Human history is loaded with examples of situations where specialization, even for all the progress it often brings, has lead down a dead end when the playing field changed. While specialization is great and definitely needed in many ways, it is critical for us to also pair this specialization with flexibility so as to overcome those inevitable changes to the big picture that so often make some of those specializations obsolete (or at least minimized). Today, Clint advises that we be sure to tak...
May 28, 2010•8 min
Regardless of the most current healthcare reform effort, a trend that has been up and coming with the government regarding the reimbursement process, thanks to extensive data/history collection, is a closer and more stringent look at payments associated with hospital readmissions. Rates of readmissions have been fairly high, not only incurring extra costs, but also additional ‘discomforts’ to our customers. Rightly so, the government sees this as a large area of opportunity for hospitals and pos...
May 27, 2010•8 min
Most every workplace has (at least) one - the bad apple who always seems to find what's wrong with things and offers no solutions to improve the situation. If you have been listening to Clintcast for awhile, you recognize this type as the ‘troll’ or BMG (Bellyacher/Moaner/Groaner) from other episodes. While every profession has its mistakes/problems, when they occur in healthcare, they can be more severe as sometimes life/health may be at stake. As such, it is very crucial that we be able to dea...
May 26, 2010•8 min
The position of Director of Nursing is a critical function in any healthcare organization. It is no surprise that the person in this role tends to have a LOT on his/her plate as they cover many bases and must be skilled in some widely varying ways, both in the clinical and the leadership worlds. Clint covers some of these aspects today as he discusses the finer points of being a Director Of Nursing, what makes great ones and tips for being an effective team leader in your organization.
May 25, 2010•8 min
It is a given in healthcare - our customers expect quality, no different than we would in their place. How we achieve that quality has everything to do with how our organization operates. There are lots of ways we go about driving the quality of our ‘products’ in healthcare, including some aspects such as cost savings, efficiencies, labor streamlining, etc which are found in other types of businesses as well. While it may seem obvious that we would never want to deny anyone quality care, there d...
May 24, 2010•8 min
To err is human... it happens. That being said, we of course want to minimize the numbers/types of errors we make, especially in healthcare where someone's life could be on the line. Today, Clint discusses methods for setting up an environment where we can minimize the blame and finger-pointing and instead focus on how to fix situations arising from errors and to better still, try to prevent them happening repetitively again in the future. This additionally helps to nurture an environment in whi...
May 21, 2010•8 min
While time-travel, as depicted in Back To The Future, may still be some ways off, in a sense we all take part in some approximation of time-travel everyday. In fact, it is a very healthy exercise in our organizations to occasionally roll-back the clock to examine aspects in the past (How did we solve that problem? What can we learn from that incident that we can benefit from in the future? etc) as well as to envision how things may come to be in the future (If we had twice as many residents, wha...
May 20, 2010•8 min
It should hopefully go without saying for those in the healthcare profession... healthcare is cool! For the youth of today though, it is becoming increasingly harder (especially given the various competing job markets) to have this realized in their career planning years so as to be preparing the next wave of young talent to carry on the coolness of healthcare. How can we be doing things now to help put in place the incentives, knowledge, ‘PR’ and such to help steer the up and coming talent in t...
May 19, 2010•8 min
For those of you who are Superman fans, you no doubt know about how Clark Kent (Superman’s public identity at the Daily Planet) was able to function within society, seemingly due to nothing more elaborate than a suit and a pair of glasses. When in this disguise, those around him had no clue as to the tremendous strength, superpowers or just all out goodwill this person truly had underneath. It can often be no different in our healthcare organizations. As staff are placed into SuperTeams, it is o...
May 18, 2010•8 min
In the people business, there will be times when customers/coworkers/partners/etc will voice their dissatisfaction with how they perceive a situation to be. The manner in which they voice that complaint will vary. Sometimes it may be calm and to the point. Often, it may be shrouded in emotion and include a lot of additional commentary that may or may not be related to the issue at hand. The trick to help get these situations from a ‘problem’ orientation to a ‘solution’ orientation (hopefully, th...
May 17, 2010•8 min
‘Teaming makes it easier’ is a concept that applies not only to the Care Crowd individuals, but also to organizations as a whole as well. Integration and partnerships are increasingly going to be the norm in healthcare for the foreseeable future as we move into an era where cost-savings, care-consistency, reporting/metrics/etc all become more and more standardized and driven to reward organizations that work together to ultimately drive customer-satisfaction and results. Those left standing on t...
May 14, 2010•8 min
The first and foremost key to success in healthcare is the realization that it is, after all, a ‘people’ business. As such, if you are not the sort of person that has strong connections to people and strong customer-service orientation, then perhaps healthcare is not the right area for you. Along with this ‘people’ orientation, one needs to be solution-oriented, as the process of being ‘people-oriented’ (especially when constantly providing individualized care) rarely results in a cookie-cutter,...
May 13, 2010•8 min
Bad days happen to everyone at some point. Sometimes, life just throws you a pitch you never saw coming and it catches you off guard. These can't be helped. By contrast, when you are ‘anticipating’ and ‘planning’ on a bad day to come, there are different dynamics in play, many of which can be dealt with. When one ‘plans’ on the upcoming day to be ‘a bad one’, chances are more than likely their self-fulfilling prophecy will come true, not only for themselves, but others around them who fall into ...
May 12, 2010•8 min
The key to ongoing success in healthcare, now and especially in the future, is the ability to deliver customized customer-centric service. While having some organizational ‘boilerplate’ policies/structure in place for general guidance is fine as a starting point, in order to truly institute ‘culture change’, we must rise to the next level and develop the flexibility to enable the adaptation of these baseline structures into customizable products/processes that can be molded to each individual’s ...
May 11, 2010•8 min
Way back in Episode #6 of the Clintcast archives, you'll find a story entitled ‘The Ham Sandwich’ which discusses a CEO’s realization that his organization was becoming unable to empower individuals to solve problems at the levels closest to them, resulting in flush-ups of problems all the way to the top. In this revisit to that episode, Clint comments on his recent chat with that same CEO and the push that has been made since that incident to learn how to provide customer-centric service and to...
May 10, 2010•8 min
In the healthcare profession, it goes without saying that our customers generally would be prefer NOT to be our (or anyone's, for that matter) customers. Some handle this better than others. There is an occasional customer that, for lack of a better term, is a nightmare. Nothing anyone says or does seems to bring satisfaction to this person. How should we deal with these unique cases? Check out Clint's suggestions for handling these folks, and better still, documenting a case study in these inst...
May 07, 2010•8 min
When you go to your routine physical at the doctor, he/she will likely gather some data about your current condition (pulse, height, weight, etc) in order to be able to both continue a baseline history of your continual health picture as well as to get the current ‘buzz’ about your short-term health snapshot. Using these tools, he/she can then better decide appropriate courses of action for any change implementation needed in your health practices (diet, exercise, medications, etc). It is simila...
May 06, 2010•8 min
If you are a leader/manager, chances are you have heard the phrase ‘got a second’ before as someone pops in front of you with an issue that, in fact, will likely take more than a short second/minute/hour to resolve. What you say in return must be well considered if you are going to be effective in your role (and they in theirs) because there is a dangerous trap there, waiting to suck up your time and resources if not addressed correctly. Get some tips on how to proactively prevent this situation...
May 05, 2010•8 min
Many who have worked with Clint or have met him in the past likely know that he is a huge fan of horse racing and that it is one of his favorite hobbies outside of healthcare. In lieu of the past weekend's running of the Kentucky Derby, today Clint discusses while he felt strongly, even months ago, that the horse called Super Saver had a very high likelihood of winning this race. In a word, it is teamwork. Like teams in healthcare, when you can put together a team of talented members with clear ...
May 04, 2010•8 min
If you ever played the childhood game ‘telephone’ (also known by many other names), you likely remember how fouled a communication can become as it is passed along/misinterpreted/altered/etc. Unfortunately, real life daily communications often get just as muddled up and the resulting failures to communicate often cost organizations untold dollars and time trying to fix what a little forethought and planning might have prevented. Get some hints from Clint to ensure that you are proactively ‘plann...
May 03, 2010•8 min
The best managers highly involve those at lower levels (closest to the problems) in the problem-solving process. Employees in those areas tend to understand the problem better and also tend to be more familiar with potential solutions. Therefore, they should be highly engaged in the problem-solving process. The decision-making process on the other hand, falls squarely in the lap of the manager as the final decision must be, by definition, decisive and customer driven. As such, the final choice m...
Apr 30, 2010•8 min
Teaming makes it easier - this concept is the main thrust behind rapid-cycle teams. What about those teams that involve timelines that are much longer than 12-weeks for standard rapid-cycles? Some are required by organizational rules/bylaws/regulations/etc. Some occur at a high level. Like any team meeting, as long as these have a purpose, a priority, an agenda and an outcome, than it is okay to utilize them towards the betterment of the organization. That said, there are some things to be aware...
Apr 29, 2010•8 min
There are sometimes employees that are not performing up to par. This often occurs over a range of possible values of sub-par behavior (such as rare/accidental occurrences, routine limit-testing, flagrant lack of responsibility, etc). As long as this is an employee you have not completely given up on (they are in process of de-hiring), there are some techniques you can employ/coach to have them take responsibility to bring their performance levels back into the expected range. Check out these he...
Apr 28, 2010•8 min
Making a difference is important in the healthcare profession. Our customers need and expect this of us, no different than we would if we were in their position. Today, Clint comments about a colleague, client and true difference-maker, Mike Berry, who recently passed away and discusses the long-lasting impacts and positive effects he had on those around him.
Apr 27, 2010•5 min
It is a defeatist phrase uttered way too often around the country... ‘oh no, another admission’, indicating that one’s busy day just got busier. Clint affirms that we need to be vigilant in recognizing that another admission is a sign of success that we need to be excited about, even if things are a bit busy at the moment. After all, that customer could have gone somewhere else and with the economy such as it is, we all want as many customers as we can handle, as opposed to laying off employees ...
Apr 26, 2010•8 min
Nothing demonstrates confidence in your own products/services as much as your choice to patronize those very products/services when you, or a friend or family member, needs these healthcare options. Today, Clint chats about the ‘ultimate brag’ which is act of self-promoting through internal channels. Most organizations have a marketing arm of some sort, but there is real power in realizing that every employee is a marketing force for the organization (and often far more powerful/effective). Lear...
Apr 23, 2010•8 min
In continuing the theme of teaming makes it easier, today Clint discusses a concept that will quickly be coming to the healthcare market as the reform efforts begin to come into effect. Entities known as ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) will soon be widespread as the government mandates the concept of teaming and partnering between healthcare providers. The intent is to reduce costs while also lowering readmission rates for customers going through various acute recovery processes, such as c...
Apr 22, 2010•8 min
Occasionally with staff workers there will be times when work performance is not up to what is expected. As a leader, how should one go about dealing with these occurrences. Today, Clint discusses 3 primary types of ‘bad performances’ and ways to deal with them. These include ‘accidental violators, limit-testers and outlaws’. Learn the differences and how early intervention can make a world of difference!
Apr 21, 2010•8 min
As Care Crowd members have learned, in the effort to ‘make things better’, it is true that teaming makes it easier. That said, when a new change arises that will require an altered direction/process/etc in an organization, possibly requiring new ways of doing things, where is a newly formed team supposed to get answers or ideas? As Mr. Dylan said, the answer is blown’ in the wind. When building a solution with a team, it is crucial to get key information injected as quickly as possible up front ...
Apr 20, 2010•8 min
Today, Clint chats with Rick Marshall, Executive Vice President of the Christian Care Communities while working with their organization in Kentucky. Together, they discuss the various forces that are currently at work helping to shape the organization such as legislative changes affecting healthcare, community involvement initiatives, facility updates (they just celebrated their organization’s 125th anniversary in 2009) and more. Of prime importance is the need to drive continual improvements in...
Apr 19, 2010•8 min
