Hi Team – 

 

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. And here at TriHealth, we are already in the “holiday spirit” of giving thanks for our many blessings and particularly those individuals who are so important in our lives, including our valued team members, physicians and volunteers. Even in the face of seemingly unending new and very different challenges brought on by this pandemic, this team continues to make impressive progress as we lead the way in transforming healthcare – providing those we serve with better care, better health, better value and greater affordability. Let me touch in this Weekly Update on a few of the most recent examples of this progress.

 

Central to our work of Getting Healthcare Right is expanding access and ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of patients we serve can get the care they need, when and where they need it. As we’ve said many times before, TriHealth’s mission and vision are built around promoting good health throughout our community by providing the right care at the right place at the right time to produce the right clinical outcome at the right cost. And one way we deliver on this promise to our patients is by offering the most convenient access to care – care close to home with caregivers you trust.

 

So, I’m pleased to announce that earlier this morning the TriHealth Board of Trustees approved our plan to add to our already market-leading ambulatory care network (see map on right) —now made up by 12 major Ambulatory Centers located conveniently throughout Greater Cincinnati — with a new 55,000-square-foot ambulatory campus in Finneytown, located near Galbraith Road and Ronald Reagan Highway. Our approach in planning such a major ambulatory campus is to create a fully integrated center where patients can access all the physicians, specialists and services they need – all in one, convenient location that offers a seamless and exceptional patient experience.

 

At TriHealth, our mission is to serve every patient throughout our entire community – not just for those living in new and growing neighborhoods. So, when our analysis showed several years ago that this area – home to nearly 190,000 residents – had significantly fewer primary care and specialty physicians than many of the other communities we serve, we took steps to acquire the property and begin the planning for a convenient “one-stop-shop” healthcare destination in Finneytown. Scheduled to open in mid-2023, the Finneytown ambulatory campus will feature 17 primary care providers, including five pediatricians, as well as specialty care services in Cardiology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, ENT, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), Orthopedics and Obstetrics when fully operational. For years, Finneytown and its surrounding communities have been underserved with limited options to easily accessible healthcare close to home, which unfortunately can be a barrier to seeking timely and regular care. By creating new access through expanded primary, specialty and diagnostic services within this community, the Finneytown ambulatory campus stands as another major step forward on our journey to Get Healthcare Right for ALL of the communities we serve! 

 

In addition to advancing our mission-driven work with the new Finneytown ambulatory campus, we are also making encouraging progress with our goals across each of our five pillars. In spite of the challenges brought on by this fourth COVID wave, thanks to your dedicated service and commitment, we have started our new fiscal year with real momentum! On the heels of receiving our best ever Culture of Safety survey results, our work to achieve zero patient harm continues to improve as observed by marked progress on our Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) goal, in which we decreased HAIs from 22 in September to 12 or less in October! And our work to create and deliver an exceptional patient experience is paying off with progress as well in our HCAHPS scores – with four of our five hospitals now meeting our HCAHPS goal as well as half of our Emergency Departments now meeting their EDCAHPS goal for the year. And, we are achieving this marked improvement in patient experience at a time when our industry is experiencing declining patient experience scores due to COVID! Our Culture/People pillar also saw meaningful improvement from September to October as we increased the number of underrepresented minorities in leadership roles to better reflect our rich diversity within TriHealth and across the communities we serve. And our Finance and Growth pillars are both performing at or near our “stretch” goals thanks to our ability to meet the increased demand for patient appointments, Emergency Department visits, hospitalizations, deliveries and surgeries so far in FY2022. While there is work to be done in the remaining eight months of this fiscal year, these strong pillar results tell us that we are continuing to advance in our Journey from Good to Great for those we serve. 

 

I’m excited to share that last Thursday’s 20th LDI was among our best yet, thanks to the leadership of Rev. Frank Nation, Terri Hanlon-Bremer, and the LDI and Organizational Development teams. Built around the theme “One Leadership Voice: Listening, Connecting, Supporting,” this half-day LDI brought together our 800+ leaders in a safe, “virtual” setting to focus on the necessary work of healing, renewing and building back the TriHealth Way as we emerge from this pandemic. Our leadership team committed to redoubling our efforts to utilize and re-hardwire the TriHealth Way tools, introduced over the past six-plus years, in order to more effectively lead with empathy, and better listen and connect with each other and our team members. In speaking with “One Leadership Voice,” we reinforced how leaders can better understand and communicate key system priorities and messages, leading to improved understanding, acceptance, and engagement for each and every team member and physician, all as part of our work to Get Healthcare Right for our patients and community. And to honor those who have bravely served our country, leaders stepped up in a major way on Veterans Day – generously donating to Easterseals’ Military Veterans Services and GiveVets22 programs. TriHealth matched these donations dollar-for-dollar resulting in nearly $29,000 to support these heroes! Be sure to talk to your leader about their key LDI takeaways and, later this week, visit Bridge for access to all the presentations from our 20th LDI!

 

And don’t forget to mark your calendars to join us this Wednesday, November 17, at noon for our next Monthly Team Member Town Hall, livestreamed on Bridge. We will spend time sharing important updates on COVID, our vaccination programs now focused on boosters and children over the age of 5, exciting initiatives like Finneytown, and as always, we will answer your questions. 

 

Nationally, new COVID cases remain flat and there are fewer than half as many COVID patients in US hospitals today than there were in early September. Locally, the region’s R-factor has crept above 1.0, though our COVID inpatient census and positivity rate at TriHealth remains stable in recent weeks, as indicated in the right sidebar. Encouragingly, thanks to the FDA’s approval of vaccinations for children ages 5–11, we are seeing an uptick in our national and local vaccination rates. In fact, TriHealth vaccinated more than 500 pediatric patients over the weekend – moving us a step closer to herd immunity and eventually bringing an end to the pandemic phase of COVID!

 

With the holidays fast approaching, it is a long-standing TriHealth tradition to provide a celebratory meal to our 14,000+ team members, physicians and volunteers, as a tangible expression of our gratitude and thanks for your dedicated service to our patients, our community and one another — something that is especially important as we battle through COVID. While the pandemic seems to be easing, we continue to follow the science and the guidance of our experts who recommend continuing to hold off on resuming our traditional in-person celebrations for one more year. And so, back by popular demand, we will once again partner with the Honey Baked Ham Company to provide meal gift certificates to every team member, physician and volunteer across TriHealth. The gift certificate is good for a quarter ham, one turkey breast, or two large sides and a pie!

 

Be on the lookout later this week for an email from Honey Baked Ham which will include a custom link to download your meal voucher – which can be redeemed for Thanksgiving or any upcoming holiday celebrations, as the voucher never expires! Click here for holiday meal details. 

 

On behalf of our entire senior leadership team and Board, please know how grateful we are for your unwavering commitment and countless sacrifices over the past 22 months as we have met and overcome every challenge brought on by this pandemic. We hope you will use this gift to enjoy a meal and quality time with your loved ones over the holidays. Thank you, as always, for all you do every day for our patients, our community and one another!