Capturing the true nature of healthcare is a fascinating and hot topic of today. With the populations at the highest it’s ever been, the content on health seems never-ending. Scientists and doctors alike seek ways to create a healthier and more profound blueprint to provide the general public. Clinicians are found all across the globe learning how to care for those who seek rehabilitation and focused care. How do we bridge the gap between mediocre healthcare agencies and exemplary? That was precisely what I intended to help an agency find out and begin advancing on.
Purpose
Comfort Home Health and Hospice is a healthcare team based in Las Vegas, Nevada who strive to provide life-changing service. In order to do this the several disciplines including administrative, clinical, social work, volunteer, and others work together to provide the best possible outcomes to each other, the patients, and the overall healthcare community. The team and I identified needs of improvement in these sectors, compliance, community engagement, team culture, and financial outcomes.
Objective
The objective was to use communication skills and strategies by reviewing lead and lag measures to create focal points, meeting agendas, and measurable trackers. The project primarily utilized measurable communication tracking plans.
A key component of the objective was to establish leadership by-in through shared goals and specific agency needs. The leader ship team expressed their shared purpose, was to improve the clinical experience for their employees, influencing infectious culture, extending to public positivity, with a final outcome of financial increase.
Processes
To organize the project a written communication tracker was used to include necessary documentation for each discipline within the agency in which they would document meetings, data collection, and action plans. The purpose of this tracking was to efficiently create consistent accountability, through effective communication over multiple domains. Additional software platforms were utilized which included Excel, OneNote, and patient data storage software.
The expectation was communicated upfront with the leadership team, and then the entire staff where questions and concerns could be voiced, reinforcing, and purpose/objectives could shared. The timeline of the project utilized reporting of the goals, data progress, agendas, updates, assignments, and overall outcomes.
Results
The result of this project was a continual increase in benchmark margins for the agency a cross multiple domains. The clinical outcome improved to the extent the agency passed their compliance audit, the communication between community partners was strengthened, goals and objectives were shared, increasing trust in staff, which equated to cultural impact, and the financial outcome ending in June was double that of the agency before the project started.
The tracking of meetings and agendas consistently utilized via OneNote, created predictability and decreased time wasting. The communication tracker shared expectations, goals, and progress towards goals. Additionally implementing communication through different formats such as written, verbal, and visual helped to influence growth mindset, and perpetuates a desire to continue learning and growing individually and collectively.
Experiences
While formulating this project, it allowed for distinction between needs and wants. It also allowed for understanding. What priorities led to good, better, and the best results for the agency. Interestingly, I experienced extended growth and learning from unexpected participants, whose ideas and input created far better outcomes because of the consistency in tracking and tool management focused on communication. It seemed surprising that communication could have such a rewarding impact. I’m so excited to hear the progress of the agency as they continue to utilize the communication tracking tools in the future.