To succeed, we must keep team members engaged and willing to choose Clark Memorial Hospital as their place of employment each and every day.
By Martin Padgett, MBA, FACHE, president and CEO, Clark Memorial Hospital
“I felt like I was at a luxury hotel.”
“I honestly did not encounter one person who did not act highly professional, yet take the time to show great kindness.”
“We will not go anywhere but Clark Memorial.”
“I will voice my praise of CMH to all who will listen.”
Letters praising Clark Memorial Hospital, like the examples above, are common. I believe it is because we have built a culture at our hospital that is uncommon.
There’s something different about Clark Memorial Hospital. I hear this from physicians, patients and team members. But this difference is not accidental. It’s a strategy that we have been planning and executing at Clark for nearly a decade.
I like to think about our physicians, patients and team members as legs for a three-legged stool. All three are needed, and all three provide equal weight and support. If I had to choose one to concentrate on more fully, however, I would choose our team members. It is our team members that hold the hand of a frightened patient, or share in the joy of the birth of a baby. These same team members respond quickly and efficiently to a doctor’s orders, or to a patient’s concerns. To succeed, we must keep these team members engaged and willing to choose Clark Memorial Hospital as their place of employment each and every day.
Research told us that money plays a supporting role in the host of reasons people choose a place of employment. Good leadership, open and honest communication, a supportive culture and co-workers who are held accountable are probably more important.
So how do you make these intangibles tangible? At Clark Memorial, we divided these things into six pillars of success: People, Service, Quality, Finance, Growth and Community. We broke service down into systems that can be taught, and we invested a great deal in education. We set goals in each of these areas and measured our achievements. We made sure these goals were tied to national benchmarks, which means we measured ourselves against the best of the best. Then we held each leader accountable to these measurements through a report card system.
Our strategy seems to be working. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Over the years, we’ve posted some outstanding results:
· Our patient satisfaction scores are in the 90th percentile, which means we ranked higher than 90% of other hospitals and are the highest in a 100-mile radius. These scores are measured by Press Ganey, a leading national patient satisfaction measurement firm.
· Physicians list Clark Memorial Hospital in the upper 25% of hospitals. Our physicians particularly liked the skill and competence of our nurses, our technology, and the communication with team members.
· Clark Memorial Hospital has been awarded the eighth best place to work by the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce. We also have turnover rates in nursing and other areas well below national averages for healthcare.
· We have had a 20% increase in gross revenue over the past three years, and posted a $14 million financial turnaround from 2005 to 2006. Our culture sustained the turnaround and a change in leadership the year before.
· We have reinvested in services to the community by providing more primary care physician offices and a diagnostic imaging and urgent care facility in Sellersburg. We are now employing more specialty physicians, allowing Clark Memorial Hospital to concentrate on practice management and physicians to concentrate on patient care.
· This all seems to matter to our patients. Clark County inpatient market share has increased from about 48% to 50%.
· We continue to serve the community through health fairs and other prevention services. Our men’s and women’s health fairs in June and September offer thousands of free screenings. A new initiative, HeartAware, offers an on-line assessment of risk for heart disease. Anyone can log on and in seven minutes be better educated about their risks and what they can do to prevent heart disease. Logon to www.clarkmemorial.org to learn more.
· Our food services department has even won Taste of Jeffersonville two years in a row, quite a feat for a hospital cafeteria.
I’m proud of Clark Memorial Hospital and all the things we’ve accomplished. But I know it’s not enough. Each day, competition increases. Team members have a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a place to work. Patients have many choices of hospitals from which to receive care. And doctors have choices on where to practice medicine. Each and every day I will continue to work toward our vision to be the best community hospital in the United States so that you can feel comfortable choosing Clark Memorial Hospital, just as you have for the past 86 years.
Whether you are a physician, fellow team member or patient, I know I speak for everyone at Clark when I sincerely say thank you for choosing Clark Memorial Hospital.
