Salem Memorial District Hospital

Situation

A rural hospital in Salem, Missouri, Salem Memorial District Hospital (SMDH) opened its doors in 1970 after concerned citizens had a conversation about how to create better ways to serve health needs in the region. SMDH strives to provide quality, patient centered healthcare with compassion and professional excellence, every patient, every encounter, every time. SDMH was struggling to identify a clear direction, and needing to implement new processes.

Solution

After experiencing a strategic planning session with Healthy Dent County, SMDH’s Chief Executive Officer, Kasey Lucas, engaged People Centric to do a strategic planning session with the hospital.  After walking through the strategic planning process, it was evident that there were true educational, development, and engagement opportunities within the hospital.  The culture that had currently existed was creating unintended silos between departments and creating communication barriers, that could potentially hinder patient satisfaction and patient care.

To continue the relationship between People Centric and SMDH, the companies started a Partnership. This partnership was designed to walk with SMDH to understand SMDH’s current culture, engage employees at a front-line level, and create or revamp many processes within the organization.

Implementation

To better understand the culture, People Centric started with a Pathfinder assessment. It validated various strengths and found the needs to improve morale, improve technology and equipment, and break down silos between the departments. They implemented core teams and launched various step teams to alleviate these pain points.

Facilitated by People Centric, SMDH provided a place for Department Directors to develop as leaders, collaborate about various concerns seen throughout their organization. Leadership implemented a new performance evaluation process and has begun the process to redefine the roles & responsibilities of each team member. People Centric also worked closely with individual departments and their leaders to engage in a more people oriented way.

Results

Since helping Salem Memorial District Hospital, there has been a big improvement. Numerous employees are now engaged in the process of identifying areas of concern and solving for those situations. Departments are continuing to develop leaders and improve processes and communication to make teams more efficient and effective. There is a positive company culture and the whole hospital has seen an improvement in overall company morale.