Healthcare is, After All, a People Business
A Lesson about Hospital Physician Satisfaction
By Hayden McKaskle, Consultant (HCAHPs and other Surveys), HealthStream
As complex as our professional lives can be, especially in dealing with ever growing reams of data, our jobs always seem to boil down to people. Healthcare is, after all, a people business.
Helping Hospitals Focus on Their People
Part of my role as consultant is helping hospital CEOs and senior staff find the story in the various research studies we perform. A Physician Satisfaction report review I recently gave to the senior management of a hospital client provides a great illustration. Their results were generally poor with low scores in many parts of the 120-page report that included administration items and operational categories. The level of satisfaction with nursing, on the other hand, was generally good. It was an interesting case.
The CEO was relatively inexperienced and had only been in place a little over a year and a half. There had been high turnover in his position for the last few years, and trust in administration was very low. There seemed to be so many things to work on that if the administrative team tried to do everything at once, nothing would be accomplished. The CEO seemed discouraged, and it was apparent that he was under considerable pressure to improve on many fronts, including physician satisfaction. He was particularly dismayed that the physicians were apparently not giving the team credit for some of the improvements and positive change they had achieved in the last year.
The Importance of Communication and Following Through on Commitments
The overall tone of the survey results reflected a lack of CEO communication and administrative team follow-through. The verbatim comments from the physicians further reinforced this. With that in mind, I shared something with the CEO and his team. My mentor at Siemens years ago told me that if everyone in an organization would do one thing, that organization would be exceptional. He actually meant three things but prided himself on simplifying suggestions. He said, “Tell your organization (physicians, department, etc.) what you are going to do. Always do what you said you would do. Finally, tell them what you did and then remind them.” It sounds simplistic but it is surprising how such basics can get lost in the daily professional lives of busy people.
Making Worthwhile Changes for Achievable Results
I then tied this approach into regular physician rounding and encouraged the CEO to solicit feedback and suggestions from the physicians. I encouraged him to work with his leadership team and select a handful of achievable requests that also fit within their strategic plan, especially if they address a few of their Key Drivers of Overall Satisfaction. Once the team agrees to timelines, the CEO and team should round to the physicians and communicate their short term goals which are based on direct physician feedback. Once any goal is achieved, the administrative team should immediately communicate this in rounds, by email, and perhaps newsletters, but ideally in more than one mode. Physicians, like most of us, may have a hard time remembering all that is accomplished but rarely forget commitments that go unfulfilled.
This seemed to resonate with my client and the team quickly began discussing ways to incorporate this approach. I have since heard back from my young CEO. Although it is early, he is already seeing encouraging signs and expects to see real improvement in physician satisfaction results during the next annual survey.
Here’s my advice:
Say what you will do. Always do what you said. Tell them what you did.
There may be a bit of prescriptive medicine in there for all of us.
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