Share Convalescent Home, Oestmann Receive Summit Awards

In 2006, when Share Medical Center CEO, Barbara Oestmann gained approval from the Alva Hospital Authority to contract with Custom Learning Services (CLS), she knew SMC would be taking on a new approach to customer service, but never imagined the widespread impact of this contract at Share. The three-year contract with CLS is now in year-two and SMC has just received national recognition by the Health Care Service Excellence Association (HCSEA) in several areas, including Share Convalescent Home being awarded the Long-Term Care Service Excellence Summit Award and Oestmann receiving the Service Excellence Administrative Sponsor Summit Award. The awards program took place on October 26^th in Nashville, TN at the Health Care Service Excellence Institute.

CLS is a company based out of Calgary, Canada that provides customer service consulting to healthcare agencies across North America. There are currently 21 healthcare agencies with approximately 40,000 healthcare workers involved in this three-year program and dozens that have utilized CLS since 1984. Share is contracted with CLS for their “Employer of Choice – Service Excellence Initiative.” The main objective is to have an organization that skilled healthcare professionals want to work for, in turn resulting in superior patient care. Two of the program’s guarantees are that participating agencies will be in the top 10% for lowest employee turnover rates as well as patient satisfaction.

After completing one year of the contract with CLS, SMC has already seen marked improvement in employee turnover and customer satisfaction. Turnover has improved by 20% and Share received four “Breakthrough Awards” from HCSEA for customer satisfaction in the areas of inpatient care, emergency services, outpatient testing and outpatient surgery. SMC received more breakthrough awards than any other participating agency. “Breakthrough Awards” are given to agencies that see at least a 5% improvement in percentile ranking from the previous year. Share’s actual satisfaction improvement since last year is as follows:

Emergency care: 40% improvement (ranks SMC in the top 19% nationwide)

Outpatient testing: 28 % improvement (ranks SMC in the top 14% nationwide)

Outpatient surgery: 28 % improvement (ranks SMC in the top 14% nationwide)

Inpatient care: 16% improvement (ranks SMC in the top 8.2% nationwide)

Brian Lee, CSP, Conference Founder stated that the competition this year was the closest in history and there was a 43% increase in the nominations received; virtually all were top class. Again, they were in competition against some 40,000 other healthcare workers for these awards.

Share had six nominations altogether that resulted in four “Pinnacle Achievers” including two “Summit Awards.” Those considered along with the “Breakthrough Awards” really indicate the emphasis that SMC has placed on customer service is paying off.

SMC estimates the program to cost less than $10.00 per employee per month for education and training. Career Tech grants have been used to help fund the program in addition to the medical center’s budget. Some ask if the costs are worth it. “We’ve seen increased volumes in four areas including the nursing home, emergency department, outpatient testing and outpatient surgery since we began this program,” replies CFO Denise Reed. Oestmann adds, “While all this is great, we still have a ways to go. We have every intention of being the best at what we do for our employees and our patients.”

Oestmann further added that this program isn’t about receiving awards though admits it is nice that the medical center’s employees can receive such recognition for all their hard work. Every SMC employee has been impacted by this program, but from looking further into the structure of the program, the underlying principle is that every employee should have an impact on the way SMC delivers customer service.

Since the program began, mechanisms have been put into place allowing all employees in all departments to influence the changes that have been occurring. “We’ve finally opened our eyes to realize how truly gifted and talented our employees are,” Oestmann adds, “By signing the contract with Custom Learning, we’ve learned how to empower all of them to be leaders within this organization.” The CEO further explained that each employee is now part of one or more teams that have been developed to deal with very specific issues whether that be hiring practices or making things right with customers when mistakes happen, and everything in between.

Share Medical Center is growing on the outside and the inside. There is a sense that things will never be the same again and that’s okay. Society and healthcare are changing every day, so it is only natural that organizations like Share not only keep up, but take measures to make the best out of every situation.

Awards or no awards, Share is a community medical center that continues to offer more and more services to more and more people. Oestmann concludes, “While we understand we face many tough challenges to compete with the services of bigger providers, we know that our people make all the difference in those services that we do provide. Next to our patients, our employees and doctors are our greatest assets and this program has made such a difference to so many of them. We will continue this commitment to our employees because if we don’t, someone else will… and then who will take care of all the people who are depending on Share?”