Standardizing Leader Work to Achieve Necessary Outcomes

Today’s healthcare leader wears many hats and must be able to move nimbly from one focus to another and communicate precisely to all the constituent groups in terms that they can relate to.

 

While a high priority for leaders today is about successfully navigating the financial rough waters of healthcare, keeping groups of clinical disciplines focused on necessary outcomes requires that leaders relate to the passion for caring for people that originally brought the clinicians to healthcare.

 

As a “leader of leaders”, it is easy to get pulled into a constant barrage of reports, meetings, language and pressures focused solely on finance. Not downplaying the importance of attention to those details, it is critical that leaders let clinicians and direct care providers know that the patients they care for are THE top priority

 

Language is critically important. For example, instead of discussing HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) as one of the indicators that must meet certain goals because it is part of the new payment system, leaders must believe and stress that the reason for improving HCAHPS scores is because the parts of care that are measured are important to those that we serve.

 

One of those measures is about pain management and the reason that pain management is important is because being in as little pain as is possible is a critical aspect of the care process – not that a low score on pain management will cause scores to drop and the organization will receive less payment.

 

Leaders need guidance in how to go about this part of their work. Coaching on communication skills is helpful, but only if it includes the “how” of communications, not just the “what”. One item useful in helping leaders to focus efforts is standard work. It is typical in organizations to instruct leaders to achieve the outcomes (quality and satisfaction) and manage to or better than budget.

 

Frequently missing from those types of directions is the how. How does one go about the daily work in a way that communicates a positive message to the front lines of care staff and also focuses efforts to the goals? In defining standard work for clinical leaders, the content needs to:

• Be connected to the larger organization goals

• Set sub-goals for the individual’s area of work

• Outline specific measures (metrics) in how the results will be measured

• Put forth a map of exactly how the work is carried out on a daily basis

 

Pulling from a definition of director’s standard work to achieve engagement of a high-performing clinical team, leaders will carry out functions such as team huddles on each shift and running metrics on turnover and other key measures on a daily, weekly or monthly basis then discussing them with the team to be proactive in addressing any issues.

 

To ensure physician engagement, the leader will round at least weekly with key physician partners. A similar approach is used to engage volunteers by annual collaboration with volunteer leaders and daily verbal appreciation to area volunteers.

 

The point of standardizing leader work is that through a proactive approach, the organization can ensure that the proper message is relayed to direct care staff and that key organizational outcomes will be met. Without this approach, the organization may not benefit from the synergy of all leaders moving in the same direction, risking a miss on key organizational targets.