Lafayette (La.) General Health has undergone many significant changes in recent years, including a renovation. However, it's the changes the hospital has made to improve patient satisfaction, rather than the facility's modernized look, that is catching attention.
In an effort to change the culture of its hospitals, LGH began its Journey to Excellence initiative in January 2009. The system has significantly benefitted from the changes it implemented during the process, including improving its patient satisfaction scores. In 2009, when the initiative began, Lafayette General Hospital's inpatient satisfaction scores were in the 38th percentile, and its scores are now in the 99th percentile.
At the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting in Chicago, David L. Callecod, president and CEO of Lafayette General Health, shared the steps involved in the J2E.
1. Defining the system's standards of behavior is the first step in the process. These are statements that clearly communicate the actual behavior an employee is expected to model. "We try to make sure the employees are determining what the standards of behavior are," rather than leadership developing the standards, said Mr. Callecod. "We want to make sure everyone at the organization can easily understand the standards and know that it was their co-workers that created them," he said. However, it is important for organizations to be very selective in who they choose to develop the standards. "The people you entrust to develop the standards have to be your highest performers that are really committed to the organization," said Mr. Callecod.
2. Broadcasting the standards of behavior across the system is the second step in the process. They need to be broadcasted so that everyone knows and understands the actions the organization expects employees to model. Mr. Callecod said his system uses posters as one mechanism of making the standards visible to employees. For instance, LGH has a poster with one of its top performing employees on it smiling and waving, and the poster includes language explaining the system's expectation that employees be smiling at a patient when the patient is 10 feet away and saying hello by the time the patient is five feet away.
3. Imitating the standards is the third step in the process. This step is especially crucial for hospital leaders. "The first time that a leader doesn't demonstrate one of the standards, you're done," said Mr. Callecod. "The leaders have to demonstrate all of the standards every day" to make the process work, he said. If leaders or others in the organization fail to follow the standards, there has to be a disciplinary process in place to let employees know the standards are taken seriously, said Mr. Callecod.
4. Providing education on the standardsis the fourth step in the process. "We have to educate constantly on the standards otherwise it loses its focus," said Mr. Callecod. For new hires, the education process begins immediately. "In the pre-hire process you have to sign the standards," said Mr. Callecod.
5. Validating the standards is the fifth step in the process. By using employee satisfaction surveys, patient satisfaction surveys and support card surveys, organizations can see that the process is working.