Healthcare Consulting
The healthcare environment is getting more and more complex.
Increasing demands, decreasing resources, burnout, bullying, and incivility have challenged healthcare leaders now more than ever before. Although healthcare organizations KNOW they have a problem with disruptive behaviors, they may not know what to do about it.
This is where we can help.
Through our custom healthcare consulting services, experts at the Healthy Workforce Institute are changing the face of healthcare and helping organizations become employers of choice!
We work with healthcare organizations that understand that the way their employees treat each other SHOULD be just as important as the care they provide and are committed to doing something about it.
MHealth Fairview Southdale Hospital
Lake Charles Memorial Health System
Minnesota Oncology
University Hospital, Newark New Jersey
Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple Region
Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple Region
Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center
UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital
NY City Health + Hospitals Woodhull Medical Center
Consulting Packages
When an executive leadership team discovers a bullying and incivility problem, they either ignore it or try to address it themselves. In both cases, they typically fall short.
Why is that?
They fall short because they don’t always take the necessary steps to find out what’s really happening on the front lines. To implement systems, processes, and structures for ongoing identification and elimination of disruptive behaviors, the issues need to be fully understood by an unbiased expert.
That’s where we come in.
Our comprehensive assessment of your organization equips healthcare executives with the data, information and the recommendations they need so that they implement the RIGHT strategies that will effectively address and eliminate disruptive behaviors.
We begin by identifying both the strengths and shortcomings of the organization. This is accomplished using a blend of employee focus groups, interviews, surveys, and document review. The assessment concludes with submission of a comprehensive report of findings and recommendations for improvement.
With time limited and multiple ongoing strategic priorities, you have one shot to get this right.
The Healthy Workforce team is standing by to be your partner in this important initiative. We work with your team to identify what’s really happening within your organization and provide you with a customized solution.
“Before you can truly solve a problem, you must first take time to fully understand it.” ~Renee Thompson
There is an epidemic of bullying and incivility in healthcare, and it has to change. It not only affects morale and retention, but it also affects patient outcomes.
In fact, research shows that…
- 71% of physicians and nurses have linked incivility to medical error.
- 27% of them said it led to a patient’s death.
- Nursing Solutions, Inc. showed that 81% of nurses who leave an organization cite peer and nurse manager relations as a cause for leaving.
For healthcare executives who want to avoid these detrimental outcomes, an organization wide intervention is required.
The Healthy Workforce Intervention is a 1-year program designed for healthcare organizations that want to do it right the first time and set the foundation required to transform their culture. Starting by establishing a Healthy Workforce Committee, this program is designed to hardwire, scale, and sustain healthy workforce principles across the organization.
Through onsite and virtual collaboration, this program creates a healthy, professional, and supportive work environment and reduces incidents of workplace bullying and incivility using the following proven approach:
- Strengthen Organizational Infrastructure through interdisciplinary involvement, policy and process augmentation, and continuous education and training through robust curriculum.
- Equip Front Line Leaders through skill development, ongoing leadership development, and HR support.
- Empower Employees through ongoing education and training and employee led healthy workforce initiatives.
We can’t afford to ignore the negative impact disruptive behaviors have on the financial health of our organizations, the physical and emotional health of our employees, and ultimately the outcomes of the patients we serve.
Let us help you like we’ve helped other organizations cultivate a professional, supportive, and nurturing work culture that rejects any incidents of disruptive behaviors because they are better equipped!
Healthcare leaders have an ethical responsibility to our public and employees to do better.
Now might not be the right time for some organizations to commit to a comprehensive intervention, yet they have pockets of disruption that absolutely need to be addressed. There may be retention concerns, numerous complaints, poor employee engagement, inter-professional issues, and dropping patient satisfaction scores.
Not to worry. We can help!
We’ve designed the Department Culture Change Initiative for organizations that want to start changing culture by narrowing their focus on a few select departments.
Some of the common departments we’ve worked with include:
- Surgical Services – OR, PACU, SDS
- Critical Care Departments – Medical, Surgical, Trauma
- Emergency Departments
- Women’s and Infant Services – NICU, Mother Baby, Labor & Delivery
The Department Culture Change Initiative focuses primarily on equipping leaders and their physician partners to transform their cultures from unprofessional and disrespectful to professional and supportive. You will work both face to face and virtually with Dr. Thompson and members of the Healthy Workforce team during this 6-month unit focused approach.
The DCCI is organized into four strategic phases:
Phase 1: Heighten Awareness
During this phase, your leaders will engage in honest conversations with employees, collect baseline data regarding current behaviors, and heighten awareness of disruptive behaviors that undermine a culture of professionalism.
Phase 2: Create and Communicate a Powerful Vision
During this phase, your leaders will create a vision for the culture you want to create, establish your department-based expectations, and begin targeted skill development regarding professional behavior.
Phase 3: Address Incidents of Disruptive Behavior
During this phase, your leaders will build a strong partnership with their HR representative, follow a process for addressing disruptive behaviors, and utilize simple confronting techniques as a team. This is where leaders learn to address, not avoid, disruptive behaviors.
Phase 4: Hardwire and Sustain a New Norm
And finally, during this phase, your leaders will select HWF champions, incorporate healthy workforce principles into existing processes with hiring, and celebrate successes.
This comprehensive “deep dive” provides leaders and their teams with the tools needed to hardwire and sustain a healthy workforce culture within their department.