Tag: Healthcare

3 Tips for Dealing With Politics (or Other Touchy Subjects)

Sometimes, inspiration for my blog post comes from unexpected places – like a quiet, late-evening dinner on the road. After a successful day with a client, I arrived back at my hotel for a later-than-usual dinner. There were only a few people left in the restaurant, and I was seated near a table of three gentlemen. While I wasn’t interested in eavesdropping, it was impossible to not hear their conversation in the quiet room. From their discussion it was clear that they all worked for the same company and were traveling together on business. Two middle-aged men were obviously more senior managers, and they were accompanied by a junior colleague who appeared to be in his 20s. What surprised me was how their discussion turned

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Why patient experience is important - Barnes Jewish Hospital

The importance of encouraging health care staff to show their personalities

Guest Blog by Ken DeSieghardt UPDATE: Stamp & Chase was pleased to post this guest blog from our long-time friend Ken DeSieghardt, in March 2020. Sadly, we lost Ken in August, 2021, after he contracted COVID. This post continues to celebrate the courageous, dedicated work of the caring staff at Barnes Jewish Hospital. All of us touched by Ken’s kindness, humor and generosity are grateful for the additional time we had to spend with him because of his successful transplant. His message powerfully describes why patient experience and compassionate communication are important. On February 27, 2019, I was admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis due to acute respiratory failure, in the hopes that a new set of lungs would become available soon for transplant. My ability

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purpose sign graphic from stamp & chase

Have we lost the power of purpose in health care?

Understanding purpose in organizations seems to be one of the most talked about issues – and opportunities – in companies today. A few weeks ago, 181 CEOs who are part of the prestigious Business Roundtable signed a new statement on the “Purpose of a Corporation.” No longer is simply driving shareholder value the top priority, they said. Rather, the statement recognized that the purpose of an organization in management is key in engaging and serving all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. Haven’t we always understood purpose in healthcare? Many in health care would argue that we’ve always understood the purpose of our organizations in management. After all, can there be a higher purpose than serving our fellow human beings at some of the

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medical staffers in meeting with stamp & chase

The Power of Empowerment: “The Village has it Handled!”

In a leadership workshop earlier this month at Summa Health in Akron, OH, a manager shared one of the most definitive, straightforward affirmations of true staff empowerment that I’ve ever heard.  She explained that often when an issue or problem arises, by the time she becomes aware of it and approaches her team to work through a solution, she is confidently told, “Don’t worry; the village has it handled.”Empowerment is a frequently vaunted goal for high-functioning teams in today’s leadership literature. But while the term is commonly accepted, I’m not sure it best describes the true power of empowerment. When I clicked on the thesaurus feature in Microsoft Word while writing this post, I actually found a much better list of options: inspire, embolden, encourage,

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man with a clipboard graphic at stamp & chase

Five Sure-Fire Ways to Wreck Rounding

Over the past decade, health care leadership rounding has become a best-practice staple for organizations that are striving to improve patient experience, employee engagement and the overall culture of performance. While in healthcare we sometimes act like we invented the practice, it has been pursued in different forms for many years in other industries. If you are a disciple of Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System, you call it “going to the gemba.” Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard coined the term “management by walking around” in the 1960s when their rapidly-expanding technology company was growing beyond their capacity and ability to be involved in every detail of the business. In health care, our name for the practice of going to where the most important

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astronaut on moon graphic from stamp & chase

Why B.H.A.G.s without B.H.A.R.s are Pipe Dreams

Part 5 in our Series: A Smarter Approach to S.M.A.R.T. Goals “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” That quote from President John F. Kennedy’s speech to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, is perhaps the most often cited example of the philosophy that when you set big goals, amazing things can happen. And who doesn’t want to accomplish amazing things.So the fact that the “R” in our smarter S.M.A.R.T. goals model stands for “realistic” may be surprising. Realistic sounds so safe … hum-drum … even boring. Don’t we want bigger, transformative, inspiring goals? Maybe even “B.H.A.G.s”?Even if

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spinning plates graphic from stamp & chase

In patient experience work, there’s no “Silver Bullet.” But are you trying to keep too many plates spinning?

In a recent blog post, I argued that the problem of searching for a single, easy-to-implement patient engagement tactic goes beyond the fact that one doesn’t exist. Believing that a simple silver bullet strategy is out there actually stymies continuous improvement, innovation and effective implementation. So if there is no single silver bullet, one might reasonably jump to the conclusion that a shotgun approach – implementing multiple solutions simultaneously – would produce better results. But that strategy has real flaws, as well. When I was working closely with the Experience Team at Ascension Health several years ago, we termed it “initiative fatigue.” In other words, teams were trying to launch and sustain so many different initiatives to improve care that they lost focus. It felt like

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medical staff at stamp & chase communicating with patient

Effective Leadership Communication: How to diminish the “F” factors that discourage employees from speaking freely

In a recent blog post titled, “Are Exit Interviews a Waste of Time?” I shared the observations of the chief human resources officer of a large, international corporation. He pointed out that employees heading out the door rarely are open about all of the true reasons for leaving because they fear burning bridges. The article “Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely?” from the January-February 2016 issue of the Harvard Business Review provides a thoughtful, research-based assessment of what encourages and inhibits open communication and construction feedback in organizations. Authors James R. Detert and Ethan R. Burris convincingly described the two “F” factors that are usually at the heart of employees’ reluctance to speak up: Fear and Futility. While Detert and Burris offer helpful perspectives on

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nurse helping patient feel better graphic from stamp & chase

Competing Shortages: Is One Fix Contributing to a Bigger Problem for Nursing?

For more than 20 years, the looming caregiver shortages in primary care medicine and nursing have been well documented. In its study on workforce supply and demand projections released in November, 2016, the National Center for Healthcare Workforce Analysis of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated: “Under current workforce utilization and care delivery patterns, the 2025 demand for primary care physicians is projected to exceed supply at the national level.” (See Chart.) Following this ominous yet not unexpected finding, the study goes on to point out: “With delivery system changes and full utilization of NP and PA services, the projected shortage of 23,640 FTEs can be effectively mitigated.” In fact, the study goes on to reveal that if current trends continue, the

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US army man with dog on leash

“Loyalty is everything!”

Loyalty. Such a noble trait that we seek and deeply value in our closest friends, family members and colleagues at work. When used in a business context, it is usually preceded by “customer” and is a primary goal of the marketing strategist. But it wasn’t a marketing strategist who proclaimed “loyalty is everything” for health care providers earlier this year at the Executive Dialogue sponsored by the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development. Michael Modic, MD, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer for the Cleveland Clinic, passionately left participants with this advice at the close of the two-day program focused on breakthrough ideas to transform health care. Loyalty is an interesting concept to consider when thinking about the relationship between a patient and his or her

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