Just over a year ago, TriHealth forged a landmark relationship with Beacon Orthopaedics to transform the delivery of orthopedic care and sports medicine – and that is just what we are doing!! Since the TriHealth/Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine affiliation was formed in the fall of 2021, it has delivered encouraging advancements in quality, affordability, and accessibility – all to lead the way in providing convenient access to the right care, delivered in the right way and place to achieve the right patient outcomes for the right cost. And by doing so, TriHealth and Beacon are emerging as THE preferred provider for orthopedic care in our region – and a national "model” for Getting Healthcare Right!!

 

Earlier this month, our affiliation with Beacon took another big step forward with the transition of our former Good Samaritan Hospital at Evendale and the TriHealth Hand Surgery Center into the new Beacon/TriHealth Joint Venture (JV) Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Network as its third center. Evendale joins two existing Beacon ASCs, making the TriHealth/Beacon JV the region’s most comprehensive and conveniently accessible network of outpatient orthopedic surgery centers. With this transition, roughly half of our Evendale and Hand Center team members chose to move to the JV, while the other half elected to stay with TriHealth.

 

Following a three-month shutdown in operations to complete the necessary change of license and re-accreditation, Evendale campus is now reopened as an ASC within the TriHealth/Beacon JV. By doing so, we have increased patient care access and opened up additional capacity for the most complex cases to be cared for in our acute care hospitals. These three ASCs are now in our TriHealth network and complement our acute care hospitals, providing our community with even greater access to a fully integrated continuum of affordable, world-class orthopedic care close to home – and that is what Getting Healthcare Right is all about!!

 

And while our TriHealth team makes a complicated transition like this look easy, it really is anything but easy! A very special thanks to the many team members, physicians, and leaders – across Evendale, Bethesda North, and Good Samaritan hospitals – for your hard work and talents that were instrumental in making this successful transition possible. It is just one more shining example of our outstanding progress in moving TriHealth from good to GREAT!

 

Building a great culture where team members and physicians feel valued and supported – and are engaged and committed to our work of Getting Healthcare Right – starts with consistent, open, and honest communications. And fostering and modeling this approach to communication is one of the central roles and responsibilities of servant leadership at TriHealth. While you told us in the November Engagement Pulse Survey that we have made progress on many fronts in moving TriHealth from good to great, you also let us know – loud and clear – that there is still room for improvement with respect to hardwiring open and honest, two-way communications as an ALWAYS best practice within our culture.

 

So, I am pleased to share that this will be the sole focus of our next Leadership Development Institute (LDI), which takes place on Wednesday, February 1. Our leadership team will gather virtually for this half-day LDI, titled, “Mastering Communication – Building a Great Culture.” This is our 24th LDI, and like all others, it is intended to further develop our leadership team to be better servant leaders in support of YOU – our team members and physicians – as you serve and care for our patients and community.

 

This LDI will be devoted to helping our leaders to improve communication skills while hardwiring and creating greater consistency with TriHealth Way Communication Practices. And, we have strengthened our TriHealth Way of Communicating Practices – which range from conducting monthly department/unit meetings and huddles to answering tough questions to regular rounding on team members – in response to the feedback we received during focus groups held this month on “what great communication looks like”!! 

 

At the LDI, we will review and discuss these important insights and learnings from the focus groups, along with the “new and improved” TriHealth Way of Communicating Practices. As always, expect to hear from your leaders soon after the LDI about what they learned and how they will be actively working to improve local-level communications through huddles, department meetings, rounding, and much more. In addition, I plan to share in a future Weekly Update all of what we heard from team members, as well as the communication improvements we will be making in response to your feedback.

 

Thank you for supporting your leaders as they take the necessary time away from their daily responsibilities to participate in these important LDIs. By doing so, we can foster more open and effective communications at all levels of the organization that will keep you fully informed and able to do your best in service to our patients and each other.

 

Good news! For the first time since Thanksgiving, the Hamilton County COVID transmission rate has dropped below the CDC threshold for clinical masking – now at 91.13/100,000 (see trend graphic to right). And here at TriHealth, COVID cases also remain stable and manageable, with 40 COVID-positive inpatients and 0 on ventilators. What’s more, ALL 14 counties in Greater Cincinnati are now at LOW risk levels, per the CDC (see far right graphic for details). This is especially encouraging, as we are just a little more than three weeks after the holidays and still in the height of the winter season. We will continue to monitor the county transmission rates, with the hope that the downward trend continues, allowing us to soon relax the masking mandate in clinical areas.

 

Thank you for everything you do, every day, to help us deliver the very best care to our Greater Cincinnati community ALWAYS!