For the past two and half years, Black River Memorial Hospital has worked with the Studer Group to "Hardwire" service and operational excellence. Our heavy focus on People, Service, and Quality has helped engage our staff, physicians, and Partners in our "Excellence Always" journey.
Journey of Excellence
Our Journey of Excellence began in 2008 as our senior leaders and board began to stretch the limits of BRMH's current strategy and recognized that change was needed to assure that BRMH remained a sustainable and viable health care provider long into the future.
Implementation of a Standards of Conduct was our first step and defined performance expectations for the "Five C's" (Communication, Commitment, Customer Service, Care, and Competence). This baseline for our culture shift was viewed by most as a common sense approach, but it also began to more clearly differentiate the highmiddlelow® performers allowing for more focused staff development plans.
Quick to follow was the implementation of service teams and Must Haves®. Every initiative centered on BRMH's core values and fulfilling BRMH's vision statement of becoming "…the healthcare provider and employer of choice."
Commitment
The Board of Directors and Senior Leaders are committed to helping staff reach their fullest potential. One strong indicator of this is the ongoing commitment to enroll staff in TYYO and other Studer related conferences. To start, all senior leaders, managers and the Board of Directors attended TYYO. This was accomplished by the end of 2009. Beginning in 2010, BRMH continued the commitment by sending high performers, new managers, and new board members to TYYO. In all, approximately 70 people have attended a Studer conference.
Increased Staff Engagement
Increased staff engagement has been confirmed by the results of our employee climate surveys. In 2007, 2009, and 2010 BRMH received the Laureate Award for Workplace Excellence from the Jackson Group. BRMH is the ONLY healthcare facility to have received this prestigious award 3 times. More significantly, it received it for three consecutive years, a remarkable accomplishment that highlights the high degree of staff engagement.
Part of employee engagement involves staff participation in service teams. The service teams are comprised of six staff members and one senior leader. The teams, which focus on process improvement and improving outcomes are:
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Leadership Development
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Process
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Measurement
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Patient Satisfaction
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Employer of Choice
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Reward and Recognition
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Physician Satisfaction
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Service Recovery
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Standards of Conduct
Excellent HCAHPS Results
BRMH's HCAHPS results have improved over the past several years with our current results for Overall Quality of Care and our "Likelihood to Recommend" scores well above the state and national averages.
Excellence
BRMH has been the recipient of several awards recognizing our performance:
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May 2011 Studer Group® Health Care Organization of the month winner
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2010 Excellence in Patient Care award given by outcomes firm Studer Group®
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The Jackson Group's Laureate Award for Workplace Excellence 2007, 2009 and 2010
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2010 Five Star Excellence Award to BRMH and lab by Professional Research Consultants, Inc.
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2010 Wisconsin Center of Performance Excellence "Proficiency" Award
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2009 Governor's Gold Award for Workplace Wellness
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20?? Black River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Business Of The Year
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2007 Western Wisconsin Workforce Development Board, Inc. "Employer of Choice"
Stan Gaynor, Black River Memorial Hospital's CEO states, "We are extremely proud of our accomplishments. The public recognition is rewarding but is not the reason we have embarked on our journey. These rewards symbolize our investment and confirm that we are doing the right things to provide excellence in everything that we do."
We continue our journey using Studer Group® tools, investing in our employees, providing an excellent place for employees to work, physicians to practice and for patients to seek care.
As our Mission states, "in the spirit of Excellence Always, Black River Memorial Hospital will provide high quality, accessible, progressive health care, connect patients with valued health care providers and services, enhance the health and well being of the people we serve and remain fiscally viable to reinvest in the community's future health care needs."