Based on results of a “culture survey,” employees at Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center (CCNHCC) feel strongly that patient quality care is foremost in the organization and the organization overall has an effective focus on patients.
They also feel they are well paid and feel their performance evaluations are conducted fairly and effectively, and the majority of employees responded that they enjoy working for CCNHCC and with their co-workers.
However, 21 out of 35 survey answers show improvement needs to be made in several areas. Those areas include improving employee morale, information sharing, recognition, consistency and treatment, efficiency measures, structure and discipline, employee accountability, conflict management and trust for management.
“We’re missing half the puzzle here,” said Jeff Thompson, who is president of Innovations in Quality Consulting. He addressed the CCNHCC board on Wednesday, July 8, 2015.
Thompson said he has conducted culture surveys at 147 organizations over the past 26 years, including 63 health related organizations. He said he pays particular attention to survey results in health care organizations because they deal with people, “when they are in a vulnerable state.”
It is important then, Thompson said, that employees feel good about themselves and their work environment when they are working in these settings.
The survey was conducted over a period of three weeks at the request of the hospital board. It was done in-house to maintain a high validity and reliability factor, said Thompson.
At a 90 percent completion rate, Thompson said it was one of the highest percentages of employees he’s seen taking part in this type of survey.
Overall CCNHCC received a overall mean average of 3.02 out of 5.0.
“These results indicate the organization is seen by employees as inconsistent and fairly ineffective in its approach to job performance, employee morale, culture, quality and productivity and the organization should take structured measures to improve,” Thompson said.
The two lowest scores were found when employees were asked if “employee morale is healthy here?” And, “There is an effective level of trust for management here.” But as Thompson noted, no answers fell into the “very ineffective” category.
When asked for his opinion about why management wasn’t scored high in the trust category, Thompson praised Hospital Director Kimber Wraalstad (and a team of employees) who have turned around the way the hospital/ care center has been managed from a business standpoint in Wraalstad’s five years at the helm, but, he speculated, as the structure changed employees were left feeling vulnerable and exposed, not always knowing how to deal with the new policies and changes.
Thompson said he would work with Wraalstad and other department heads to form an action plan that will sustain the strengths that have been gained and address areas that need improving and bring that plan to the board within the next two months. He said to stay on top of the plan there should be a progress check in 16 months to two years.
The validity and reliability of the results of this survey, said Thompson, are compared with 134 organizations and departments that have completed the same survey over the last 24 years.
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