Intranets Help Engage Staff in Performance Improvement Initiatives
Most hospitals today have some sort of performance improvement initiative in place. At HospitalPortal.net, we have noticed a trend of hospitals finding creative ways to use their intranets to support these initiatives and engage staff by providing an easy way to submit ideas for condsideration, and have the ability to contribute to the conversation.
One of our clients had us create a “Idea Bank”, a specialized component for submitting and tracking hospital performance improvement ideas. The new module enables logging and displaying updates on ideas suggested by staff. All staff can submit ideas to the Idea Bank and everyone can see a dashboard of currently implemented and pending ideas. Recently another client of ours requested an enhancement to attach a potential financial value to each idea to allow for tracking of savings resulted from implementation of staff ideas.
Other common use we have noted is posting relevant information, progress reports, scores, and more pertaining to performance improvement. This could include regular updates on KPIs, HCAHPS scores, and more.
Some hospitals are incorporating social functionality to share leadership’s message with staff and open two-way communication by allowing comments and even anonymous feedback. Blogging is becoming a common way for the executive team to share informal thoughts with staff who they may not cross paths with on a day-to-day basis. In some cases, video blogging is even being introduced.
Project teams, committees, and work groups related for performance improvement and service excellence initatives can also use pages to share documents, tasks, and updates on initiatives. Beyond those closest to the initiatives, the intranet can be used to publish training and education resources, including documents, presentations, and videos.
For hospitals using a formal methodology such as LEAN or Six Sigma, there may be even more communication and documentation outlined by the methodology. Documents regarding Root Cause Analysis, core measures, and appraisals may be among documents published and updated via the intranet. Many hospitals also publish dashboards which consolidate data from a variety of sources in one location.
The examples mentioned above really just scratch the surface of how the intranet can be used to support a Performance Improvement initiative. In many cases, the intranet may be just one component of a multi-media campaign to engage staff which might also include posters, digital signage, write-ups in hard copy newsletters and more. Please join the conversation and share your hospital’s successes. How is your hospital promoting a Performance Improvement initiative to your internal audience?