hospital impact

by Nick Jacobs

Giving people permission to care in the health care environment may be one solution to positively changing the manner in which we run our hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and ambulatory centers. If we carefully examine what the current behaviors are and how the stakeholders are punished and rewarded, it’s an eye opener. Having worked in this field for over 20 year, I know that profound caring is just beneath the surface and relatively small changes can begin a process of managing and changing expectations and behaviors.

How is this accomplished? Our first step was to provide enough information and education to every employee, physician and administrative leader so that they had no questions what-so-ever regarding the organization’s goals. We did this by offering open meetings over all shifts to every stakeholder. We then offered classes and workshops in Emotional Quotient (EQ), Disney, Planetree, and general Sensitivity training. We paid for a week-end visit to the Ritz Carlton for the head of housekeeping and maintenance, and sent four employees to Disney University.

By the second year, we had built a comprehensive evaluation matrix for patient satisfaction and patient responsiveness into our employee’s annual appraisals. We then created an opportunity for about 10 percent of the employees (including our senior leadership), to find employment elsewhere. Although this was a difficult time, it was clear that these individuals had no interest in providing the type of compassionate care expected in our organization.

Finally, each and every year for the last nine years, we have continued to enforce our commitment to the philosophy of transparency, patient and peer compassion, and spiritual openness. Integrative health, access to clergy, 24 hour visiting, and a commitment to creating an environment that encourages a nurturing attitude have contributed to making our facility a true center for healing.