North Mississippi Health Services

Name

Institution

North Mississippi Health Services

The organization was one of the four recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2012. NMHS is essentially a not for profit health care delivery system that is actually community owned and serves 24 counties in the rural areas of northeast Mississippi as well as parts of northwest Alabama. In total the organization includes six hospitals, 34 clinics, and four nursing homes, with over six thousand two hundred employees as well as four hundred and ninety one physicians. The organization was recognized due to its high standards of healthcare as demonstrated by repeated remarkable health outcomes (NA, 2013). For instance, NMHS’s outpatient management of diabetes has continued to exceed the National Committee for Quality Assurance benchmark since 2008, while a community assessment reveals that the number of smokers within the region it serves has actually declined by a significant 7 percent. Further, patient satisfaction surveys have been at or above the 90th percentile consistently, as reported by Press Ganey Associates, as well as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. The organization has also revolutionized customer service, as in addition to using traditional communication methods such as telephones, it also takes advantage of social networking to reach its clients and collect their views. In addition, the organization has also over the last five years record an impressive 90 percent rate of employee retention, implying significantly high levels of employee satisfaction.

Some of the practices employed include the creation of a people first culture by senior management, as well as a philosophy of servant leadership. This has led to a situation where managers are able to model the values of the organization, as build trust with the employees to an extent that it is easy to sustain an accountable, high-performing and empowered workforce. This is further enhanced by the utilization of an innovative program the organization refers to as the “Ideas for Excellence,” which encourages ideas for improvement from the organization’s own workforce.

The second impressive practice that sets NMHS a cut above the other organizations in the healthcare sector is the use of an Integrated Community Health Record which has a remote log-in capability hence allowing physicians and other employees to keep updated with patient information and data from their homes when on call, hence ensuring the healthcare providers are aware of the patients’ conditions whether on transition from home to emergency services or vice versa. This allows for effective, prompt and potentially life saving interventions (NIST, n.d).

The first practice ensures that the organization’s staff remains motivated and feel part of the solution to any problem within the organization through the Ideas for Excellence program. Further, the friendly nature of the senior staff as well as their cooperation improves the chances of there existing two way communication, which leads to prompt problem solving and hands on management. Through modeling of the organization’s values, senior management is also able to ensure that the organization’s staff remains focused on its mission and vision. The second practice highlighted not only ensures that staff on call are appraised on the state of affairs within the hospital even before they report, but actually ensures continuity of care, by ensuring that the staff are aware of the procedures or management that a patient is undergoing or awaiting. This significantly improves the quality of care and eliminates the chances of duplication of duties, hence saving time and resources. It also significantly reduces the amount of time spent during change of shifts, as the incoming staff are already aware of the patient’s condition hence the report received from outgoing staff is not necessarily as detailed as it would normally be, further enhancing the quality of care.

References

N.a (2013). Tupelo, MS – North Mississippi Health Services Earns Malcolm Baldrige NationalQuality Award. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://nursing.advanceweb.com/News/Regional-News/Tupelo-MS-North-Mississippi-Health-Services-Earns-Malcolm-Baldrige-National-Quality-Award-2.aspx” http://nursing.advanceweb.com/News/Regional-News/Tupelo-MS-North-Mississippi-Health-Services-Earns-Malcolm-Baldrige-National-Quality-Award-2.aspx

NIST (n.d). Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award 2012 Award Recipient, Health CareCategory. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/award_recipients/no-ms-health-services_profile.cfm” http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/award_recipients/no-ms-health-services_profile.cfm