Posted on Mar 25, 2014
* “Studer Group® works with over 800 healthcare organizations in the U.S. and beyond, teaching them how to achieve, sustain, and accelerate exceptional clinical, operational, and financial outcomes. We help set them up to be able to execute quickly. And with the rapid changes occurring in our industry due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ushering in the pay-for-performance era, this ability has never been more critical.”
Principle #1: Commit to Excellence
It all starts with a firm and measurable commitment to excellence. What is excellence really? Excellence is when employees feel valued, physicians feel the organization is the best, and patients feel the service is extraordinary. A commitment to excellence impacts the bottom line while living out the mission and values of the organization. It creates alignment for your staff and leaders while putting the “why” into health care.
Principle #2: Measure the Important Things
In order to achieve excellence, an organization needs to be able to objectively assess its current status as well as progress. Principle #2 helps an organization define specific targets and measurable tools, and align the necessary resources to hit those targets.
Principle #3: Build a Culture Around Service
All successful change requires well thought-out processes and procedures that must become the norm or be hardwired into the organization. This principle teaches how to connect services to organizational values – script behaviors, create teams, teach service recovery, and develop standards of performance. There is no higher responsibility than to ensure high quality and a caring environment for our patients.
Principle #4: Create and Develop Leaders
Leadership is crucial to sustaining a culture of organizational excellence. This principle teaches how to identify current and future leaders and then how to develop, train, and equip those leaders in a cost-effective manner.
Principle #5: Focus on Employee Satisfaction
The saying “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,” holds true within every organization. Every employee is critical to the success of an organization. Satisfied employees do a better job. It’s that simple. This principle shows how an organization, by focusing on employee satisfaction, can improve patient and physician satisfaction while decreasing costs. Build a better workforce!
Principle #6: Build Individual Accountability
What if your staff acted like owners instead of renters? Principle #6 teaches how to create a self-motivated workforce. It’s amazing what your staff will do when they feel ownership and alignment with an organization.
Principle #7: Align Behaviors with Goals and Values
Through Principle #7, organizations are shown how to create and implement objective, measurable evaluation systems that are tied to the Five Pillars. Leadership report cards and 90-day action plans are used to support the evaluation system, and align leadership and resources in an organization.
Principle #8: Communicate at all Levels
This principle, often referred to as “Managing Up,” can work magic in an organization. Change occurs when all leaders are aligned, and everyone understands what is important, and what they need to do to help accomplish organizational goals. This method speeds up the decision process, creates proactive behavior, and improves working relationships. Organizations who apply this principle will find that “administration” is often viewed in a more positive manner.
Principle #9: Recognize and Reward Success
Everyone makes a difference! Start creating legends in your organization. A legend is an example of those who live the organizational values. By creating legends we establish real life examples for others to follow. Create win-win-wins for your staff. Never let great work go unnoticed!
Through the implementation of the Nine Proven Principles, you can start changing to a service driven culture today! These practical principles turn satisfaction into bottom line results.
*sourced Studer Group www.studergroup.com
