The entire KaiNexus team would like to say congratulations to our customer Mary Greeley Medical Center for receiving the “Gold Achievement” recognition from the Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence (IRPE). This recognition now allows them to submit an application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award at the national level, which the hospital plans to do.

The IRPE process uses criteria in seven distinct categories to evaluate organizations:

• Leadership
• Strategic planning
• Customer focus
• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management
• Workforce focus
• Operations focus
• Results

From the news story in the local Ames, Iowa paper:

[CEO Brian] Dieter said he feels this recognition tells the community that MGMC is a “place that’s better every day to receive care.”

We know from working closely with Mary Greeley that there is a strong organizational commitment to the continuous improvement of quality and patient care that starts at the very top.

In early 2014, our consultant Suz Kaprich guided Mary Greeley through a “KaiNexus WorkOut” process that improved quality and generated more than $800,000 in measurable financial impact over just three months’ time. You can also listen to a podcast that I did with two Mary Greeley leaders about the workout here, and can watch the video of Dieter talking about working with KaiNexus here:

Mary Greeley has used KaiNexus to track formal “Kaizen Events,” but has also used the WorkOut process to expose more leaders and staff to principles of ongoing continuous improvement. More recently, in December, I had the chance to work with senior leaders and the staff and leaders in two departments through our “KaiNexus Kickoff” process, where we spent three days identifying small “opportunities for improvement,” taking action, and documenting them in the KaiNexus system. Staff identified 28 different OIs and had implemented five of them in the first few days, including things that improve the patient experience and save time for physicians and employees.

As Dieter said in the local Ames newspaper article:

“What this really says is these goals that we’ve set and these processes that we’ve set in place, it’s not a management thing, it really is our staff,” Dieter said. “In my mind the recognition accrues to and is the credit of our staff. Not because we wrote a great application, but because the staff have really adapted and adopted these principles and are putting them to work every day.”

Improvement and innovation require leadership and staff participation. These things go hand in hand. We know that employees have ideas and know how to identify and fix problems. But, leaders at all levels have to create the right tone and environment that allows people to speak up and supports them in taking action

Again, congratulations to everybody at Mary Greeley Medical Center! We're so proud to be a part of your journey.

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