Do Employee Suggestion Programs Work in Hospital Settings?

In my 20+ years in the industry, I’ve seen that healthcare professionals are smart and dedicated professionals with a focus on quality and effective care. In addition, they’re often well-aware when outdated processes or bureaucracy prevents them from delivering the level of care that they wish to. But it turns out that the very workers plagued by such inefficiencies could also be the key to resolving them through employee suggestion programs.

Specifically, hospitals can save money and time through a defined and structured employee suggestion program that focuses on operational efficiency, supply-savings, innovative workflows, safety and improved quality of care.

(Think about how many of the recent Veterans Administration challenges could've been avoided by proactively capturing ideas from staff.)

You may be unsure where to start with a hospital suggestion program. It’s not as complicated as it may seem, though. It can broken down to its simplest form in four easy steps:

Define, gather, process and implement.

Step 1: Define Participants

First, define who will be involved in the program. Will it be every department, or will you focus on only the service areas (such as housekeeping, facilities, dining, pharmacy, etc.)? Who will participate? Will you open up the conversation to patients, visiting physicians and external vendors?

Defining up-front who can participate will save you a boatload of headaches later.

Step 2: Gather Ideas

Next, focus on adoption as a great program only works when ideas flow through. Market the suggestion program internally so that team members are aware of its existence. One way people have seen success in promoting awareness is by starting an internal campaign for ideas. “Fresh Ideas Fall,” or “Internal Improvement Month” can help jumpstart your new program.

Once people are aware of the program, and see that it’s being taken seriously by other staff members, they’re more likely to submit ideas.

Don’t rely on word of mouth marketing to spark interest in this initiative.

Remember that game of “telephone” you played as a kid? Where everyone shared a message with the person sitting next to them, and the message was completely different in the end than what you started with?

Well, that could happen to your suggestion program if you don’t own the message. Use internal email lists, posters, and official training seminars to make sure people really understand the value proposition of this program and how to get involved.

Step 3: Process the Ideas

For the employee suggestion program to be successful, you’ll need to review these ideas on a regular basis. You can’t have a successful program if the ideas are only being reviewed every six months or at random. Whether there is a review board, a dedicated moderator, or this is worked into managers’ job descriptions, someone needs to be held accountable. This way, suggestions reach the people who can take action.

The employees who make the suggestions in the first place are partially responsible for this as well. They have to make it easy for managers or review boards to review the ideas. Each suggestion should be thoroughly researched, target clearly-defined problems, offer measurable and implementable solutions, and explain the potential ROI.

To ensure an open dialogue and consistent participation, each suggestion should be taken seriously. Even if the solution is less than perfect, there can still be a discussion about the problem addressed. A potential solution can arise from any alternatives suggested.

Step 4: Implement the Ideas

If you aren’t putting employee suggestions into action, then there will never be any data to show from your employee suggestion program, and it loses credibility. The sooner ideas can be implemented, the better.

The reason that timing is so important is simple: You want to build trust and momentum in your new program. Seeing fast results both encourages employees to submit more ideas AND gives this initiative credibility. Plus, you’ll benefit from huge cost savings, time improvements, or whatever other benefit this suggestion yielded.

This is why small changes (or a gradual roll-out of the employee suggestion program) are a great strategy. It’s easier to build that essential momentum this way.

Hospitals That Rock Employee Suggestions

By now, you’re convinced that an employee suggestion program can help your hospital run more efficiently. However, it’s important to see how this strategy plays out at actual organizations to truly understand the potential. This leads us to the examples of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor Michigan.

Beth Israel

Beth Israel’s Dr. Steven Horng suggested a pilot program using Google Glass in the emergency department. He believed that the futuristic device could help cut down time wasted looking through files. Even just a few minutes in trauma medicine can be the difference between life and death. Instead of leafing through files, the device’s tiny glass can display patient information right away - no hands required.

The usefulness of this suggestion was proven one night in January 2014. A patient with brain bleeding told Dr. Horng that he was allergic to certain blood pressure medicines, but couldn’t recall which ones. Since Horng was wearing the device, he could easily look up the patient information and administer the correct medication within seconds.

Now, every doctor uses Google Glass in the Beth Israel emergency room.

University of Michigan Health System

At the University of Michigan Hospital, John Forsyth (the executive director of University Hospitals) established the M-$hare program. This program rewards the innovative and hard work of hospital employees. It seeks to “help cut costs and inefficiencies to place the institution at a competitive advantage.” Instead of waiting for the organization to fail, they decided they needed to be innovative in small bursts to stay competitive and have more money to reinvest into the hospital.

The route they took was to create a team to handle incoming employee ideas. This team was in charge of processing all employee ideas and implementing the ones that would positively impact the organization. Over a five-year time span, this pilot program totaled approximately $17.5 million in cost savings and additional revenue.

With a hospital employee suggestion program, you have the potential to tap into one of your most valuable innovation resources-- your employees.

Here at Vocoli, we streamline this process through a proven workflow to help all types of organizations reap the benefits of employee ideas. If you are interested in learning more about how to implement an employee suggestion program in your hospital, reach out today.