4.1 A Brief Introduction

Healthcare leaders that want to integrate continuous improvement (CI) techniques into their corporate infrastructures need to guarantee that a critical mass of workers in all departments subscribe to these methodologies. Additionally, executives and administrators want to ensure that their particular company’s culture possesses the necessary framework to allow employees to successfully implement and monitor CI initiatives. In this chapter, I demonstrate how healthcare supervisors can use symbolism encapsulated in their specific organization’s mission, vision, and values statements to help them develop and maintain CI-supportive cultures. I also discuss some commonsense tactics that these individuals can use that will enable them to create an environment that is conducive to CI. As part of this process, I explain why CI-friendly healthcare corporations need to promote amicable workplaces and foster office cultures that encourage staff to embrace health information technologies (HITs).

I focus almost entirely on organizational-level strategies in this chapter. However, I think that readers on any of the rungs on the corporate ladder can utilize the information to help them create CI-friendly workplaces. My narrative also serves as a lead-in to a discussion of departmental-level strategies in Chapter 5.

4.2 High-Performing Healthcare Organizations Create Cultures that Support CI

In truth, almost every healthcare company, regardless of its views on CI, has probably, at one time or another, used some of the techniques discussed in the previous chapter to identify and correct problem areas. However, firms that are committed to CI differentiate themselves from their peers in that the former organizations routinely and effectively utilize CI strategies to achieve superior results for their stakeholders. As a part of this process, they usually have succeeded in creating a culture that is supportive of CI initiatives.

A healthcare company that does not have this type of corporate culture might, on occasion, be able to use CI techniques to improve its products and services. However, the company needs to possess the right workplace environment if it wants to “sustain ongoing quality improvement [QI] at the organizational level” (Fried & Carpenter, 2013, p. 137). There are a number of reasons why healthcare institutions with CI-supportive cultures do a better job in implementing and following through with continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiatives. They include the following:

• Employees Are Committed to CI: As anyone who has worked in health-care knows, both management and frontline employees usually have to support a project for it to be effective. With that fact in mind, a health services corporation will be hard-pressed to consistently implement CI initiatives unless it fosters a culture that embraces these ventures. If an organization does not have this type of environment in place, its supervisors and first-level staff will scuttle CQI strategies through active disobedience or indifference. By contrast, a firm that possesses the right culture will be able to implement CI initiatives (at least most of the time) because the majority of its employees—regardless of station—will work together to make sure that these strategies succeed (Fried & Carpenter, 2013, pp. 136–138).
• Staff Make Sure That They Do Things the Right Way: I have observed over the course of my career that employees who believe in a certain ideal or system will perform much better than their disinterested peers. Following this logic, people who are supportive of CI methodologies will carefully follow the requisite project-related protocols; they will rarely take shortcuts. At the same time, these workers will be more likely to put in the time that is needed to “do the job right.”
• Workers Exhibit a Team Spirit: In my experience, if staff members are part of a corporate culture that is supportive of CI principles, they will usually try hard to get along with their peers when working in groups to perform QI tasks. These individuals might not succeed in resolving all of their differences–or in putting aside every self-interested goal; however, they will often be able to perform their required tasks with vigor and accuracy. By contrast, dysfunctional teams (often products of their environments) will have significant problems seeing projects through from start to finish. Even if they do manage to complete their assigned jobs, these groups will tend to generate sub-par to mediocre deliverables (Fried & Carpenter, 2013, p. 137).
• Administrators and Employees Possess the Intangibles: In my experience, organizational cultures that are amenable to CI are usually good places to work. Most of the employees at these companies are generally happy to be there. They are supportive of each other’s accomplishments, which creates what I will call a positive echo chamber. These individuals might compete with each other, but they keep the rivalries friendly. Though hard to describe or define, staff who are a part of these cultures are motivated to find errors and fix them—as well as to do all of the other little things that make CI work.

4.3 The Entire Organization Needs to Get Behind CI Initiatives

As I noted in the previous section, a healthcare organization that wants to incorporate CI processes into its corporate infrastructure must convince a large percentage of its employees to buy into these ideals. In addition, it should possess a company-wide culture that supports and reinforces the values that underpin CI methodologies. If a healthcare firm fails to achieve these objectives, it will likely have a difficult time successfully implementing CI initiatives on a consistent basis. That is because its workers have not only to be willing to accommodate CI projects (and the changes that come with CQI efforts) but also to adhere to certain values, like a belief in teamwork and a commitment to stakeholders, that underpin CI philosophies (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013a, pp. 41–42).

At the same time, healthcare organizations that want to successfully incorporate CI thinking into their workplace routines have to make sure that employees in each and every department buy into a corporate culture that is supportive of CQI processes. Most contemporary healthcare firms, especially large ones such as hospitals, are complex entities in which staff from multiple departments work cooperatively on projects or collaborate with each other to help deliver key patient-related services (Thompson, Buchbinder, & Shanks, 2012, p. 2). Additionally, individuals from different areas often need to be able to work together in teams to examine complex, multifaceted problems and posit solutions (Fried & Carpenter, 2013, p. 137). As a result, a healthcare firm will face difficulties in implementing CI initiatives if even one or two of its departments (or professional groups) possess cultures that are inimical to these QI-focused principles.

First and foremost, healthcare administrators and executives who want to incorporate CI thinking into their workplaces need to convince staff to adopt the methods. As part of this process, the leaders will need to persuade their staff that the benefits from using CI outweigh any costs. After all, a large number of these employees will have to dedicate time (at some point) to learning new techniques, to changing behaviors, or to making other sacrifices to ensure that their particular company’s CI initiatives succeed. Speaking from experience, I can state that workers want to know that their efforts are worth it. Hence, leaders at all levels in an organization will need to spend time carefully explaining to their subordinates the benefits in using CI if they want these individuals to adopt and use Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methods.

Readers can find many books and articles that they can use to help them convince their employees to adopt CI methods. I am more interested here in discerning some of the key corporate-level cultural elements that, when they exist within a company, make it more likely that a worker will buy into CI. When feasible, I will also discuss steps that leaders can take to abet the development of these traits within their particular organization’s workplace.

4.4 Healthcare Organizations: The Challenges of Diversity

Most healthcare companies—even the smallest ones—have diverse clienteles and workforces. On the one hand, a typical organization’s customers will differ regarding culture, economic status, and personal tastes. More importantly for the purposes of this book, the firm’s workforce is also likely to be highly differentiated; its employees will come from a large number of backgrounds, encompass numerous personality types, possess different skills and talents, and perform a variegated set of tasks at the office (Sayre & Chavez, 2012, pp. 322–323).

Many healthcare corporations, especially large ones like hospitals, will possess workforces that are extremely diverse. That is because hospitals and other clinical-focused organizations provide a wide array of services and thus need to employ (or contract with) an assortment of position types. Unlike in many other industries, healthcare administrators often have to deal with autonomous or semiautonomous actors, such as doctors, who profess allegiance first and foremost to their professions (Hopper, 2016, pp. 35–37).

As a result of this diversity, healthcare leaders will face many challenges in trying to coax their employees—at every level and in all departments—to work together to achieve CI-related goals. Administrators must convince these sometimes fractious groups to put aside or at least tamper down any differences. They must also persuade doctors and other professionals to give up some of their autonomy, if necessary, in order to allow the healthcare company to achieve organizational-level CQI initiatives. In the next section, I will discuss ways in which healthcare leaders can use the symbolism inherent in their particular firm’s mission, vision, and values statements to help them achieve these objectives.

4.5 Creating Homogeneity Out of Diversity: The Role of a Healthcare Organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values Statements

As I noted previously, healthcare firms need to get buy-in from a large percentage of their employees if they want to succeed in incorporating CI methods into their corporate infrastructures. Healthcare executives and administrators will have a much easier time in achieving this task if their workers exhibit a strong loyalty to their respective institutions. In my experience, supervisors will be more likely to win staffover when their employees think in terms of “us” and not just “I.” As part of this process, these individuals should embrace their particular company’s mission, vision, and values. They must also trust their leaders—at both the departmental and organizational levels—to make good decisions.

One way in which a healthcare organization can help its employees to develop a team spirit is to encourage all of them to subscribe to its mission, vision, and values. These statements should represent the corporation’s zeitgeist and, as such, serve as foundational guides for the company’s staff and affiliated stakeholders. In an ideal situation, most of the firm’s workers will have imbibed these core beliefs, and they will try to incorporate the ideals into their work routines (Bolman & Deal, 2008, pp. 400–402; Rubino, 2012, p. 25). In my experience, employees who understand and share in an institution’s mission, vision, and values tend to be more willing to work with their peers and to follow their supervisors’ directives. Importantly, these staff members are more likely to go along with CI initiatives, as long as they feel that these strategies accord with the organization’s values and further its mission (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013b, p. 55).

To put it another way, a healthcare company that is successful in infusing its mission, vision, and values into the corporate culture will be more likely to possess workers who think of themselves in “us” rather than “I” terms (North, 2009, p. 94). These individuals, imbued with a shared sense of purpose and drive, will be more willing to adopt CI methods (assuming these ideals match their organization’s mission, vision, and values) and accept CI-related changes to their work routines (Ryan, 2004, pp. 4–6). As I will discuss later in this book, these employees might also be more apt to attempt to convince their colleagues to buy into CQI philosophies. They may even take the initiative in trying to foster an environment that is more conducive to CI.

4.6 Controlling the Variables

In my opinion, healthcare leaders should also strive to create a corporate community that shares in a certain set of ideals because it takes some of the guesswork out of CI implementation. If executives and administrators are confident that most of their employees adhere to certain, corporate-sponsored values, they can narrow down the list of potential consequences that might result from any company-wide CI initiatives. In theory, this will make it easier for healthcare leaders to come up with viable CI strategies. They will not have to consider as many potential variables, although the planning process will still be complex and fraught with danger.

4.7 Ways to Encourage Employees to Inculcate the Organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values

Healthcare leaders can do a variety of things to encourage employees to imbibe their particular company’s mission, vision, and values. Below, I have posited some strategies that executives and administrators can use to help encourage staffto buy into the organization’s core beliefs. They represent only a small portion of the potential methods that might be available to leaders.

• Ensure that Corporate Policies Stress Core Values: It goes without saying that healthcare companies should make sure that their policies reflect and reinforce their core beliefs. At the organizational level, executives and administrators should work with all internal stakeholders to ensure that the guidelines in employee handbooks and other materials accurately reflect their particular firm’s principles as they are expressed in the mission, vision, and values statements. These leaders should insist that individual departments utilize protocols that honor and reaffirm these dogmas.

  The vast majority of readers would probably consider this one to be common knowledge. I would expect that most healthcare management books devote time to reaffirming this view. Nonetheless, I have included it on this list because, in my experience, healthcare leaders do not always follow this mantra. Instead, they will oversee the creation of protocols that are ambiguous or even conflict with key values statements. Along a similar vein, executives and administrators will sometimes take a laissez-faire approach to managing, thereby allowing certain departments or individuals to pursue policies that run contrary to their company’s mission, vision, and values.

• Keep It Simple: Employees are more likely to remember key ideals when these phrases are concise. Ergo, healthcare leaders want to keep their mission statements short and posit only a few core values (Walston & Chou, 2012, pp. 293–294). When necessary, management and frontline staff can use their particular firm’s mission, vision, and values statements as guides when they need to craft more complex regulations and practices that adhere to these beliefs.
• Create Opportunities for Interdepartmental Mingling: In my experience, it is easier for a healthcare organization to foster a culture that espouses shared values and a team mentality when its members actively interact with one another. In a smaller healthcare company with limited space, this task is probably easier, as people from various departments will routinely bump into each other during the course of their workdays. At the same time, leaders who run a small corporation will probably find it relatively easy to schedule events, such as a quarterly pot luck luncheon, which brings everyone together. At larger organizations, executives and administrators might have more difficulty in creating these types of employee interchanges. Nonetheless, they should attempt to foster office environments that espouse interdepartmental employee bonding. From what I have seen, the benefits in doing so will usually outweigh any costs.

• Management at All Levels Must Commit to These Values: Healthcare leaders, at all levels in an organization, must adhere to its mission, vision, and values if they expect their employees to do the same. In order to accomplish this goal, executives and administrators must abide by the same rules and espouse the same values as their frontline workers. Just like with parents, supervisors will find it difficult to get employees to adopt CI or any other company-sponsored initiative if they take a “Do as I say and not as I do” attitude.

  I believe that healthcare leaders, in order to gain the trust and support of their workers, must demonstrate to their staffs that they earn their paychecks. In other words, executives and managers must find some way to convince their employees that these leaders deserve whatever salary (including other types of compensation) they get from their respective companies. Ideally, of course, supervisors would be able to keep their remuneration a secret from their subordinates. However, in my experience, that is difficult if not impossible for most of them to accomplish (in either public or private firms). Even if an administrator is able to keep this information private, his or her workers will assume that the individual “makes a lot more than them.” Employees will tend to become restive and sometimes recalcitrant if they believe that their bosses are not “earning their keep.”

• Find Creative Ways to Remind Employees about Corporate Values: Many healthcare organizations will post their mission, vision, and values statements on the walls in the hallways, on fliers, on business cards, and in company manuals. At the same time, their human resources (HR) personnel will often make a point of telling new employees about these ideals and highlighting ways in which these workers can “live the values.” In some cases, a healthcare firm might not need to do anything else to ensure that its workforce imbibes (and remembers) its key beliefs. This is especially true if most of the staffmembers adhere to these views and, through their actions and words, serve as examples to their peers (Brinkley, 2013, pp. 4, 11).

  However, I think it is common knowledge that people tend to overlook or ignore the signs that they see on the walls every day. They also tend to gloss over writing that they view on a constant basis. As such, the mottoes and statements in hallways, on business cards, in manuals, and so forth, quickly lose their efficacy. With this fact in mind, I would encourage healthcare leaders to find creative ways to remind employees about their particular organization’s core values. I have seen leaders use pop quizzes (with rewards) and staff-created videos to help them accomplish the aforementioned goal. I am sure that anyone who is reading this book can come up with other ideas.

4.8 Creating a Sense of Unity: Putting the Organization First and the Department or Profession Second

In an ideal world, a healthcare organization that succeeds in convincing its workers and affiliated personnel to buy into its key mission, vision, and values, will have little trouble in getting these individuals to put the firm first. However, that is not always the case. Some staff members might agree with a company’s ideals but place the interests of their association’s or their department’s aims ahead of those of the company. Sometimes, employees might be able to adhere to these priorities as long as their personal or professional goals correspond with those of their particular institution. However, in my experience, individuals who place another group’s needs before those of their organizations usually cause problems for these companies. With that fact in mind, healthcare executives will want to focus on getting staff to think in “us” (company) terms, whenever possible. These leaders can utilize any number of strategies to increase employee loyalty; however, it is usually imperative that they make every effort to cajole their workforce into taking a “company first” mentality (assuming that the organization acts in an ethical manner).

4.9 Creating an Amicable Work Environment

Although it is imperative for CI-focused healthcare organizations to get employees to buy into corporate ideals, it is just as necessary for them to keep the majority of these people content. In my experience, staff are much more willing to embrace their particular firm’s strategies and to adopt an organization first mentality when they are relatively happy with their work lives. Healthcare and business experts agree; their studies have demonstrated that satisfied employees are more likely to be motivated and engaged—a necessary attribute for individuals who are part of CI-supportive cultures (Landry, 2000, p. 167–168; Sykes, 2001, p. 32). As important, their research has shown a correlation, all other things being equal, between an individual’s level of happiness and his or her willingness to accept workplace-related changes (LaMar & Laney, n.d.; Landry, 2000, pp. 167–168). This is important because staff members who are part of a CI-focused organization must be willing, when necessary, to make adjustments to their office routines in order to support CQI initiatives. Finally, at least in my experience, happy employees are more likely to serve as CI champions who will work to convince their peers to adopt these methods.

At most healthcare firms, office-level leaders play a large role in keeping employees happy. However, a company’s executives can do a number of things at the organizational level to achieve high worker satisfaction rates. One can find numerous books and articles that focus on this subject. Readers are probably familiar with many of the more common suggestions, such as “make sure that you pay your staff a fair wage.” I do not think it would behoove me to review those tips here since they appear in a variety of other places. Instead, I will look at some creative ways in which a healthcare organization’s leadership can promote a work environment that fosters high employee morale. In this section, I draw from my own experiences. Most readers will probably consider the ideas to be common knowledge (and they are); however, these topics might not readily come to one’s mind when thinking of ways to keep staff contented.

• Focus on the Positive: In the healthcare world, leaders often have to provide disappointing news to patients, employees, and other stakeholders. At the same time, they sometimes need to exhibit a serious, reflective persona that conveys an air of objectivity and maturity. With that being said, I have found that organizations which contain optimistic-leaning leaders are usually much better places to work. Executives and managers, by focusing on the “bright side” of things, leave their staff feeling motivated and content. On the other hand, administrators who are overly dour or pessimistic will, at least in my experience, possess workers who mimic these traits. Many healthcare researchers would agree with me on this topic (Kerfoot, 2012, pp. 305–306).
• Smile Often: I have found that when leaders smile often, assuming these gestures are authentic, they convey a sense of positivity among the staff that is infectious. In my experience, most people want to be around beaming, friendly administrators and executives instead of taciturn ones.
• Use First Names: I have worked for organizations where staffrefer to each other by their last names. I have also been affiliated with companies in which all employees—including the executives—operate on a first-name basis. Of the two systems, I much prefer the latter one. In my experience, when workers hail each other by their given names, these individuals feel more empowered. They come to see themselves as members of a family instead of as cogs in a machine or as bit players in a corporate hierarchy.
• Keep the Competition Friendly: Most human beings, at least to some extent, are naturally competitive. Healthcare organizations want to utilize this trait to motivate employees to meet company-related quality and productivity goals. However, leaders should ensure that these rivalries do not become too heated. If staff members from different departments or units become overly competitive with each other, they might create hostile environments that threaten corporate unity and negatively impact worker morale.

4.10 Answer the “Why” Questions

I believe that healthcare executives and administrators will have a much easier time in incorporating CI principles into their organizational infrastructures if they promote cultures that answer employees’ “why” questions. In this type of environment, management ensures that staff are aware of how their tasks fit into the overall corporate plan. Not only do these workers realize that their jobs are important, but they are also cognizant of the ways in which their efforts benefit the company as a whole. At the same time, the firm’s leadership does not issue directives without explaining to the workforce why these edicts are necessary. When it comes time to integrate CI processes into office norms, leaders in an “answer the why questions” culture will ensure that all employees understand the motives behind the particular institution’s decision to adopt CI-related philo sophies. Additionally, the institution’s leaders will clearly demonstrate to staff how they can use these CQI methods to help them achieve certain goals.

Most readers will consider it common sense for leaders to take the aforementioned steps. It goes without saying that employees are much more likely to place their trust in management, to put the company first, and to do other things that are indicative of a CI-supportive culture if their executives and administrators consistently answer the “why questions.”

However, I have seen administrators and executives give their employees tasks to perform without explaining to them why these duties are important. Often, an individual only performs one of many roles that are integral to the completion of a project, product, or service. That staff member might have difficulty discerning the value in the job that he or she is doing because the person cannot view the end result. In these instances, the worker is liable to become disengaged, disenchanted, and frustrated; he or she might also lose faith in management (Strauss, 2013; Yadav & Nagle, 2012, p. 340). This staff member will likely be less willing to accept the changes to his or her daily routine that are part and parcel of many CI initiatives. At the same time, the employee will probably not put as much time and effort into performing CI-related tasks when called upon to do so.

4.11 The Flaws Are Systemic and Not Personal

A healthcare organization that wants to adopt and employ CI methods should possess a culture that “deemphasize[s] individual blame” (Breland & Newton-Ward, 2013, p. 231). As I noted in the previous chapter, staffutilize CI techniques to identify systemic flaws in processes, products, or services. If CI proponents operate in a corporate environment that places the primary culpability for mistakes on individuals, they will find it tough to convince administrators and workers to go along with CI-related initiatives (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013a, p. 9). At the same time, QI teams will experience difficulties in identifying the root causes of problems because the employees they interview will be afraid to tell the truth for fear of being penalized. Finally, a healthcare company that is committed to using CI philosophies needs its frontline workers to let management (or dedicated CI professionals) know about key flaws in services or procedures. The firm is not likely to obtain this type of employee feedback if these people are fearful of being fired or otherwise punished for bringing any errors to the attention of their superiors (Fried & Carpenter, 2013, p. 133; Henry, 2011). Although every healthcare institution must hold its staff accountable for their actions and should penalize them when justified, a corporation should not take a “blame the person first” mentality. Instead, it should foster a culture that is built on the motto: “blame the system and not the individual.”

4.12 Embrace HITs When Possible

It goes without saying that healthcare leaders want to be cautious when integrating new technologies into the workplace. Almost every reader can probably think back to a situation in which a healthcare organization purchased an unnecessary HIT platform or botched the implementation of a new software or hardware system. Speaking from experience, companies who make these mistakes can incur significant costs, anger employees, and negatively impact both productivity-related and quality-related metrics.

Despite the risks, I believe that healthcare organizations that are interested in adopting Lean, Six Sigma, or other CI methods should seek to utilize HITs when they can do so. It goes without saying that healthcare staff will usually find it much easier and faster to collect, sort, analyze, and disseminate data when they forego pen and paper and enter all of the information directly into a digital database. Anyone who has ever used Microsoft Excel (let alone a more advanced analysis system) can attest to this fact. At the same time, it is common knowledge that computer systems are much better than human beings at performing many rote (and sometimes even complex) tasks. Healthcare leaders should leverage these technologies, when possible, to save time and money, as well as to improve patient care and increase productivity. These are only two of the many ways in which healthcare companies can use HITs to help them minimize costs while at the same time maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of their services or products.

I do not have the space in this text to give the topic the justice it deserves. Readers who are interested in the subject can find numerous books and articles that delineate the specific ways in which healthcare organizations might utilize HITs in coordination with CI methods to reduce costs, improve patient care, and increase productivity. For the purposes of this narrative, I think I have demonstrated a simple fact: Health services companies can use software and hardware to help them achieve CI-related goals and to perform CI-related tasks. In fact, a large institution such as a hospital would be hard-pressed to function effectively without employing some types of HIT. Barring a monumental catastro phe, the potential uses for HITs in the healthcare workplace will continue to grow in the coming years as new technologies come online and technicians improve extant systems.

Given the important role that HITs can play in helping a healthcare organi zation meet CI-related goals, leaders should be willing to purchase and utilize them whenever feasible from a cost–benefit perspective. As important, healthcare executives and administrators need to foster corporate cultures that embrace the use of these technologies. In these types of environments, staff actively seek to incorporate relevant software and hardware into their work-places. These people are not afraid to learn to utilize new systems or programs, when necessary. At the same time, they know how to get the most out of the devices that they currently use.

In my experience, if a healthcare organization wants to foster this type of corporate culture, its employees, at all levels, must come to view technological advancements as generally beneficial. First and foremost, these people must trust that the HIT systems they use will perform as expected. Workers also need to believe that the software and hardware can make their work lives easier. At the same time, they must possess some degree of tech savviness so that they feel comfortable using HITs. Additionally, staff must feel that the technologies they use help to empower them instead of enslave them (more on this topic in Chapter 5). Finally, they must view HITs as co-producers and not as competitors that are out to steal their jobs.

4.13 A Belief That the Best Days Are Not Behind but in Front

I feel that employees who work in a CI-supportive culture should, in the most general sense, believe that change is good. This does not mean that they latch onto each new healthcare-related technology or buy into every novel QI trend. These individuals should be cautious in adopting nascent products and

methods. Nonetheless, they must trust that researchers and scientists are creating—and will continue to develop—valuable tools that they can use to help improve patient care, reduce costs, and achieve other mission-driven objectives. The employee who I have in mind believes that human society is still learning and growing. This worker does not think that America’s, and by association the U.S. health system’s, best days are behind it. Instead, he or she looks forward to the future.

Although one can probably point to numerous exceptions, I have found that employees who take an optimistic view of scientific and scholarly progress are more likely than others to embrace Lean, Six Sigma, and other CI methods. More importantly, they might be more willing to make the changes in their work routines that are necessary to accommodate a recently implemented CI process. Finally, these people may have a greater tendency to exhibit the patience that is required for their particular organization to fully integrate CI-based methods into its daily operating routines. Readers will probably agree that these ideas are common knowledge; however, in my experience, many healthcare organizations fail to consider this relationship and so do not take the necessary steps to help their tech-averse employees become more comfortable with digitalization.

4.14 Summing Things Up and Looking Ahead to Chapter 5—In the Trenches: Departmental-Level Strategies for Creating and Maintaining a Culture of Continuous Improvement

If a healthcare organization’s executives and administrators want to incorporate CI-related philosophies into the company’s work routines, they need to convince a critical mass of employees, in all departments, to accept the methodologies. These leaders must also ensure that their staff members, by and large, are willing to make the requisite changes to their work routines and to put in the effort necessary to ensure the success of any CI initiatives. One way in which management can accomplish these tasks is by fostering a company-focused corporate culture that is centered on a shared mission, vision, and values. In this chapter, I posit some strategies that healthcare leaders can utilize to help them create and maintain these types of environments. I also discuss other tactics that a healthcare corporation’s executives and administrators can utilize to aid them in promulgating a workplace culture that is supportive of CI strategies.

In the next chapter, I shift my focus from organizational-level strategies to department-focused policies. I start by identifying some barriers to CI adoption that may exist at the office level and suggest that even one dysfunctional unit can waylay a healthcare company’s best-laid CI plans. I pinpoint some of the traits that are part and parcel of CI-supportive department environments. I then suggest some strategies that office-level healthcare leaders can employ to help these administrators foster office cultures that are supportive of CI.