All Posts Tagged With: "results"
Managing Data in Healthcare
Most hospitals face similar challenges as they upgrade their paper-based record systems to electronic medical records (EMRs), and those challenges tend to center around managing change within the organization as the ways and means that information is recorded evolves. Hospitals move very fast, and those that get used to the hectic pace of things aren’t very fond of change as it has the potential to initially create chaos, even if there is a promise of increased simplicity, usability, and accuracy.
Within the Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management section of the Baldrige criteria, applicants are asked how they make needed data and information available to the workforce, suppliers, partners, collaborators, and customers, as appropriate. To address the reluctance that many healthcare organizations have over switching to an electronic system, some EMR vendors have resorted to very interesting tactics in order to woo these potential customers.
Athenahealth is a very popular EMR and data management platform used by hospitals, which has recently made the news for the purchase of Epocrates, a startup whose mobile application provides drug reference advice to healthcare providers. Epocrates pioneered the development of what has been widely recognized as the most popular point-of-care medical application among U.S. physicians, providing vast swaths of data regarding pharmaceutical usage and interaction at the touch of a finger. Together, these two giants will manage data and information for hospitals and healthcare …
24Jan2013 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | Continued
Acknowledging Innovative Excellence – Henry Ford Health System
Workforce performance is critical for 2011 Baldrige Award recipient, Henry Ford Health System. Encompassed by their professional work ethics, they do a superb job of answering the Baldrige Criteria question in section 5.2, “How does your workforce performance management system support high-performance work and workforce engagement?” Henry Ford Health System’s work improves daily with technology advancing throughout the healthcare industry. Doctors use this new technology to treat diseases like prostate cancer more efficiently. Studies are then practiced to show how effective these new innovations can be.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in U.S. men. Robot assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is a new procedure that has been pioneered by the Henry Ford Health System in order to minimize the risks associated with what was typically such an invasive surgery. HFHS executed the first ever RARP and was globally recognized for their achievement. With the robots’ help, doctors can now make tiny incisions using minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. Before this, doctors were making long incisions into the lower abdomen to remove the prostate gland utilizing a procedure called open radical prostatectomy (ORP).
HFHS scientists performed a nationwide population sample in which RARP’s success rates were compared to traditional prostate removal surgical methodologies. 19,278 patients were tested at 647 medical institutions. 11,889 patients were treated with RARP and 7,389 patients were treated with ORP. RARP patients were …
18May2012 | Tom Huizenga | 0 comments | ContinuedAcknowledging Innovative Excellence – Milliken
The Baldrige Criteria for Excellence ask how you govern and fulfill your societal responsibilities, with specifications regarding reductions in environmental impacts through the use of “green” technology, resource-conserving activities, or improvements in social impacts such as volunteering or charity work. Ethical behavior is also included in this category, with considerations for key processes and measures or indicators of quality ethics. Milliken, a textiles company that was founded in 1865, knows firsthand what it takes to earn a Baldrige Award, as they were recipients back in 1989. Since being granted the Award, Milliken has diversified to a much more expansive organization, which now produces all sorts of different specialty chemicals and textiles, from the fabric that reinforces duct tape, to the products that make mattresses fire resistant, the antimicrobial coatings on countertops, and thousands of other patents.
Milliken takes a unique route when it comes to encouraging innovation from within. The idea began as a method of allowing lab researchers to run with their curiosity until they’d reached a marketable end. Researchers can use 15% of their time to investigate whatever they like, while proven innovators get 50%. Laurie Haughey, Director of Education Services at Milliken, believes that this type of practice will lead the way to breakthrough innovations. Ms Haughney states, “Hourly associates own and are responsible for 90% of the plant’s safety processes and safety education.…
8Mar2012 | Joseph A. De Feo | 0 comments | ContinuedBaldrige Impacts: Looking Back and Moving Forward
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is transitioning to a sustainable enterprise model, aiming to demonstrate its widespread impact by showing results. The Award promotes excellence in organizational performance, recognizes the achievements and results of U.S. organizations, and publicizes successful performance strategies. No matter the size or nature of your organization, the award Criteria are an excellent resource in your journey towards performance excellence.
Integrating Baldrige is a proven path to producing high-performing organizations, as the results of Baldrige Award winners confirm. The Baldrige model has identified the beliefs and behaviors of high-performing organizations. Its 11 core values and concepts, embedded in the Baldrige Criteria and evident in Baldrige Award recipients, are essential to achieving performance excellence.
More than 35 states have a Baldrige-based program which have relied on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and other intellectual property and resources, but operate without financial support from the Baldrige program. The Criteria ask more than 250 questions about how your organization does what it does. The answers to those questions help leaders understand their organization’s strengths and opportunities for improvement. They also provide a systems perspective (a Baldrige core value) that enables senior leaders to focus everyone in the organization on what must be done for the organization to succeed.
According to a recent Thomson Reuters report, healthcare organizations that have won Baldrige Quality Awards or have been considered for a …
13Feb2012 | Tom Huizenga | 0 comments | ContinuedStill Passionate about Baldrige
“There is no question that our adherence to the Baldrige performance criteria has made us a much more efficient university, and helped us weather repeated cuts in state aid without affecting educational quality,” write Charles W. Sorensen and Julie Furst-Bowe, chancellor and provost at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (article here).
UW-Stout earned the Baldrige Award in 2001. Ten years later it remains passionate about the value of integrating Baldrige. According to Sorenson and Furst-Bowe, “The most important change brought about by our Baldrige experience, which is now part of our culture, was the establishment of an inclusive planning process to ensure that, in Baldrige speak, ‘all arrows are pointing in the same direction,’ and not at cross-purposes.”
Having worked with five Baldrige Award winners, I can attest to the value of aligning processes and people with the goals, strategies, and objectives of the organization. Whether you are in business, healthcare, or education, the ability to focus all activities on shared goals dramatically improves performance and is a major reason Baldrige Award winners achieve world-class results.
Sorenson and Furst-Bowe also state that “the Baldrige model…also led to a number of important innovations, including our e-Scholar or student laptop program, our designation as Wisconsin’s polytechnic university, and our Discovery Center for applied research and economic development outreach.”
Most organizations embrace Baldrige because they want to improve quality and performance and …
3Jan2012 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedHelp Bootstrap My Baldrige Project
What do world-class hospitals and medical centers do differently? What can the hospitals and medical centers we use learn from them?
To answer these questions, I’ve launched a new project on Kickstarter to research and write a book called The Road to World-Class Healthcare. You can watch a video introducing the project and read a complete description of it here. The key to the book is the research: road trips to 20 to 25 world-class hospitals and medical centers across the country to interview leaders and learn about best practices.
To fund the research, I’ve posted the project on Kickstarter. A Kickstarter project succeeds by gaining backers who pledge financial support in exchange for rewards. Your reward for becoming a backer of The Road to World-Class Healthcare includes exclusive access to audio excerpts of key interviews, photos, and video of best practices. Invest more and the rewards increase. You can find the complete list of rewards here.
One of the reasons for posting this project on Kickstarter, other than to help fund the research, is to see if it can generate interest. If it meets the goal, the book will be written, and that book will appeal to mainstream publishers who expect authors to have a “platform” from which to market and sell their work. Kickstarter will help me build a platform.
Please take a couple minutes …
27Dec2011 | Steve George | 0 comments | ContinuedCulture’s Impact on the Bottom Line
In his book, The Culture Cycle, James L. Heskett wrote that effective culture can account for 20-30% of the differential in performance when compared to “culturally unremarkable” competitors.
Culture has a significant impact on the bottom line.
Burson-Marsteller and the Great Place to Work Institute asked senior executives from 20 of the top 25 “best multinational companies” for 2011 about the value of a positive work environment. Deidre Campbell highlighted the findings in this article on the HBR Blog Network:
- They invest more in their employees: 30% are investing more in work-life programs such as flex-time and health benefit while the other 70% are holding steady. None is cutting back.
- They provide stability: 75% of respondents valued most those programs that communicate brand mission and provide career development opportunities, compared to 15% who valued traditional benefits like health insurance and family leave and 5% who valued onsite benefits such as cafeterias and childcare.
- They value culture: “When asked which elements of workplace commitment most benefit daily operations, companies ranked culture at 80% and recruitment/retention at 70%,” writes Campbell. Competitiveness, customer loyalty, innovation, and productivity each garnered less than 20%.
- They share their story: 70% of respondents said customers are the most important external audience for understanding the company’s commitment to being a great workplace. Investors came in second at 35%. The “great workplace” story is part of these
…
