November 30, 2017

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Hi Team, 

Before we enter the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I want to take a moment to reflect on the progress we are making toward the TriHealth promise of getting healthcare right for our community – better care, better health and better value for all those we serve. In recent weeks, we’ve made great strides in achieving our strategy which have been marked by clinical and operational improvements and planned investments in our facilities and technology. 

System Wins

• We held a ribbon cutting for our new ambulatory surgery center at our Five Mile Road facility in Anderson. This addition is an important part of our regional strategy to provide easier, more convenient access to TriHealth care. (click to link to learn more)
• We unveiled – for the entire community to see – our commitment to increasing minority and women representation among our leadership team and our physician community. Our goal is to have TriHealth better reflect the community and people we serve – where they can feel welcome and comfortable. (click to link to learn more)
• Bethesda Butler, Bethesda North and McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital earned a grade of “A” for patient safety in the most recent Leap Frog Hospital Survey, and Good Sam improved from a “C” to “B” grade.
• TriHealth’s Orthopedic & Sports Institute was recognized in the Becker’s Hospital Review among the “100 Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Orthopedic Programs 2017.” Becker’s noted that TriHealth performs “more orthopedic surgeries than any other healthcare system in the Cincinnati area.”              

Mastering the Skills, Leading the Way 
A few weeks ago, TriHealth leaders came together for our 6th quarterly Leadership Development Institute (LDI). The LDIs are part of our system-wide organizational development program through which we are introducing, teaching and, ultimately, hardwiring the evidence-based practices that define our new “TriHealth Way… of Leading, Serving and Delivering Care.” While I regularly hear from team members and physicians that these leadership best practices are making a positive impact in their areas, we decided to hit the pause button on introducing new tools and instead focused this LDI on mastering and “hardwiring” previously introduced best practices. With a special emphasis on Always Behaviors, 90 day action planning and AIDET+ the Promise, leaders walked away with a renewed sense of ability to be champions of this important work – and that will ultimately improve team member engagement and the care for our patients. On behalf of the leadership team, I want to tell you how much we appreciate as team members your continued support of our leaders’ time at the quarterly LDIs, and for embracing and adopting a better way – the TriHealth Way! 

Bethesda North Expansion Gets Bigger
Our expansion plans on the Bethesda North Hospital campus are growing and you’re hearing it here first! Earlier this year, we announced our plans to construct an 80,000-square-foot Comprehensive Cancer Center on the site. The original goal of the new facility was to serve as a regional center of excellence and “one stop” destination for the most advanced cancer care services available to heal the whole person – physically, mentally and spiritually. But as we continued to assess the needs of the community and the system—and evaluated multiple facility options – we made the decision, and the System Board approved earlier this month, to expand the size of the new building by 70 percent – to 135,850 square feet – to allow for consolidation of our Bethesda Region cardiovascular services on the site as well. Currently, cardiology, cardiac surgery and vascular surgery are dispersed throughout the Bethesda North campus, and consolidation into one site will allow for better access and patient convenience, and will better support team-based care while creating a true destination for cardiac care for our northern and eastern communities. We will also relocate outpatient imaging services on this campus and the Mary Jo Cropper Breast Center to this location – again to create the most modern and convenient environment of care for patients and caregivers. 

Physicians Helping to Lead the Way with Clinical Integration
At a recent day-long working session on clinical integration and “system-ness,” physician and other clinical leaders shared some of their successes that are already occurring in our efforts to operate as one system of care delivered across our more than 140 sites.

• Joe Thomas, MD, Chief of Orthopedics, discussed how our orthopedics team was confronted by a federally mandated bundle program for joint replacement. As a result, a multidisciplinary work group was formed to focus on standardizing care processes, reducing post-acute costs and improving clinical outcomes. By implementing clinical standardization across the entire system, this work has achieved more than $250,000 in savings in the first year and measurably improved clinical outcomes.
• As we expanded our hospitalist services into Dearborn Hospital and McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital, Bryan Strader, MD, Chief of Hospital Medicine, took the opportunity to unify all of our hospital medicine programs and standardize practices across the system. That’s better for our caregivers and, most importantly, for our patients.
• Similarly, thanks to our new physician leadership and governance structure, the Good Sam and Bethesda North radiology groups have now successfully come together as one clinical service with unified leadership — Frank Schuleter, MD, System Chief of Radiology – and we are already experiencing greater standardization and improved efficiency, value, quality and access,  and a more consistent TriHealth experience for patients and referring physicians. 

These are just a few examples of the work going on daily throughout our system, and are reminders of what a TRUE SYSTEM looks like. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to making our system the preferred healthcare destination in the region. I couldn’t be more grateful for all that you do to make TriHealth a great health system for our team members and physicians, and most importantly, the community we serve. I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season.