Grant Regional is not only improving patient care, it is enhancing onsite amenities to create a more comfortable atmosphere.

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When Grant Regional Health Center CEO Nicole Clapp joined the Lancaster, Wis.,  hospital in 1996, its market share was on the decline, and hovered around 40 percent. At the time, Clapp says, the public thought of the hospital as a “Band-Aid station” where people would come as a matter of convenience rather than as their chosen care provider.

With five hospitals in a 30-mile radius, Clapp says she knew it was time to differentiate Grant Regional from nearby providers. By 2001, improving customer service had become the main objective of the hospital’s strategic plan. “We needed to become the hospital of choice,” she says.

In the following year, the administrative team and board of directors sought to hire an outside consultant to help the hospital improve its approach to customer service. Eventually, Clapp and her team choose the Disney Institute, based at Walt Disney World in Florida.

The institute provides professional development, benchmarking and experiential training for business professionals in a variety of industries. “We wanted a total culture change and we needed to reexamine what it meant to be a customer-focused company,” Clapp asserts.

A consultant from the institute interviewed a team of doctors, employees and board members to gain insight on Grant Regional’s operations. Using staff satisfaction data as well as regional and market share data, the institute developed a customized program for the hospital.

In 2002, 15 hospital employees representing mid- and upper-level management from each shift traveled to the Disney Institute for a three-day training session. The classroom-based sessions taught the team how to integrate customer loyalty and quality of service standards into each level of the organization. “We came home with improvement plans involving our setting, our processes and how to integrate our services,” Clapp says.

For the next six months, the team worked to integrate the customer-service program, and, in 2003, the hospital rolled out its new plan to 250 employees, including medical staff, physicians, volunteers and the board of directors. “We developed five ongoing improvement teams that focus on the areas of setting, selection and training of partners, communication and care of partners, quality improvement tools and the process to focus on the guests’ experience,” Clapp explains.

Since the program’s inception, the hospital has increased market share to 48 percent, Clapp says.

Other outcome measurements show that the hospital’s partner satisfaction score is the highest in the region and that its guest satisfaction ranks nine out of a possible 10, according to Medicare’s Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. “Our new vision is to demonstrate the true meaning of service excellence by exceeding expectations through exceptional, quality healthcare,” Clapp asserts.

Constant Improvements
In the process of improving patient care, Grant Regional has enhanced onsite amenities. Each patient room is designed with different themes such as fishing, seascapes, birdhouses and farming, and medical equipment is placed out of sight in custom-made cabinets. “We try to help them reduce their anxiety, and the homelike atmosphere allows patients to relax and quicken the healing process,” Clapp notes.

The hospital opened its doors in 1955 to serve the surrounding, rural communities in Grant County, Wis. “We are primarily serving 22,500 people in the area which serves an agricultural and small-town environment,” she adds. Grant Regional, an affiliate of Brim Healthcare, offers a comprehensive array of services, such as diagnostic, emergency, rehabilitation, obstetrics, surgical and walk-in care.
    
Plans to Expand
This year, Grant Regional will move forward with a $2.5 million renovation and expansion, part of which will focus on updating the obstetrics department.

Grant Regional’s obstetrics volume has increased significantly from 93 births in 2004 to 146 births in 2006. In addition, the center wanted to address a growing trend where labor-delivery-recovery and post partum (LDRP) care are all provided in one room. The renovation will also address several other needs of the department, such as:

• Additional space to provide each patient with her own private bathroom and whirlpool tub
• Ongoing continuous fetal monitoring of all LDRP rooms from a central nursing station
• A security system to enhance deterrent of infant abductions
• A kitchenette for patients, family members, physicians and employees
• A lounge for families to congregate

“Patients were happy with the quality of care, but patients wanted more privacy than the traditional labor and delivery rooms offered,” Clapp says. “We meet our patients’ needs first and then their wants, and we make an emotional connection in the process.”

In addition, the rehabilitation department will replace the bay-style rooms with nine private treatment rooms, an open rehabilitation gym and space for cardio/pulmonary rehabilitation. The renovation/expansion will address specific needs of the rehabilitation department, such as:

• Removing temporary wooden structure, which does not meet the State of Wisconsin Healthcare Building Code
• Additional ceiling height in the gym to perform therapy and sporting activities
• Individual treatment rooms to provide patient privacy and confidentiality
• Larger space with better ventilation to provide massage therapy services
• Additional space for a full-functioning kitchen for occupational therapy services
• Designated therapy area for cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation to comply with federal program regulations

The renovation/expansion will also provide space for a private, quiet place within the health center for patients, families, visitors, physicians and employees to meet their spiritual needs through a meditation room; two soundproof designated rooms where full-size beds are utilized to monitor sleep studies patients; and a quiet, remodeled hospice suite for patients and their families.

Hiring the Right Attitude
“Grant Regional’s staff is attracted to the hands-on approach to improving the programs for its patients,” Clapp says.

In the past four years, staff turnover has decreased by 10 percent. “Staff take ownership for the programs and projects, but call on each other to evaluate their methods,” she says. The hospital’s systems are evaluated onsite every 18 months to two years by an outside consultant.

Qualified applicants are vetted through the hospital’s interview process. “We go through a two-tier interview process where the interviewee will watch a recruitment video and hear from a group of staff about the organization and then fill out an application,” Clapp notes. “We hire the attitude and train the skill.”

Grant Regional says its employees at all levels are involved in creating a culture of service excellence, and often donate personal time and money to improving a patient’s visit. In the early 2000s, its staff raised more than $7,000 in three weeks to transform an outdated library into a lounge for patients’ families to use.

The staff also devotes personal time to maintain a healing garden where patients can enjoy the outdoors and a hospitality café where they can socialize. “Staff go out of their way and stop what they’re doing and seek out patients who they think have questions,” Clapp notes. “It’s in our mission that, with our hearts and minds, we are touching lives.”

Since it began its customer service approach, Grant Regionals’ teams have come up with more than 135 improvement ideas, and will continue to improve its processes in the future, Clapp says.

“We’ve been here for 50 years and we plan to be here for another 50,” Clapp predicts. “Before, we might have taken these everyday things for granted, but now, we’re taking pride in every little detail.”