With top management affecting employee well-being and productivity and employee satisfaction trickling down to patients, hospital leaders need to successfully connect with staff.
To conduct effective leadership rounding, hospital executives must commit to performing rounds at least one or two times a day, J. Stephen Lindsey, principal at Ivy Ventures, LLC, and Brett Corkran, Master of Health Administration student at Virginia Commonwealth University, wrote in a Becker's Hospital Review article.
Raymond Hino, CEO of Mendocino Coast District Hospital in California, takes that commitment one step further with his "Bring-your-CEO-to-Work-Day," spending an entire day in a hospital department. He conducts full-day rounds with billing and collections, cardiopulmonary, surgery, plant maintenance and case management, among other departments.
Instead of simply going for a walk, hospital leaders should be fully engaged during rounding to identify areas for improvement or acknowledge accomplishments, according to Becker's. For example, David Musyj, president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital in Ontario, Canada, used rounding to uncover changes to enhance patient safety and patient care, as well as reward hard-working staff.
But hospital leaders need to be visible and approachable to collect such information from staff and patients, noted Becker's. To do so, Scott Kashman, chief administrative officer of Cape Coral Hospital in Florida, recommended joining the medical staff for coffee or lunch in the physician lounge. In addition to rounding with physicians and patients, Kashman advised walking the hospital floors at different times of the day to create an open environment for hospital employees to share their concerns.
"When I walk through the hospital, it is a great opportunity to gather information and build trust by listening and responding to concerns. Rounding takes me beyond the paper dashboard so I can get a true pulse on the health of the organization," said Mike Sherrod, CEO of Georgia's Coliseum Northside Hospital, noted Becker's.
For more information:
- here's the Becker's article