TEAM PLAYERS
Susan Nordstrom-Lopez and Jack Gilbert — Chicago, USA
GILBERT: Initially, we engaged with Thomson Reuters on a consultative basis which gave us the team structure to assess opportunities, work in collaborative efforts with finance and clinical operations in order to provide them with information. Some of the information was in our decision support system and we built some reports that were of value to them.
We also tried to look at how one area affects the other. So you look at certain volumes of utilization, and it's just amazing when you start looking at the different metrics, because you're capturing cost data; you're capturing utilization data.
Then each team would start asking questions: how could we make some changes to deliver on something that would affect that? And then they realized that the questions are really about their day-to-day decision-making or something that they're using that they could look at alternatives for.
NORDSTROM-LOPEZ: Probably our first Thomson Reuters-fuelled initiative was our use of the ActionOI® operational benchmarking solution in reducing our premium labor in our agency. Jack and Donna King, our chief nurse executive, used a lot of information from the ActionOI solution to get that done and that was behind a lot of our financial success for last year.
GILBERT: What the benchmarks gave us was the ability to identify opportunity. We got a focus in the way we were staffing. We looked at a different way of implementing our plan, working with HR, trying to find a better way to budget.
A lot of what we did was looking at nursing unit information and staffing ratios. We also looked at our opportunities to bring in new staff and hire into positions that we hadn't really filled in those creative ways. We also had NDNQI information that told us that if you're looking for a threshold of service, as well as cost structure, you could really marry those up.
NORDSTROM-LOPEZ: Another piece of it was: you can reduce your agency and overtime, but you do need regular staff to come in and fill that time. A key way for us to do this was through a nurse residency program, and that was really the second half of the success story.
So by looking at agency and overtime through ActionOI and then having a nurse residency program it's changed the whole fabric of our nursing staff. Our physicians couldn't be more pleased.
Along with physician satisfaction there is also increased patient satisfaction with our nursing care. It is a much stronger, more communicative nursing staff that's willing to challenge and ask questions and work in a collaborative way, not just take assignments. It's increased health outcomes.
We're a hospital that has been in Advocate for about ten years. We were freestanding before, so in the last ten years we went from losing $18 million to making $56 million last year. So it's been a big turnaround in that sense and health outcomes probably weren't measured as much before, either, and that's such a big focus of ours now. We're in a market that is actually shrinking, but we're taking share from other hospitals, so that's a good thing.
GILBERT: As you start to build on success there are more difficult opportunities, and the directional opportunities of building a strategic plan — people start to get excited about where you're going. So success starts to breed success.
I think that's where this culture really comes into play for everybody, because you can feel good about your financial growth, but you can feel equally good about being a magnet organization in nursing and to figure out how that really contributes to the overall picture. You combine that with business development initiatives and it really starts to show what you can accomplish — but it takes time.
NORDSTROM-LOPEZ: People want to be on a winning team. For everyone, being one of Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals® was just a huge recognition that it's all been worth it. It's really spurred people on to maintain that recognition and stay in the 100 Top.
We're also a hospital that does almost $40 million in charity care a year and we think that is very important. A lot of people choose Advocate Illinois Masonic because we have that dedication to people that don't have resources and so to be able to make some money and then take care of less fortunate people in a big way really keeps a very dedicated workforce.
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Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago IL Using ActionOI® Since 2005 |
Susan Nordstrom-Lopez, President and Jack Gilbert, Vice President of Finance and SupportADVOCATE ILLINOIS PROFILE
Susan Nordstrom-Lopez — President
Jack Gilbert — Vice President of Finance and Support