The Results Are In!

I’m excited to announce that we just completed another KaiNexus WorkOut with some amazing results at Mary Greeley Medical Center, a 220-bed community hospital in Ames, Iowa.

During the three months we’ve been working together, their team completed 54 Opportunities for Improvements and had a significant impact in a number of key metrics:

• The total financial impact to the organization was $840,898

• $675,475 in “hard” cost savings that affect the bottom line and budgets

• $49,080 in one time revenue generation

• 5209 hours in time savings, resulting in a “soft" savings of  $116,343

Impressively, Mary Greeley achieved these great results while completing and moving into a new patient wing!

What's a WorkOut?

For those of you who haven’t been following our work with Mary Greeley, I’m the KaiNexus consultant who has been working with Mary Greeley’s leaders (including the CEO, CFO, and directors) for the past three months. Their leadership team was engaged in a KaiNexus WorkOut for an intense 100-day period. During the initial kickoff, on January 15, we brainstormed Opportunities for Improvement, and then the team worked on their improvements as I checked in with them for training and consulting at 30 and 60-day checkpoints (read more about this in my last blog post here).

Outstanding Opportunies for Improvement

On Friday, May 2, we held a final recognition celebration during which we reviewed results and gave special recognition to a few key participants. Two awards were given for outstanding Opportunities for Improvement. One was for the renegotiation of a rehab contract which resulted in $5,500 recurring savings per year; the second for developing a risk assessment for breast MRI, which improved patient care and required three separate departments to work together. According to the award recipients, the KaiNexus platform made the communication and follow through of the Opportunity exceptionally easy for their cross-departmental teams.

I think it’s important to note that none of the Opportunities were complex or difficult to achieve. In fact, Mary Greeley actually got these results by finding their “low hanging fruit.” These were opportunities that they all knew were possible, but they hadn’t yet taken the time or initiative to complete them. The combination of KaiNexus and the WorkOut methodology was critical in creating the excitement and transparency around the work necessary to drive the Opportunities through to completion. Additionally, Mary Greeley leadership felt that the KaiNexus platform created visibility that nurtured an increased sense of accountability around the Opportunities, because results were reported and shared on a regular basis.

A Powerful Culture of Continuous Improvement

During our WorkOut celebration, the KaiNexus VP of Customer Success, Mark Graban, gave an inspiring talk about turning this initial effort into a powerful culture of continuous improvement. After all, the goal of these WorkOuts is as much to drive culture change as it is to achieve a significant impact during the three-month time frame of the WorkOut. The next step of the journey is for the process and ideology that made this WorkOut a success to take root and spread throughout the organization.

I can’t wait to hear how this dynamic team uses KaiNexus next! I hope they continue to use KaiNexus as a powerful process improvement and program management tool. I also hope I have the pleasure of working with MGMC as they complete their annual WorkOut.