 26-28, 2011, in New Orleans, LA!

Details will be coming soon.

Brian

Does this sound familiar?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:41:00 +0000

A phrase that I hear periodically from hospital leaders who are satisfied with their patient satisfaction results goes something like this: "if we could only manage to improve this one performance element on this one unit, then we'd really be where we want to be."

Well, tackling those high priority patient dissatisfiers at a unit level is now much quicker and easier than before, with Bellwether.

Bellwether is a performance improvement tool that's been designed to seamlessly integrate with any unit, and deliver the information needed to consistently improve performance...on a daily basis.

It helps you turn real-time feedback into fast and sustainable gains in HCAHPS and other key performance indicators.

If your hospital is struggling with improving HCAHPS performance at a unit level, I invite you to click here to read the details of the case study, how Bellwether works, and to arrange a 15-day trial.

60 days...

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lee CSP) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:24:00 +0000

If your published HCAHPS scores are currently below National or State averages, or (more worrisome), below those of a key competitor, I’m sure you’ll agree there’s room for improvement.

Through a disciplined, proven process, we’ll collaborate with your team to deliver everything you’ll need to ignite consistent service delivery to improve your HCAHPS scores within 60 days. Specific deliverables include the:

Engagement of leaders, staff, and physicians, you’ll gain the enthusiastic support of these important stakeholders, to anticipate and respond to patient concerns
Implementation of prioritized, proven best-practices, to give a strong foundation for HCAHPS score-improvement
Strengthening of your system of accountability, to assure that everyone is focused on the same goal of patient service excellence
Implementation of a robust performance improvement tool, you’ll obtain immediate data to drive rapid-cycle improvement of HCAHPS performance at a unit-level
Sustainability coaching to month six, to assure continued forward momentum.

I personally guarantee that you’ll be satisfied with the result.

If after the initial 60 days you are dissatisfied with the progress or the service, I’ll provide you with additional training, software, and coaching services, until you are satisfied.

Is there a reason to wait?

We're pleased to offer multiple payment options...we're serious about getting to work on your HCAHPS scores right away.

I hope we’ll have the opportunity to do business together in the not-too-distant future.

Please call me directly at 1800.667.7325 to discuss the details.

Brian.