Illini Community Hospital is a 25-bed critical access hospital located in the center of Pike County Illinois, City of Pittsfield, which is the county seat. The county is 830 square miles, population of 16,430. The main industry is agriculture and agri-tourism (hunting). The poverty level is 15.4%, and 68% of the population being served is 65 years of age or older. Illini operates a rural health clinic with 2 physicians and 3 mid-level providers, a full service Wellness Center, and has joint venture arrangements for inpatient/outpatient therapy as well as retail pharmacy service in the community.
Illini Community Hospital’s (ICH) mission mirrors the mission of the entire Blessing Health System and that mission is to “improve the health of our community”. The vision is to “partner with our community to identify and meet patient-centered healthcare needs and exceed service expectations.” ICH has six value statements which are guides for everything we do:
- People – We value our greatest resource, the people delivering our services with mutual trust, respect, and integrity.
- Quality – We value ever-improving quality health care through evaluation, education, teamwork, technology, and communication.
- Growth – We value input from our community to identify areas for growth and improvement in the delivery of health care services.
- Finance – We value stewardship of the financial resources entrusted to use to ensure long-term financial viability.
- Service – We value the compassionate and confidential delivery of services to our community.
- Community – We value community partnerships to maximize the use of limited resources.
Illini was opened January 26, 1942. A large portion of the original funding was a $200,000 grant from New York Commonwealth Fund. The other $61,000 was raised locally. The original mission was “To serve the welfare of the people residing within a 25 mile radius of Pittsfield.” Although the mission’s wording has changed, the mission of service to the community has not changed in Illini’s 73 year history. In the late 1990’s Illini was struggling both financially and from a service standpoint. At that point, the governing board decided being independent was just too difficult and started seeking partners. The Blessing Health System from Quincy, Illinois was ultimately selected and began its relationship with Illini in 2000 – purchasing the hospital in 2002. This relationship brought new leadership, enthusiasm and much needed capital to the Illini organization.
Illini’s journey with the Studer Group tactics began when Hardwiring Excellence was originally mailed to hospitals. Upon reading the book, we believed this was the one way we could make foundational level true cultural change. For about 18 months, we educated ourselves, utilized the Studer Group website, read books, ordered tool kits and spoke to other Studer partners. We implemented several of the tools and had some incremental success but no real breakthroughs. In the winter of 2007, the Blessing Health System made the decision to enter into a partner relationship with Studer Group. This opened the learning flood gates and Illini and the whole Blessing Health System received the benefits of our partner coaches.
After we coupled our LEAN and Hardwiring journeys in 2013, we started to see real breakthrough results. Moving process improvement responsibility and authority to the teammate level has resulted in a more engaged and invested employee group. Helping employees thoroughly understand the “why” behind the tactics and tools has helped us to achieve a greater level of compliance and giving them the authority to make changes in their workflow and processes has resulted in an environment that is better to both receive care and to do work. In 2015, we are pleased to be asked to present at What’s Right in Healthcare on Linking LEAN Daily Management to Evidenced Based Leadership.
Awards and Distinctions:
- Studer Group HCAHPS award for nursing communication 2012 & 2013
- 90th percentile for employee engagement since 2008
- Becker’s Hospital Report 2013: Top 10 Cleanest Hospital
- Illinois Critical Access Hospital Innovation of the Year Award 2013 – care coordination
- Illinois Critical Access Hospital Innovation of the Year recognition 2014 – LEAN daily management
- Inpatient satisfaction: 7/8 domains >70th percentile – 2014 & 2015
- Emergency satisfaction improved from the 52nd percentile in 2013 to the 74th percentile in 2015
- Outpatient satisfaction improved from the 27th percentile in 2013 to the 74th percentile in 2015
It is truly an honor to be recognized by Studer Group as the Healthcare Organization of the Month for March 2015. “I couldn’t be more proud of the team at Illini,” said Kathy Hull, President and CEO. “They are a compassionate, caring, dedicated group of people and I am proud of the kind of care they provide. They have worked hard to improve Illini both from a quality and service perspective and this recognition is just validation of their hard work.”