In this issue:
1. Important HCAHPS Updates
2. 2007 Keynote Speaker Announced for 2007 Annual Conference
3. Spreading Best Practices: Physician Satisfaction - History, Trust, and Communication Key Factors
4. Employee Success Story: How One CEO Helped Bring a Hospital Back to Life
5. Discovery: Administrators Can Make or Break Nurse and Physician Satisfaction
6. Ask the Experts: Correlation or Causation?
7. Around the Office: Ask for Volunteers, and Get Ready for the Avalanche
| Important HCAHPS Updates
Are you ready for HCAHPS? Here are the key dates that have been recently established by CMS:
HCAHPS Participation Forms must be submitted by August 15, 2007
Note: If you have submitted your HQA Pledge, there is no need to resubmit.
All hospitals that are participating in the HCAHPS program and that are subject to the Reporting Hospital Quality Data Annual Payment Update (RHQDAPU) provisions must submit a Notice of Participation Form to their QIO by August 15, 2007. All hospitals that have not already submitted the HQA Pledge must complete the 2007 “Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update” (RHQDAPU) form, which is not yet available. Stay tuned as we will update you as soon as it becomes available. This form must be completed to receive your full annual payment update (APU) for FY2008. This one Participation Form covers both your clinical and satisfaction measures.
The HCAHPS Trial Period comes to a close
More than 2,700 hospitals nationally participated in this HCAHPS Trial Period.
• October 2006 – June 2007: Trial period for HCAHPS data collection
• Fall 2007: CMS will finalize its HCAHPS reporting format
• January 2008: Hospitals will receive a “Preview Report” of data collected during the Trial Period
• March 2008: Trial Period data will be publicly reported on the Hospital Compare website www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov. (Hospitals will be allowed to suppress their results.)
And the Pay for Reporting Era officially begins
CMS expects more than 4,000 hospitals to be on board when the HCAHPS program goes “live” on July 1st.
• July 2007 – June 2008: First “real” HCAHPS data collection period
• July 13, 2007: Deadline for submitting March 2007 Dry Run data
• August 15, 2007: RHQDAPU Notice of Participation Form Due
If you are not currently participating in HCAHPS
CMS has scheduled another “Dry Run” period for hospitals that have not yet joined the HCAHPS program. Hospitals that participate in the September 2007 Dry Run will begin submitting data to CMS beginning with their January 2008 discharges.
Please note that participation in the September 2007 Dry Run will not qualify as meeting requirements for the fiscal year 2008 Annual Payment Update. In addition, hospitals participating in this Dry Run must contract with an approved survey vendor, as they will not be able to satisfy HCAHPS Training requirements to self-administer until 2008.
To learn more about how HealthStream Research can help your hospital achieve complete CMS compliance, contact us at researchinfo@healthstream.com.
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| 2007 Keynote Speaker Announced for 2007 Annual Conference
 We are now ready to break the exciting news! The keynote speaker for HealthStream Research’s 2007 Annual Conference will be none other than the legendary former Navy commander Michael Abrashoff.
Leading an unprecedented turnaround story, Mike Abrashoff took command of the worst performing ship in the fleet and made it #1 by changing the culture — not the crew. Performance on the ship Mike Abrashoff inherited was dreadful, but in the Navy, he didn’t have the option to hire, fire or promote personnel. What he could do was change the culture to elevate performance — and that’s exactly what he did, making his ship the Navy’s top performer. Publications from Fast Company to the Harvard Business Review have heralded the remarkable turnaround of the USS Benfold and business schools have made it a case study in organizational success. Abrashoff’s book, It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy, is a best seller with over 340,000 copies in print. His follow up, Get Your Ship Together, has leaders telling how their organizations have put his grassroots leadership principles to work.
We are in the process of finalizing the full conference agenda, so this certainly won’t be the last Annual Conference announcement. This highly-anticipated event is an outstanding opportunity to network with clients, meet our award winners, and get to know your dedicated research teams. Packed with educational breakouts, inspirational speakers, and social events in a fabulous setting, you’ll want to make sure your hospital leaders are in attendance. This year, we’ll be at the fabulous Sheraton Music City Hotel in downtown Nashville, TN, October 21-23.
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| Spreading Best Practices: Physician Satisfaction - History, Trust, and Communication Key Factors
Hospitals can cut cost or advertise on as many billboards as they please, but when it comes to securing the bottom line they still must rely on the good will and loyalty of physicians. Measuring physician loyalty and satisfaction, once an issue of modest importance, is now of primary concern to virtually all healthcare providers. In an area that is considered a tough market for physicians, the CEO and management team at South Miami Hospital have worked diligently to remain sensitive to the needs of physicians and ensure their satisfaction with this facility. After speaking with the leadership at South Miami Hospital, which is part of Baptist Health South Florida, we can clearly see why they continue to be a top performing hospital.
Full Article |
| Employee Success Story: How One CEO Helped Bring a Hospital Back to Life
Saint Mary's Standish Community Hospital
Regardless of their size or location, hospitals across the nation face the challenge of recruiting and retaining loyal, motivated, caring employees. Their satisfaction helps ensure patient and physician satisfaction and their commitment to quality is essential to the success of the hospital. After interviewing Saint Mary’s Standish Community Hospital’s (SMSCH) CEO, Jeff Probus, we learned why this small hospital in one of the poorest counties in Michigan has made great strides in employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Full Article |
| Discovery: Administrators Can Make or Break Nurse and Physician Satisfaction
Administration plays a very large role in the Overall Satisfaction of both doctors and nurses. Physicians want to feel they have good personal lines of communication with administration, that administration is responsive to their needs, and that administrators are capable of running an efficient, high-quality operation. They also want to be convinced that administration is up to the challenge of dealing with difficult peer review issues. Nurses want to be able to trust administrators and feel they are ethical in their decision-making. They want to believe administrators will spend the money it takes to run the hospital effectively.
Full Article |
| Ask the Experts: Correlation or Causation?
On my latest physician survey report I noticed that administrator skill was at the top of the list of questions that are correlated with overall satisfaction. The report said that the correlation between administrator skill and the overall satisfaction of physicians was .80. Does that mean that high administrator skill causes physicians to be satisfied?
Click here for response |
| Around the Office: Ask for Volunteers, and Get Ready for the Avalanche
 If you are ready to be bombarded with engaged employees (some of whom you didn’t even realize were that engaged!), just create a team and ask for volunteers. At HealthStream Research, we’ve got analysts, programmers, editors, interviewers—if it has anything to do with providing stellar healthcare research and consulting, we’ve got an employee to cover it. But we wanted to address safety issues. Do our employees know exactly what to do and where to go in the event of an emergency?
An email was sent out asking for volunteers to be on the Safety Team. Submissions poured in from all departments with overwhelming velocity, and the Safety Team was born. Over the last several weeks, they have been evaluating things such as fire safety, emergency evacuation plans, and many other things relating to the safety of everyone. The first initiative has been accomplished as they have added several fire extinguishers in strategic locations throughout the building. Additionally, the team has scheduled for someone from the local fire department to provide an on-site training session for proper fire extinguisher use.
Aside from the obvious benefit of improving safety, we’ve watched how this volunteer team boosted morale and engagement throughout our organization. We are very proud of this Safety Team, and it just goes to show how much employees desire meaning in their work. “This provided a great opportunity for people to put their ‘scarce commodity’ skills to important use. I used to be a lifeguard, and I never thought I’d be able to put those skills to use here as an analyst,” said team member Jim Eggers, Data Specialist and Analyst.
We have developed a detailed safety and security program as a direct result of the Safety Team’s research and recommendations. If you’d like more information on our Safety & Security Guidelines, contact us at researchinfo@healthstream.com.
Safety Team Volunteers (left to right): James Miller, Survey Proofreader; Karen Dixon, Executive Interviewer; Jim Eggers, Data Specialist and Analyst; and Andy Gage, Analyst.
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