December 2005
In this issue:
1. Success Story: Proactive Excellence Leads to Being Excellent!
2. Less Turnover, Better Patient Care
3. Ask the Experts - Phone vs. Mail
4. Around the Office - Thanksgiving Celebration
5. Paul Staros Announces Semi-Retirement
Success Story: Proactive Excellence Leads to Being Excellent.
Memorial Hospital, Chattanooga, TN
You can’t always wait to react in healthcare. More often than not, providing excellent care means giving away excellence before anyone even asks for it—proactive excellence. All the more so in Critical Care facilities; they’re not called ‘critical’ for nothing! Already named by Solucient in the 100 Top Cardiac Hospitals, Memorial Hospital is no stranger to success, but their Critical Care Services have all but redefined what success really means with their almost unbelievably high scores.
Full Article
Less Turnover, Better Patient Care
By Wendy Leebov, Hospital & Health Networks
In these days of disturbingly high turnover, many health care organizations devote substantial resources to employee recruitment. In the short run, it's a must, but it's often conducted at the expense of retention--like running water into the sink with the drain open.
High turnover is incredibly costly and stressful. It thrusts managers and staff into a frenzied cycle of recruitment, hiring, orientation, vacancies, recruitment, hiring, orientation, vacancies, recruitment.
High turnover is also devastating to service quality. The great people you have on staff overwork to fill gaps caused by vacancies. They run ragged and resent it. New people, once you find them, take time to develop collegial relationships with their teammates, the ease of communication that comes only with time, and organizational savvy about how to get things done. Vacancies cause jagged, inconsistent service.
What to do? Get serious about making your organization a great place to work for the people you already have and the new people you're about to get. Your success in serving patients depends on having a critical mass of high-performing people who are focused on their patients and their work, not on finding the escape hatch to their next job.
Ask the Experts: Phone vs. Mail
“In my hospital, I am having a hard time explaining the advantages of telephone over mail for patient surveys. Which is really cheaper?” Anonymous—Baltimore, Maryland
For patient surveys, mail does seem cheaper at a glance. Seeming cheaper is not quite the same as being cheaper, however. Inexpensive invalid data is not “cheaper” because invalid data isn’t worth anything. Therefore, it is important to ask slightly different questions when choosing a survey methodology for patient research: Which is most reliable? Which is most cost-effective?
Click here for more information
Around the Office - Thanksgiving Celebration
The Jackson Organization takes Thanksgiving quite seriously—we’ve got a lot to be thankful for! Thankful for our clients, their increasingly satisfied patients across America, our fantastic employees . . . the list could go on endlessly. But since ‘thanks’ is both a noun and a verb, we had to do more than simply say what we are thankful for. We wanted to put our thanks into action.
Part of that ‘action’ was a tremendous amount of cooking. If ever a company’s heart could be reached through its stomach, then we were that company on Tuesday, November 22. Our hearts were as full of camaraderie and thankfulness as our bellies were full of fantastic food. The turkey was viciously carved up with palpable precision by Paul Staros—our Senior Vice President and Nebraska native, wearing a Redskins apron and wielding an electric knife. It almost sounds like there should be a punch-line here.
In addition to the turkey we had ham, dressing (three kinds), sweet potatoes (two wildly different recipes—traditional and Crazy Spicy), deviled eggs, casseroles (too many to count, but not too many for us to eat), desserts (enough for its own table!), gravies, soups, dips, chips, punch, sodas, and cranberry sauces (including a crowd favorite made with port).
Gatherings such as this also remind us why we are building new headquarters. We were packed! As always, this holiday celebration was for all departments and all shifts—one of the keys to building a family environment is to celebrate everything together.
One of the most powerful moments awaited us early that morning—a message that reminded us why we love what we do and how worthwhile our work truly is. Our CEO, Dave Jackson, greeted us all with a simple, potent message. “I am deeply thankful for each of you, my associates at The Jackson Organization, who are doing all you can to help me change the way healthcare is delivered in America.”
The patient—that’s who we are all here for. For all of you out there giving your all to each and every patient, we have a message for you:
From the bottom of our hearts, WE THANK YOU!
Paul Staros Announces Semi-Retirement
Dave Jackson said it best: “Paul Staros helped make this company what it is today.” One look in Dave’s eyes and the sound of his voice let you know instantly that he was speaking directly from his heart.
Paul Staros (our legendary Senior Vice President, founding partner, and among the top survey research experts ever) recently announced his semi-retirement. He will officially semi-retire on December 30, 2005, though he will remain with us as a consultant. While this came as a shock to many—clients and colleagues alike—this is not a time of mourning, although many of us have shed more than a few tears. This is a time to celebrate the unfathomable contributions he has made to the healthcare industry, The Jackson Organization, and thousands of people across the nation. With his famous (at times, infamous) recall for everything he has ever seen or heard, you can bet he remembers each and every one of you.
At our recent Christmas party on December 3rd, we took the opportunity to show Paul what he meant to us. Of course, this was a virtually impossible task—how do you properly thank someone that actually changed your life? How do you show your appreciation for hundreds of hospitals and millions of patients positively affected? We spent time sharing stories, hugging, clapping, cheering, crying, and the occasional standing ovation. For a gift, we took some advice from his son Julian, who said, “Well, I think his current watch is older than I am.” So, we presented him with a lovely Burberry watch—so he can keep fabulously accurate time in his new home in Nebraska.
Paul, we will never forget what you have given us—and long after you’ve moved on, your wisdom, advice, and counsel will reside in our hearts.