LifeWings Monthly CRM Newsletter: June 2010 - Three Things You Must Do Before You Start Your Hospital Quality Program

LifeWings "Tip of the Month" - June 2010

Better Teams. High Reliability Systems. Sustained Culture Change.

Three Sure-Fire Steps for a Successful Start to Your Change Initiative by: Steve Harden

Skip these important steps and your culture change journey becomes a three-legged race you can't win. (Read to the end for help if you missed one of these three steps in your kick-off.)

You are ready to launch a new patient safety initiative (or any quality or change initiative for that matter)--what's the best way to get started?

We've helped over 100 organizations successfully begin their change initiatives. Here's the effective formula we've developed for the shortest route from A to B:

1. Choose the department for your initiative that you think will have the greatest chance of success. Notice I said "department"--not "departments." Go "deep" before you go "wide." The greatest chance of success generally means you have:

Physician support. You must have at least one physician champion. Three is better.
The support of the department leader--the Medical Director, Chair, or Chief of Service, etc.
The support of the nursing manager for the department.
The opportunity for a quick win--something that can be improved quickly when the right people put their efforts and energy into it. Success breeds success.
No other major change initiatives on-going. Change fatigue is a killer for successful initiatives.

2. Approach the physicians and key leadership for this department, and for the institution, and convince them to invest an hour in being educated about the methodology and potential results. At a minimum this group will include:

Someone from C-suite (president, COO, or CEO, and perhaps a board member).
CMO
CNO
Chief of Service for the selected department
All of the physicians from that department--be sure to include the physician champions.
Director or manager from that department
Reps from QA, and/or Performance Improvement, Risk Management

3. Conduct an hour-long educational session--led by the change champion and one or more physician champions. If one of these champions is from another institution that has already successfully completed their change journey, that is even better. This session should cover these four things:

The data that makes the case for the initiative. This doesn't always have to be only peer-reviewed data. Data and results from a peer institution as well as the stories from their journey can make a compelling case.
A clear description of the methodology to be followed to make the change happen;
A succinct and accurate listing of the action steps you need the physicians to take to support the change. Be prepared to discuss the time requirements.
WIIFY. If you can't make a compelling case for what's in it for the practicing physician, you have no chance of convincing them to support the initiative. While the data is important, most human beings make an emotional decision, then find the data (or lack of data) that supports their decision. Ignore the discussion of WIIFY at your peril.

With these three steps in place you are ready to start. Don't worry about convincing everyone. You won't. But with the support of the critical few, you do have what you need for a successful kick-off. Whatever your initiative, be totally committed to it. It's in the commitment of boldly jumping into the deep end of the pool that the magic happens.

Bonus Offer for June:

Many of you did not do these three steps when you kicked off and are wondering what to do now to recover the momentum. The first three folks to email me receive my best advice on what to do next if you missed these three important steps. No strings attached.

Bonus Tip for June

In 10 years of helping health care facilities implement the best safety practices of high reliability organizations, I have come to the conclusion that no organization is truly safe without an informed, educated, and alert patient participating on the patient safety team. Patients who act as their own safety observer may well be the secret ingredient for truly ultra-safe health care.

If you have ever wondered how to enlist the support of the patient and their families in your patient safety initiatives, my new book, Never Go To The Hospital Alone, published by BPS Books, may be the resource you need.

In this guidebook I have taken everything I have learned in these last ten years and written a patient safety manual from the patient's perspective. It has over 125 practical, easy-to-understand and use safety strategies patients can use to reduce the risk of an adverse event.

Nurse Kelly, author of a widely read health care blog on the Daily Kos had this to say after reading it...

"I received a nice birthday present last week, a book entitled Never Go to the Hospital Alone by Steve Harden. Wow! This guy has not only written the most useful consumer healthcare resource manual I've ever read, he's written a book that's easy and fun to read. Check out the Table of Contents to get an idea of the wealth of information covered."

The book is available from www.NeverGoToTheHospitalAlone.com, as well as Amazon.com. Part of the proceeds from the book go to the Church Health Center in Memphis, TN.

LifeWings Partners is the industry leader in using aviation safety, leadership, team building, and human factors tools to reduce patient-harming medical errors and improve safety and quality. Over 95 health care organizations in 29 states have implemented the LifeWings Patient Safety System. Learn more by visiting www.SaferPatients.com today.