A Report on Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center - Research Paper Example

? A Report on Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Table of Content ....................................................................................................................3 2. Introduction...............................................................................................................3 2.1 Best Patient Care System...................................................................................4 2.2 Mission Statement And Commitment To The Community …..........................5 2.3 Providing The Best Healthcare Experience.......................................................5 2.4 The Practice of C-I-CARE................................................................................6 2.5 Human Resource Management..........................................................................7 3. Performance Improvement.......................................................................................8 3.1 Leadership Perspective......................................................................................9 3.2 CICARE Process...............................................................................................9 3.3 UCLA Operating System..................................................................................10 4. Discussion................................................................................................................12 5. Conclusion...............................................................................................................12 6. References................................................................................................................13 1.Abstract: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is one of the top five medical hospitals in the country and the top ranked hospital in the Southern California. Every top organization has some methodology behind its excellence similarly UCLA also have some incomparable measures behind its performance growth. This report highlights some of the prominent aspects of the UCLA Health Care system which lifted into the top organization nationwide. 2. Introduction UCLA healthcare system is serving the nation for more than half a century provided the best in health care. Since last 22 years without any doubt the best medical center in the southern California and well equipped with the latest technology and updated research. The UCLA Health System comprised of Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, and the UCLA Medical Group with all of its up-to-date technology and wide reaching care system throughout the region. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center ranks among the top American hospital, surveyed by U.S. News and World Report (press release, 2011). The new ranking recognized 622 hospitals in all major cities, including 132 hospitals identified by U.S. News out of 5.000 nationwide hospitals. The major achievements by the UCLA health care system is because of their simply objective 'Put Patient First'. The Associate Vice Chancellor and the CEO of the UCLA Hospital System Dr. David T. Feinberg, a young 49 year old psychiatrist is very clear in his values and keeps the UCLA mission always focused that 'Put the Patient First'. The excellence of the UCLA Medical system is a visionary result of its management and their excellence. The hospital system exerts its full efforts in multiple direction, without that it might not possible to maintain the excellence of the system for the last 22 year. Some major aspects where UCLA management achieved great success are as follows: Best patient care system Top quality research environment with latest technology Retaining its valuable 'Human Capital' within the system Continuous education of their employees and incomparable future development opportunities (which attract the best of the staff from the whole country towards the medical system) Saving a huge amount of money ($ 157 million) without cutting the novel research funds Best practices in the human resource management No compromise on quality and safety Some of the prominent features of the hospitals are discussed as following: 2.1 Best Patient Care System Out of more than 100 academic medical centers and nearly 200 affiliated hospitals (member of nationwide University Healthcare Consortium), the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center got 1st rank in the patient satisfactions. Ninety-six percent of the UCLA patient aimed to recommend others to consult with UCLA Medical Services. According to the National Standard for Measuring Satisfaction among Hospital Patients HCAHPS the survey results are as follows: According to HCAHPS reporting period, the 95% of the patients rated the quality of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center 7 out of 10 where 10 is for the best 'hospital'. According to the HCAHPS, the 96% of patients shown willingness to recommend others to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. 2.2 Mission Statement And Commitment To The Community The excellence record of UCLA health care system is based on their mission statement. The clear objective lead them to exhibit professional excellence in all of UCLA medical centers. According to the strategic plan for 2011-2015 prepared by A. Eugene Washington, M.D. Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences stated that the mission of UCLA health care system is to create world leaders in health and sciences, discover the basis for health and cures for diseases, optimizing health through community partnerships, heal mankind one patient at a time . 2.3. Providing The Best Healthcare Experience Ronald Reagan Hospital ranked one of the top three hospitals in the US and ranked 'best in the west' for the last 22nd consecutive year in annual survey. The survey conducted by U.S. News and World Report that considered patient outcomes data, reputation within physicians and many other care related factors. Values at UCLA : UCLA health care system not only exhibits excellence in their top hospitals like Ronald Reagan Medical Hospital, however, they equally prioritize the research, development, discovery, teamwork and respect all of its stake holders. 2.4 The Practice Of C-I-CARE C-I-CARE is a set of six steps or operational guidelines that helps the staff to connect with the patient and create an environment which is both comfortable and reassuring for the patient as well as the attendants. The concept is simple and revolves around as well as incorporating the basic principles of politeness and professionalism. Each alphabet represents a specific step as shown. Connection with the patients: it is recommended to address the patients with Mr. or Mrs. or by their first names if they choose. It helps to lighten the otherwise gloomy and depressing environment of a hospital room. Apart from the environment, the patients feel that they are being taken care of if the staff develops a friendly relationship with them. Introduction: majority of people feel vulnerable when they are suffering from an illness or in pain and therefore they are likely to be paranoid or a little vary at least, most of the patients look forward to finding someone whom they can trust or count on in times of emergencies. That is why it is recommended for the staff to introduce themselves and explain their respective roles with respect to their medical duties. This reassures the patients and makes them feel secure. Communication: communication gaps between medical staff and the patient can be lethal in some cases. It is recommended for the medical staff to establish friendly ties with the patients and explain each and every medical procedure that they are going to go through so that they can cooperate with the staff. Apart from the procedure itself it is recommended to tell the patient how long the process will take and exactly what effect is it likely to have on the patient's condition. This helps the patient to prepare him/herself mentally for the procedure that lies ahead. Asking and addressing of questions related to the patient's medical condition: it is recommended to keep inquiring about the patient's health at regular intervals. The patients and their attendants will naturally be concerned hence it is imperative that their questions should be addressed and their concerns should be cleared. Response: it is essential for the staff to respond to the patient's needs and try to fulfill their medical requirements on priority basis. Exit courtesy: before leaving the room, staff should tell the patient what will come next and when they will they come to see the patient next so the the patient does not have to wait in agony for the medical staff hoping for them to show up. 2.5. Human Resource Management Like all other top organizations, UCLA values its employees and treats its employees as 'human capital'. In established organizations, employees are considered to be a valuable asset and their grooming is highly prioritized by the leadership at Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center. Similarly, in UCLA health care system employees are valued and kept involved in an ongoing development as well as training process. Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center boasts top level professionalism, they have established a performance based competitive environment for all employees to exhibit their excellence. This competitive environment has been established by acknowledging the efforts of the staff in terms of compensations, incentives, recognitions and rewards like annual employee service awards and many others. UCLA offers a separate 'Recognition and Retention' program for its employees. There are several kind of gifts and awards offered by the management other than the best employee award including employee recognition (including spot awards), employee recognition (one month parking permit), employee recognition (one month transit pass), length of service, retirement, sympathy gifts tangible personal property/cash contribution, prizes and other gifts. Employee surveys showed that any employees' service recognition plays an important role in retaining the valuable asset within the organization and enhances performance motivation for each individual. Several HRM initiatives included by (Michelli J. 2011). UCLA considers their employee as a valuable asset and therefore believes in their continuous grooming in terms of education seminars and training sessions. In the mean time UCLA is an equal opportunity institution for all races, and people from different continents therefore organizational culture has to be maintained and indeed it's a continuous process. Apart from the technical training stuff UCLA offers several kinds of cultural competency training to its staff for the establishment of cross culture organizational behavior. Employee required training include cultural competency training, compliance quiz. HIPAA education and training. Annual education guide, CICARE annual on-line training, central venous catheter care training, MD CICARE online training (physician staff only), sexual harassment prevention training for supervisors and many other department specific trainings. . The employees feel comfortable at UCLA medical centers and recognize the continuous growth of the institution in context of research, services and hospitality. When interviewed with Professor Irving Zabin, PhD. Assistant Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, worked 61 years for UCLA Medical School said What are some of the most impressive changes you've seen at UCLA? Professor replied : “The most impressive change is the great increase in size as well as stature of UCLA. UCLA is certainly one of the important universities and the School of medicine is certainly one of the best. And we know that the hospital is considered the 'best in the west' so I'm personally very pleased to still be a part of it. And I must say I am so very impressed with our faculty, the basic researchers and how fine they are, what good work they do. It's really a personal pleasure to have been able to help, to be a part of it” 1. 3. Performance Improvement The top ranking Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center is not famous because of it's marvelous building rather it is well known because of the ultimate commitment to excellence. The UCLA leadership have clear vision that the hospital excellence can only be achieved by the best performance of their people. Dr. David Feinberg, CEO of UCLA Health System shared, “Our success has not been the result of the building, but rather it has come from our people.” For performance excellence the leadership recognized the need to bring more focused on the patient and family. While approaching the operational service excellence Dr. Feinberg has clear vision and added “80% right isn't good enough if it leaves 20% with a bad experience”. The UCLA leadership improved their performance by refocusing of efforts, revisiting of vision, the establishment of operational framework including strategic initiatives with prompt operational feedback and a process to sustain and support these efforts. 3.1 Leadership Perspective All the top organizations only succeed when their strategic moves from top executives get aligned with the working culture. Many healthcare systems still struggle in aligning leadership vision with the operational processes. At UCLA Healthcare system the top management succeeded in reinforcing their vision to their daily patient experience efforts. The CEO, chief nursing officer, chief medical officer, and chief human resource manager are committed to patient experience and performance excellence, and they achieved it by knowing patient experience outcomes on a daily basis. Daily meeting with patients: The top management including Dr. Feinberg believe that without knowing the direct feedback from patients they would not be able to receive the correct situation of operational issues. This motivated them to perform daily visits to the patients themselves. He, himself tries to walk the halls of the system's facilities, meeting with families, engaging patients and staff for sometimes as long ax two-three hours per day. When inquired by Jason A. Wolf, Executive Director, The Beryl Institute (Wolf J., 2011), about how they do this, Dr. Feinberg promptly replied “we did it one patient at a time”. Trust upon the workforce reclaims operational excellence: The leadership believes that their mission statement cannot be achieved without their workforce performance excellence. They give respect to their employees, support them and reward them, as a result it ensures best performance from them. Instead of introducing change management initiatives the system worked to help its people reclaim their dedication and passion for their responsibilities. In fact they believe in excellent work in continuous bases. He commented “We worked to ensure that everyone understood they were a healer”. He also stated “It was not simply the care providers on our floors that had this responsibility but it was our housekeepers, our IT department, Human Resources and all the other people that comprise the system”. 3.2 CICARE Program For others it could be a scripting program, however, I consider CICARE as an awareness tool. The CICARE initiative provides any department a method through which each department can manage their engagement with their patients and families and a transparent process for measuring the interactions by observing the feedback on a regular basis. CICARE has emerged as a central operational principle within the UCLA healthcare system patient feedback and leadership consistently reinforce it accordingly. The system not only focuses on the direct care providers, but also on staff from HR to IT as well as the medical staff as well. As CICARE works as a template and a guideline to each department which can be used to describe the job description for each employee. This helps the employee to clearly understand their job responsibility and expected behavior which helps them to exhibit top performance respectively. CICARE process does not simply start at the point of care i.e. the medical staff, however, CICARE standards are now part of every job description. This clarifies the job responsibilities to upcoming employees so this process also contributes in the pre-hire process significantly. 3.3 The UCLA Operating System (Framework for consistent performance) No doubt the initiatives at UCLA medical system are excellent which generates excellent output , however, the most challenging task is their sustainability. The leadership at UCLA need to have most appropriate systems and processes to support sustained outcomes. Sustainability is about designing processes that keep the performance on a continuous move. The UCLA operating system The UCLA Operating System- is a process that provides well connected programs and measures that are planned to lead to success. The operating system at UCLA is designed to support continuous excellence by aligning objectives with workforce and performance management. The operating system is based on four key areas: Purpose Strategies Objective Management Performance Improvement Purpose Basic focus of the UCLA healthcare mission is UCLA's relentless emphasis on 'one patient at a time' with kindness indeed. This is rudimentary to UCLA's commitment to establish an environment of courtesy and respect for all patients. Strategies The purpose sets the direction for UCLA Healthcare System, and it's their strategy that guides them. Areas of strategic focus are service, coordinated care, service lines, quality, and value. CICARE process drives the service excellence and continually reviewed based on input provided by the families, staff and the patients. Coordinated care helps in collaborative action from patient access to clinical services. The emphasis on service line involves the business viability for the UCLA System with new novel research and innovation initiatives. Evidence-based practices (i.e. feedback and observation) helps them in performing with consistence. Objective Management The UCLA Healthcare System ensures their primary commitment with the patients that they should receive the top level of service and care. Including CICARE process the business strategies are aligned to six key areas including quality and safety, people, service, strategic developments, operations, and finance. Performance Improvement The final component of the operating system is the continuous improvement efforts including the use of dashboard based matrix for key indicators and track behaviors, lean methodologies for process improvement, and lastly an active daily management process. 4. Discussion Here we discuss briefly the reason why UCLA achieved top performance for the last 22 years: Patient Satisfaction: patients are the most important objects in a medical facility. All the efforts and focus is on how to improve the quality of services being offered to the patient. Satisfaction of the customer i.e. in terms of medical as well as social, is of utmost importance as the patient will not hold the hospital in high esteem if he or she feels that the hospital staff was unpleasant to them or cold in response to their queries, even if the patient in question made a full recovery at the hospital. Hence patients have to be handled in a manner such that they feel that they are being taken care of. They should be addressed politely and with due respect, and the medical staff should make an effort to improve relationships with the patients by keeping their comments about other patients as well as medical staff positive whenever within earshot of patients as it will serve to heighten the sense of insecurity in a patient and increase paranoia, the medical staff should also try to bridge the communication gap which will in turn increase the sense of security in the patient and thus the patient in question will be easier to satisfy. Human Capital Management: The management at Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center greatly values its work force. The employees are encouraged to put extra effort when serving the patients by offering awards such as best caretaker of the month and Top Quality Research & Innovations: The management at UCLA medical center has always sought professional expertise in terms of both research and operational procedures. Like UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center is renowned for top quality innovative cancer research with $7.3 Million budget. Optimal Utilization of Funds: During the last five years almost all big institutions reduced their research cost, however, UCLA saved about 150 million $ from different expenditures. In contrast of other institutions UCLA still progressing towards top quality research and maintaining its excellence into patient care with safety and quality. 5. Conclusion The report highlighted few aspects of the UCLA Health Care System which uplifted into the nationwide top medical institution. The most important thing is the leadership and its clear goals, as discussed earlier the associate vice chancellor of UCLA Medical School is very clear about 'Put the patient first'. The whole performance initiatives of the organization centered on this philosophy. Secondly, the most important view point of the leadership is their workforce management policy. UCLA believes that whatever they earned in terms of quality is because of their employees therefore always willing to retain their Human Capital within the organization. This helps them to up lift their organization on top of others nationwide. 6. References 1. UCLA rated one of the top hospitals in the U.S. Press Release www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?id=18 , July 19, 2011, last access July 19, 2011. 2. Joseph A. Mitchilli.(2011) "Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World-Class Customer Experience From UCLA Health System" (McGraw-Hill, 2011) 3. Jason A. Wolf.(2011) “Healing Mankind One Patient at a Time UCLA Health System, Los Angeles, CA” March 2011. A report from Beryl Institute. Last access at 27th July 2011. http://www.theberylinstitute.org/resource/resmgr/otr-pdfs/2011-02_on_the_road_-_ucla.pdf Read More