March 18, 2016

Hi Team −

 Great News! I am excited to share that both Good Samaritan and Bethesda North have been recognized, once again, as Top 100 Hospitals in the nation by Truven Health Analytics^TM, a leading healthcare performance improvement consulting company.  All credit for this exceptional national recognition goes to our talented and hard-working physicians, nurses and staff who go above and beyond – each and every day – to deliver the highest-quality, most compassionate care and service possible!  We’re extremely proud of – and grateful for –your contributions that led to this recognition, which is meaningful proof of just how much progress we have made, and how well positioned we are, to emerge as a regional and national model health care system for improving the health of our community – a future boldly and clearly mapped out for us in our new strategic plan.   

... And speaking of our strategic plan, I am thrilled to announce our new plan was unanimously approved by our TriHealth Board earlier this month!  This approval represents an important step forward on our journey to make TriHealth a great place for team members to work, for physicians to practice and for our patients to receive the best care possible to live better.  Given the significance of this milestone, and the vital role every TriHealth team member and physician will play in helping us implement the new strategic plan, I want to take a little extra time in this Monthly Update to provide a more detailed explanation of the plan’s framework and the exciting progress we’ve already made to move it forward.

Building on Our Past to Create an Exciting Future

Our Strategic Intent – What We Will Become:  Our new strategic plan represents the next phase of our more than 10 year journey to become the region’s first fully-integrated system, capable of managing and improving the overall health of our community.  The new plan is a roadmap which will guide our work in bringing together our hospitals, ambulatory campuses and physician practices – acquired and built from the last strategic plan – into a true system of care that will deliver an exceptional level of service, quality and safety consistently across our more than 140 sites.  Our promise to the community will be that you receive the same exceptional care experience – The TriHealth Experience – no matter which of our sites you choose, every time you choose us! 

Our Strategic Plan Framework – How We Will Do It:  To achieve this exciting future state, we will focus on the following major goals:

Become one fully-integrated system of care

Evolve the TriHealth organization structure and system culture to better foster collaboration and teamwork across our full continuum of care (hospitals, ambulatory care, post-acute services and community-based primary care and specialty physician practices). At the same time, invest in our Specialty Institutes, Service Lines, and You, our people, to promote greater standardization across our system with respect to clinical, operational and service processes and practices.

Strengthen partnerships with the physician community

Bring together our entire network of employed and private physician partners as one highly-collaborative clinical team that can seamlessly deliver exceptional, coordinated care at the right time, in the right place, at the right cost to conveniently meet our patients’ unique needs at every stage of life, and in every state of health. 

Become a great place for our people to work

By investing in our leaders and people, accelerate development of the TriHealth system culture made up of highly-engaged team members and physicians that are energized and excited to come to work each day and who, in turn, make TriHealth a great health system for our community receive care.

Emerge as the market leader in value and improved patient health

Build the new skills, resources and expertise required to establish active partnerships with our patients outside of our facilities that can encourage and coordinate preventive care and services that will help improve the health of our community. At the same time, continue to deliver exceptional, high-value treatments and care within our system for our sick and injured patients.

Progress Updates

I am pleased to share that we are wasting no time putting plans in action to accelerate progress across all of the above areas.  I want to highlight some of our early progress here, and then later this month, share a second Update to give more details about how we are beginning to organize for the exciting work ahead:

New TriHealth System Organizational Structure: Earlier this week, I shared with our more than 150 senior leaders a series of organizational changes that are intended to support successful implementation of our new strategic plan, and will be implemented over the coming months.  The changes will enable TriHealth to function in a more integrated way that recognizes and responds to the naturally occurring patterns of care and consumer preferences reflected in Cincinnati’s distinct East and West communities.  The new structure will also allow us to provide greater focus on, and attention to, consumer relationship-building and ways we can better respond to the full range of health needs for our patients throughout their lives, rather than only during the times we are providing an episode of care in one of our facilities. To do so, we will be evolving from an “individual facilities-driven” organizational structure to a more “integrated, regional consumer-focused” organization with common leadership across the full continuum of care (hospitals, ambulatory centers, primary care and specialty practices, in-home care, etc.).  The new structure establishes an Eastern Region care continuum, consisting of Bethesda North Hospital and its associated regional hospitals, ambulatory sites and employed practices, and a Western Region care continuum, consisting of Good Samaritan Hospital and its geographically-affiliated sites of care. 

You’ll hear more about these changes from your leadership teams in department meetings over the next few weeks.  I will also provide additional updates in coming months as the new structure is phased in and new leaders are selected.

March Team Member Forums Introduce Accelerated Efforts to Improve Team Member Engagement:  Over the past two weeks, Gail Donovan, our Chief Operating Officer, and I had the privilege of conducting ten Team Member Forums around the system at all TriHealth hospitals and major ambulatory centers and physician practices.  Through the live and video-streamed sessions, we were able to reach nearly 5,000 team members.  The major objective was to share our new plans to improve team member engagement/satisfaction and make TriHealth a great place to work and practice – which is essential for successfully implementing our new strategic plan.  The five key areas of focus we discussed for our work include:

Improved communication

Leadership development

Team Member ideation & innovation

Fun! More celebration, rewards & recognition of the amazing work occurring across TriHealth

More frequent assessment of progress through annual surveys and quarterly pulse checks at Team Member Forums

We are already making great progress in our work to improve communications and develop leaders!  With respect to communications, we’ve introduced this CEO Monthly Update, established more frequent Team Member Forums at more sites, and are beginning to equip all leaders with the communication tools to regularly cascade system news and information to their teams.  In fact, you’ll be hearing from your department managers soon as they share “local” department and facility engagement results and discuss improvement action plans with you in the coming weeks.  And, we’ll be kicking-off a major, multi-year leadership development effort in April with a two-day learning event for more than 800 TriHealth leaders! We’ll share much more about the plans underway for each of these areas in the coming months – and look forward to your active involvement in our efforts!

We’re On Our Way!

It is an exciting time for TriHealth, our people, our patients and our community!  Thanks to the many years of hard work and outstanding contributions of our people across all levels of the organization, we have built a solid foundation of clinical excellence and financial strength.  And in recent months, we have shaped a path forward for TriHealth that will undoubtedly position us for a very bright and proud future – a future marked by highly-satisfied team members and physicians, exceptional patient care, improved community health and outstanding value. 

The overwhelming enthusiasm and positive feedback you expressed for our vision and strategic plan at the recent Team Member Forums gives me great confidence and excitement about the work ahead – and the progress we will make with your support and involvement!  Thank you for everything you do, every day, to make TriHealth great!

Mark