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Compromise is an important tactic in building an employee reward and recognition program.
Established nearly 100 years ago in Corpus Christi, TX, Christus Spohn Health System consists of four hospitals and nine clinics and serves a total population of more than 575,000 people in 13 counties. As one of South Texas's largest private employers with 4,500 dedicated employees, over 700 physicians, and more than 500 community volunteers, our nonprofit organization continues to grow-not just to become bigger, but to achieve excellence.
Our Challenge
While our system is the market leader in our service area with 60 percent market share and has enjoyed a trend of growth in patient volumes and revenues, aggressive competition and daunting healthcare economic trends were making it ever more challenging to maintain our operating margins. Furthermore, we felt that our patient and employee satisfaction scores could be stronger.
In the strategic planning process, system leadership identified customer service as a prime opportunity to differentiate our health services and keep loyal patients coming back to our hospitals. Leadership believed that focusing on happier employees by promoting employee teamwork and pride in their work would have a trickle-down effect and create more satisfied patients. Thus, our patient satisfaction council was charged with the task of developing a reward and recognition program for employees.
Our Strategy-and Barriers to It
In addition to determining the goals and targets used to measure the success of our new program, the council had to address how the program would be designed. Should we develop a systemwide initiative that could be consistently applied at all of our hospitals? Or should we allow each hospital to develop its own unique program? There were strong and passionate arguments on both sides. On the one hand, each hospital within our relatively young system has a unique...