Our HEI (Healthy Environment Initiative) has been very positive and has really improved relationships. In my department’s last two patient surveys, for example,response to the question about satisfaction with staff attitude was 99 and 100 percent. That has a lot to do with the respect that has come out of this initiative and how people treat each other.
Specialty Medical Group in Partnership Project Across 5 Hospitals
After the first Healthy Workplace training session, a manager (large hospital) stayed for nearly an hour after to talk about the Healthy Workplace process and things that she has observed. I asked her about her long-term observation of changes… specifically physician behavior. Back in the spring of 2004 around the time we first had PivotPoint, Inc. come and speak at the group meeting, the group was under some pressure from the Hospital department director, who was reporting many, many complaints about physicians and she was at that time considering doing a survey of her own hospital employees to see how extensive this problem was. The physicians were understandably upset about that possibility. I asked the manager to compare her experience regarding complaints about physicians recently with her recollection of two to three years ago. She said there had been a very significant change in that it was previously common at department or section meetings to have issues about physicians brought up to the group or brought to her privately on the side in the hallway by various employees reporting to her. She said it's been a long time now since she's heard any complaints at all and in fact now, very commonly hears positive specific comments about many different physicians in the various areas. These are comments simply made freely out of good experiences with this or that MD. Dr. So-and-so is so easy to work with or, we wished he/she were here more, etc...
Institute for Medical Education, Director, Undergrad & Graduate Clinical Education
I reiterate what I already said to you at our meeting regarding the Healthy Workplace initiative. I have heard from colleagues in the Twin Cities and beyond who are most impressed with what we are doing here and it is believed that we are on the cutting edge nationally. Kudos to you for making it happen!
Healthy Environment Initiative Team Member
“It
is amazing to me how many people outside of our department have heard of our success with Healthy Work Initiative! I
represent our department on an all-hospital committee where the benefits of Healthy Work Initiative have
been brought up by others and discussed at length. Many are interested in our
formula for success. What
surprises me is the difficulty people in other departments have in
communicating with physicians. It is hard for me to relate because our
radiologists are so accessible to us. This helps me see how far we have come
with Healthy Work Initiative. It’s wonderful!”
Union Officer, Urban Hospital, 427 Bed, Full Service Hospital
As a union officer who works at this Hospital, I would like to let the vice president of Ancillary/Support Services and the rest of the Healthy Workplace committee members know that I really feel they respect and care about the Hospital employees. In the past, we have had some hard times working with leadership on these issues but now we are working together as a team to create a better place to work.
Program Director, Nursing School, Private College
First of all, thanks to you and your commitment to healthy work environments. It is a gift to have you work with us! So many positive comments received about yesterday's work!
Staff report "sense of overall stability, improved, professional communications between staff". This is a significant change from two years ago.