Review, retention plans take shape
Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., makes a point during at the recent elevate meeting as Nancye Feistritzer and Kevin Myatt look on.
photo by Dana Johnson
A new plan to buttress staff and faculty performance and hold on to the best employees was introduced at a recent Vanderbilt University Medical Center management seminar.
Approximately 800 managers and faculty leaders attended one of two identical all-day sessions. This was the fourth seminar in a quarterly series inspired by elevate, VUMC's wide-ranging improvement effort.
“The centerpiece of this process is to create a work environment that is rewarding for our staff,” said Harry Jacobson, M.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs, speaking from the podium at the start of the day. “The single most important determinant of success on the job is a sense of trust and personal connection between the manager and staff. We want to make sure all of you reconnect with our shared mission and sense of purpose and carry that sense of purpose and commitment to the work you do every day and the relationships you build among your team.”
Jacobson briefly reviewed the first year of elevate, which has focused on development and transmission of new work standards, better recognition for good work and better communication with front-line staff and faculty. Jacobson said managers and faculty leaders have begun sending notes to employees to thank them for their good work, and that they've begun employee rounding, which is a simple routine to allow more open communication and to gather feedback from the front lines.
The executive team has set goals for service, quality, growth, financial results, employee retention and patient and employee satisfaction. To standardize the response to patient complaints, employees who work in the hospital and clinic learned a simple new protocol. This summer saw the launch of a more useful patient satisfaction survey and the start of a VUMC employee recognition and rewards program.
Due to hospital capacity constraints, TennCare cuts and increased charity care costs, it will be difficult for the Medical Center to meet this year's financial targets, Jacobson said. He said VUMC is on course to meet or exceed fiscal 2006 targets for growth, patient mortality and patient satisfaction, but added that the Medical Center may not reach this year's employee retention goal.
With the fiscal year nearly half over, the 400 or so people who have authority to award gift certificates under the new VUMC employee recognition and rewards program had spent only 4 percent of the budgeted $750,000. Managers need to be more active in this program, Jacobson said.
Most of the seminar was about a performance strategy called “high-medium-low.” Starting with the members of the executive team, VUMC managers and faculty leaders will independently determine who among their staff and faculty are high performers, who are medium performers and who are low performers.
In a new effort to keep high performers at VUMC, leaders and managers will collaborate more closely with these employees on an ongoing basis.
Managers will study some ways of coaching medium and low performers, and ways to impel better performance from low performers. For employees who continue to perform poorly, leaders and managers will have a standardized approach regarding discharge from Vanderbilt.
The seminar attendees heard how high-medium-low can help VUMC better fulfill its mission. The new program is intended to dovetail with the VUMC pay-for-performance program. In a February seminar, managers will learn how to put high-medium-low into operation.