As healthcare facilities face uncertainty over healthcare reform, leaders will consistently be looking to decrease costs, improve accessibility and quality of care, and increase patient satisfaction in order to effectively grow a healthy and profitable organization.
The ability to be flexible in a changing environment, while targeting positive outcomes in these areas, will become more critical than ever before. Accordingly, as decision makers strive to set initiatives around these areas, achieving a high level of physician alignment is more important than ever to successfully execute on hospital initiatives. Without it, many facilities are likely to fall short in execution.
What measures can you take to increase alignment and collaboration at your healthcare organization? Here are nine tips to help you establish a strategy for success, better organization, effective leadership and engaged committee work, and the continual measurement of outcomes.
1. Follow four basic management principles. Whether an organization is effective in executing on initiatives comes down to four basic functions: Plan, Organize, Lead, and Evaluate (POLE). Each function plays a significant role from strategy to execution, but most importantly, understanding the elements of this process can help an organization to isolate which functions have worked well, and which functions need to be addressed. Once the problem is identified, a company will be far more efficient and effective in staying on course toward successful outcomes with the understanding of which specific function is failing to produce the intended results.
• Plan. Outline a strategy that summarizes your goals and desired outcomes.
• Organize. Ensure all parties—from support staff, to physicians, to managers and partners—understand the plan and have clarity on the goals for meeting expectations. Ensure that the right amount and level of resource allocation is appropriate to bring the plan to success. Everyone should understand the importance of his or her contributions and the measures required to reach their individual goals.
• Lead. Leadership, the management of programs, and committee work ensures all stakeholders are empowered, connected, and focused on outcomes.
• Evaluate. The measurement of outcomes can highlight areas if the plan is not working. Once an area is identified, a change in the other three functions must be made to ensure outcomes are set up to succeed.
2. Reflect on your organization’s history with a critical eye. To move forward and flourish, identify problems and acknowledge the damage they have caused. If you skip this step, the harmful events of the past are likely to recur and will continue to impact your facility’s infrastructure. Not a lot of time needs to be spent talking about the past, but rather, enough time to pinpoint the issues and areas from which they stem. From there, it provides a clearer view of how to best accomplish the next set of goals.
3. Ensure you have the right people and partners in place. “What does it take to be successful? Is our organization achieving desired outcomes?” Your answers to these questions can help you establish whether your organization has the best combination of employees and resources to reach its goals. Are your employees and partners organized to contribute to the initiatives in their respective areas of strength? Once you have determined that you have the right people and strategic partners in place to achieve sought-after outcomes, focus all parties on what constitutes success and how to create it.
4. Foster strategic alignment through clearly identified goals and accountability. Goals, of course, are specific to the organization, though they often center on one of three areas: quality of care, patient satisfaction, and efficiency of process. All facilities should focus on these areas, of course, but each one can be measured in myriad ways.
For instance, quality of care can relate to anything from mortality to the specifics of getting patients to take their medications when they leave the facility and/or seek aftercare. Moreover, they can also involve large scale metrics, community outreach, or other variables. Clearly build the goals of each individual and team to support the organizational objectives. Make those goals transparent and revisit them regularly with everyone affected so it is understood that there is an interdependence of one employee’s success upon others.
5. Build strategy into individual job responsibility with incentives, with particular emphasis on critical employees and partners. Providing financial incentives and other motivation is a tried-and-true approach that proves exceptionally effective in terms of alignment, visibility, and trust. Not surprisingly, incentive compensation is often the obvious, “go to” option. Often, physicians and other practitioners truly appreciate simple acts of being recognized for their efforts and achievements as well.
Organized rewards are also excellent, effective tools. Some facilities have profit sharing or a bonus-type structure, and a small segment of healthcare organizations might give their providers some level of ownership. No matter what you choose, across the board, attractive compensation and recognition that matters to specific individuals can be a powerful tool to build alignment in the organization.
6. Establish committees and regular meetings that provide a way for clinicians to discuss issues and find solutions. This approach is very powerful as it gives participants opportunities to collaborate and outline what your organization is doing well and what needs improvement. For optimum results, ensure transparency, engagement, and the continuity of such committees and meetings.
The participation of certain stakeholders can make a monumental difference from a cultural outlook, leadership viewpoint, and buy-in perspective. For example, if some staff members have expressed displeasure with changes taking place at your facility, an impactful, respected leader who is also a committee member can champion the cause to help secure consistency and alignment, and minimize the level of disruption that accompanies change.
Moreover, give committees a level of empowerment and charge them with accomplishing their goals, which should step into your organization’s higher level of strategy. All parties should be geared toward the same goals, and everyone should know the significance of success to the organization.
7. Get to benchmarks through committee work. During the initial phase, a committee may consist of high-level executives who help with the planning function, identifying problems and crucial initiatives, and setting benchmarks to measure progress and ensure your organization is working toward improvement.
You might have a different committee that dives a level deeper to determine how to get to the benchmarks established by the executive committee, as well as how to break initiatives down into smaller tasks and groups. Similarly, another committee could assume accountability for making sure tasks are carried out and ensuring cultural buy-in. When you look at each level, you want the feedback that is coming from that collaboration and the visibility to go through to your teams.
What’s most important is setting the right goals and benchmarks based on desired outcomes. Initially, you will have to monitor them tightly to see if they are working. If they are not, you will need to change them quickly, which can be difficult when you are so close to the problem. Consider bringing in an external resource, such as a partner experienced in project and resource management or consulting. A resource that can conduct an evaluation, identify the problems, and provide actionable solutions is often the most practical, cost-effective approach.
8. Secure buy-in and rebuild trust. When your people have visibility to problems, benchmarks, and plans for solutions, you will have a higher level of buy-in, and trust can be rebuilt at an astronomical rate. If there is a lot finger pointing, your leadership team first needs to “lift up the hood” and strip down the challenges, so you can get to the root of what’s happening. If it deals with trust issues, for example, determine why they exist, and develop a plan to correct them and where you need buy-in. Changes happen more quickly and effectually when everyone gets on the same page and is open about their observations and feelings.
9. If your strategy is not going according to plan, swiftly act on issues and/or correct it. Continually seek feedback from your employees and partners. The information they provide will present you with valuable insight as to whether your strategy is the correct strategy and whether your goals continue to be the right goals.
Cristina Muise, MBA, PhD, is the president of Medicus Healthcare Solutions, a company headquartered in Windham, New Hampshire, that provides healthcare staffing and consulting services to groups, practices, hospitals, and other facilities throughout the United States. Prior to joining the Company as COO in 2008, Muise operated a consulting practice, served in faculty positions at Stonehill College and Merrimack College, and served as CFO and COO at GlobalWare Solutions.
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