Greater staff engagement leads to improved patient satisfaction and lower medical malpractice claim rates, according to the findings of a recent Willis Towers Watson survey.
Willis Towers Watson obtained data collected at dozens of hospitals within each of three large healthcare systems, including faith-based, regional and national systems. Overall, the research spanned 114 hospitals and more than 100,000 employees per system. WTW measured employee engagement through available clinician opinion and assessed medical malpractice claims by frequency and severity.
"What our research has tried to do is parameterize these relationships," said David Na, actuary and senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson during a panel discussion at the Becker's Hospital Review 9th Annual conference in Chicago on April 12. "This gives you a roadmap to proactively adjust funding; a large organization can benchmark not just against itself but against smaller entities in the organization that may have a difference in corporate culture."
The survey assessed clinician opinion of an organization's culture because "employees are looking to affiliate and achieve," said Patrick Kulesa, PhD, global research director at Willis Towers Watson. "Leaders and managers must craft a desirable culture, a winning organization."
Diane Moritz, BSN, RN, clinical loss control director at Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health joined Mr. Na and Dr. Kulesa on the panel. Here are three key findings from the data.
1. Staff opinion measures correlate negatively and significantly with malpractice claim frequency.
2. When physician opinions of the organizations' culture were more favorable, malpractice claim rates were lower.
3. Positive employee opinion of the organization was associated with greater patient satisfaction as measured by HCAHPS scores.
Ms. Morris presented a case study from Trinity Health as a real-world example of the study's findings. The 22-state diversified health system employs 1.3 million people, of which more than 7,500 are employed physicians and clinicians. The health system was encouraged to look at the data and identify the hospitals with greater engagement and lower malpractice claims. One 371-bed hospital in particular stood out for excellence in risk management; the executive leader and CMO had served on a risk management steering team for some time and brought that experience to the table.
Trinity Health proposed a staffing model for risk management based on their insurance exposures, which the hospital adopted and tracked malpractice trends over time. She dispensed 'early pearls of wisdom,' advising the audience to validate assumptions with data, discover the best hospital performers and replicate their leading practices throughout the health system and to establish outcome measures for strategic initiatives.
"Within your own system, can you be more focused with your resources?" Ms. Moritz said. "In terms of keeping down implementation costs, it is really powerful to think about the good work already being done."
More articles on leadership:
Rick Santorum, 35 other conservative leaders call for revival of Graham-Cassidy
Why leadership development needs to be fluid & ongoing — 3 experts weigh in
Hospitals should do the right thing for staff, as well as patients