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GREAT
From
good
to
Mission Excellence
takes patient care
to an entirely new
level.
A mission
underway at Jackson
Hospital seeks to lift the organization to
excellence while taking patient care qual-
ity to a level higher than it’s ever been.
The
Mission Excellence
initiative
kicked off last April, when the hospital
entered into a three-year partnership
with the Studer Group. The consultant
firm partners with healthcare organiza-
tions around the country, providing
coaching and other assistance to help
them excel.
Cody Butts is Jackson Hospital’s direc-
tor of operational and business planning.
He says the Studer partnership will help
create a positive cultural transformation
that benefits patients and employees
alike.
“It’s about taking the good things
we’re already doing and making them
great, and being there for the patients
we serve, the physicians we serve and
the peers we work with,” Butts says. “All
those things are very important to us.”
Driven to be even better
High-quality care has always been a part
of Jackson Hospital’s commitment to the
community. But hospital officials asked,
“Could we do more?”
“We know we provide good care and
we get a lot of positive comments from
patients about their experiences,” Butts
says. “But one of the things Studer said
is, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’ So we
want to take it to the next level. With
that in mind, we started to look at differ-
ent programs that would improve that
experience.”
As part of the partnership, Studer
will help introduce hospital best prac-
tices. “We also have a dedicated coach
with real-world clinical experience who
comes on site once a month,” Butts says.
Through the coaching, conferences and
access to other resources, Studer will
serve as a guide, sharing tools and tactics
that help hospitals achieve exceptional
results.
“As you start those best practices that
are proven to work, higher quality care
and patient satisfaction follows,” Butts
says.
And just what does excellence look
like? Butts summed it up this way: It
means patients choose the hospital be-
cause they know they’ll receive excep-
tional care. Employees are engaged and
feel they’re doing purposeful, worth-
while work. And physicians see Jackson
Hospital as a world-class institution for
their patients.
“That’s what we’re constantly striv-
ing for,” Butts says.
Empowering hospital staff
The initiative starts with improving
day-to-day processes and communica-
tion among hospital leaders and staff.
Healthcare workers are already pas-
sionate about providing quality care,
as Butts points out. Empowering them
makes it easier for them to accomplish
that goal. And better employee engage-
ment means that patients will ulti-
mately have a better experience.
“That’s really what it’s all about,”
Butts says. “It’s about focusing on qual-
ity for the patient. That’s at the heart
of this.”
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