Hi Team –

 

Congratulations to these eight lucky team members and their guests who will be cheering on FC Cincinnati this coming Sunday, February 25, at their home opening match, compliments of TriHealth! This is just one of many fun, complimentary ticket raffles and other great giveaways coming in the year ahead – all to recognize our team members and physicians for your dedication and commitment to Get Healthcare Right! 

 

 

 

As I have shared many times, a highly engaged workforce and physician community are at the heart of what makes a health system great. This is important because it is our highly engaged team members and physicians that bring to life our patient-centered mission, vision, and values – all to deliver “surprisingly human care” that results in exceptional patient outcomes, always.

 

And one of the important ways we can gauge our progress in building an engaged workforce and culture is by listening to you – our team members and physicians – to learn what we’re doing well and where we can improve to make TriHealth an even better place to work, to practice, and to receive care. So, I’m excited to share with you the results of our 2024 TriHealth Engagement Pulse & Safety Survey, which was taken by nearly 75% of team members and physicians in January.

 

So what exactly is “engagement” and why is it important? Put simply, engagement is the degree to which team members and physicians are aligned with, supportive of, and actively involved in achieving the goals of an organization – all while feeling supported to do their best and be their best in their respective roles. So, we were encouraged by the 2024 Pulse Survey results, which indicated strong team member and physician engagement, with overall favorability at 86%! These results place TriHealth in the top quartile for engagement when compared to the average favorability rating of other U.S. health systems. Given how far we have come, this is an important milestone and something to celebrate in our journey from Good to Great.

 

And, we were pleased to learn from your feedback that we continue to make progress on system engagement priorities, such as team member health & wellbeing, commitment to DEI+B, confidence in leadership, and your relationship with your one-up leader. Fostering a culture of wellbeing, belonging, and collaboration with trusted leaders are key drivers in building and sustaining a great workplace and culture for all who serve, so we were glad to learn you feel we’re moving in the right direction in these areas. However, you also told us that we continue to have opportunities to do better, specifically in the areas of open and honest communication and staffing – both key priorities that will make us an even stronger organization.

 

The Pulse Survey also included our annual Culture of Safety Assessment. And, we were similarly encouraged by the very positive results which indicate that you not only view TriHealth as a safe place to work, but also a safe and high-quality place to receive care. In fact, nearly 90% of our team members and physicians indicated they would recommend TriHealth as a safe place to receive care, compared to the national industry benchmark of just 65%, and this places TriHealth above the 90th percentile!! You also gave high scores in response to the question, “I feel a strong sense of teamwork in my department or unit.” And all of this is having a positive impact on our Journey to Zero Patient Harm, as we continue to experience reductions in harm events, like falls and hospital-acquired infections.

 

Thank you for your active participation in the Engagement Pulse & Safety Survey, which has provided us yet another important opportunity to listen to, and learn from, your direct feedback. Next, we will use what we’ve learned to ACT on your feedback in ways you’ve told us will help you be your best and do your best for each other and all those we serve. In the coming weeks, your leaders will share the results for your local department and our larger system, and facilitate a conversation with you about what adjustments, if any, should be made based on the Pulse Survey in current departmental engagement and culture of safety work plans. I encourage you to participate in these conversations and share your thoughts about where we have opportunities to do better.

 

Over the past 20 years, TriHealth and Xavier University (XU) have forged a growing and ever-deepening partnership based on our shared commitment to lead the way in advancing community health and education. Through this alliance, TriHealth serves as the exclusive healthcare provider for the entire XU community, including student-athletes, students, faculty, and staff. This relationship has enabled us to create a pipeline of future healthcare workers and tap into XU’s nationally recognized academic and research programs to help transform healthcare delivery for the better in alignment with our bold vision for Getting Healthcare Right.  

 

As this important alliance and its scope and impact continue to grow, so too does the need for dedicated leadership to guide it and to more quickly advance the many existing and new collaborative opportunities. So, I am pleased to share that Jean Griffin, XU’s Dean of Students for the past 11 years, has been selected by TriHealth and XU to assume the full-time role of Executive of the TriHealth/Xavier University Strategic Alliance. She will begin in this new role in mid-March, with dual reporting relationships to both TriHealth and XU. Jean will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the TriHealth/XU alliance. She will convene and collaborate with stakeholders in both organizations to support workforce recruitment and retention strategies, expand the healthcare workforce pipeline, promote health equity and inclusion initiatives, design and execute behavioral health and care models, and assist in the planning of Xavier’s newly announced medical school.

 

Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.” And this forward-looking advice also applies when it comes to advancing our bold vision for Getting Healthcare Right – right care, right time, right place to produce the right outcomes at the right cost. And increasingly, the “right place” to care for many patients is not in a hospital, but in more convenient, close-to-home settings, including physician practices, priority care centers, ambulatory care campuses, and even the patient’s home. So, for more than a decade, TriHealth has been “skating to where the healthcare puck is going” by thoughtfully investing in our ambulatory care network. And this is resulting in more convenient and preferred patient access to TriHealth’s world-class care close to home – for every stage of life and every state of health.

 

As the latest milestone in this journey, I’m pleased to share that yesterday, we opened our seventh and newest TriHealth Priority Care Center on Kings Mill Road near Mason. This comes on the heels of opening our Priority Care location in Finneytown last July. Over the past three years, TriHealth has doubled the number of Priority Care locations to meet growing patient demand for convenient access to urgent medical care, labs, and diagnostic testing, all available seven days a week, including evenings.

 

Additionally, earlier this month TriHealth opened its eighth TriHealth Clinic at Walgreens on Dixie Highway in Fairfield (see pics below). And our ninth TriHealth Clinic at Walgreens located in Clifton is scheduled to open next month. These clinics are staffed by board-certified family nurse practitioners who treat children and adults for urgent medical conditions, minor injuries, vaccinations, and more. And when a higher level of care is required, patients are seamlessly referred to our emergency departments or hospitals. TriHealth now cares for nearly 500 patients each day in our Priority Care and TriHealth Clinics at Walgreens. Now that’s skating to where the healthcare puck is going by continually anticipating, evolving, and innovating – all to provide the “right care in the right place at the right time”!

 

 

Don’t forget to tune into Bridge today at noon for our February Team Member Town Hall! We’ll share important updates on our work to Get Healthcare Right, celebrate wins, and answer your questions – with some cool TriHealth prizes for those who join the conversation! To do so, be sure to email your questions to TownHall@trihealth.com and we’ll include them in our discussion. Click here for the agenda.

 

Because of our collective hard work and contributions as One Team, TriHealth Strong, we are now demonstrating on a daily basis our leadership in Getting Healthcare Right – both in our region and across our industry! And while this gives us many reasons to be proud, at the top of the list are – and always will be – our team members and physicians who are making it all happen! Thank you for being the BEST healthcare team, anywhere!