Turned on

by Dow, Roger; Cook, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780887308611
• ISBN10: 0887308619
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-05-01
• Publisher: Harperbusiness

Summary

Turned On is the definitive book on leading ordinary companies to extraordinary customer satisfaction and profits, using eight insights practiced by the best and brightest organizations. Dow and Cook focus on how these star companies grew profits a stunning 600 percent in the last five years. They also demonstrate how cutting-edge hospitals and inner-city communities rekindle the commitment of individuals to achieve phenomenal results. With action checklists, brainteasers and firsthand accounts, Turned On shows managers how to create long-term vitality. Turned On explains how managers can let their employees take control of their jobs, think in new ways and find commonsense solutions to insurmountable challenges. Insights from the front line provide the much-needed clarity, faith and hope vital to working in today's tumultuous, high-stress environment.

Excerpts

Insight

Build aStrong Foundation

"What's wrong with hospitals is that the people in charge don't think about what it's like to be a patient in that bed," says Mark Scott, CEO of Mid-Columbia Medical Center. "Here it's different. But don't ask me'talk to the people. You'll hear it from the heart. This place is on fire!"

Sue Kelly, a nurse at the hospital for twenty-two years, was an integral part of Mid-Columbia's radical transformation to patient-centered health care:

Nurses are nurturing, giving, and healing people, but the system turned us into task-oriented technicians. Schedules and tasks became more important than the patient. Since the change to patient-centered care I've experienced incredible personal growth. I'm alive again. I'm energized and passionate about what I do. Now I make a tremendous difference in the lives of people every day, and they in turn make a difference for me. I go home, I'm charged. I come to work, I'm excited about being here.

I have a thank-you letter that I've saved for a long time. It's written by the daughter of a patient who spent her last days here. She writes, "Thank you for providing my sister and me with the experience of a lifetime. It has been the highlight of my life. I will never forget what you have done for us all."

This is why I went into health care.

Just What the Patient Ordered

Mid-Columbia Medical Center, a small rural hospital in The Dalles, Oregon, delivers health care as everyone would like it to be. Mid-Columbia's approach to patient-centered care was developed in conjunction with the Planetree Organization, a nonprofit consumer movement in San Francisco, as one of the five original Planetree demonstration sites in the nation.

Planetree rekindles the art and science of medicine. In the fifth century b.c. legendary healing centers like those at Kos and Epidaurus were temples filled with beautiful statues, fountains, and artistic treasures. Patients were surrounded by art, music, and poetry. Hippocrates' first schools of medicine were temples such as these. For centuries healing meant treating the whole patient'his or her physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. In this century we've focused on revolutionizing the science of medicine, not the art of healing. By combining the advanced medical technology of today with the healing environments and relationships of the past, Mid-Columbia transforms the patient experience.

The journey meant rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding every aspect of the care it provides. The first thing any organization must do is build a strong foundation consisting of five fundamental practices.

Pinpoint the essence of your business. When you enter Mid-Columbia's atrium, with its waterfall and grand piano, you know right away you're not in a typical hospital. And when you see the patient rooms with their huge picture windows and meet people like Nurse Kelly, you understand that Mid-Columbia is in the business of wellness, not illness. The hospital built a complete healing environment for the community. Its focus on wellness is embodied by the acronym HEALTH: Humanistic care, Empowerment, Access to information, Liberty to choose, Trust, and Heal.

Know your customers and their needs. The Mid-Columbia staff knows its patients personally and devotes resources to meeting their special needs. Patients and their families, for example, have a profound desire to understand their condition and be actively involved in their treatment. Rather than keep medical charts off-limits, doctors at Mid-Columbia invite patients to read their own charts, encouraging questions about medications and alternative treatments. Patients can visit the Health Resource Center for even more information'in English, not hospitalese.

Organize your business around your customers. Mid-Columbia reorganizes the way work gets done to promote wellness and better meet the needs of its patients. Most hospitals wake patients in the middle of the night for blood tests because doctors need the lab results before they make their rounds. But patients sleep soundly at Mid-Columbia and doctors get lab results on time thanks to innovative staffing that puts more people in the laboratory at peak hours.

Have a clear and compelling mission. Mid-Columbia's mission, "Personalize, humanize, and demystify health care," gives Nurse Kelly the direction and freedom to do whatever it takes to care for her patients.

Be brilliant on the basics. Waterfalls and grand pianos don't mean much if patients aren't being healed. The basics are a careful blending of the latest expert medical care with a concern for the patient and family experience.

A strong foundation supports the framework of your business'when the fundamentals aren't right, nothing else will be. But changes in customer needs, technology, and the business environment mandate constant attention to your foundation.

Practice 1Pinpoint the Essence of Your Business

Practice 2Have an Affair with Your Customer

Practice 3Shape Up'Physically and Mentally

Practice 4Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It . . .

Practice 5Be Brilliant on the Basics

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Turned On by Roger J. Dow Copyright © 2003 by Roger J. Dow
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.