Fire Starter
Mariners Hospital
Tavernier, Florida
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Mariners Hospital, a 42-bed, rural hospital, is the only hospital serving the Upper Florida Keys, a geographic area south of Miami that stretches for 37 miles across islands and water. The not-for-profit hospital has been a community resource since 1962 when it opened as a 13-bed facility. Mariners Hospital employs 276 people and has a medical staff of 85 physicians.
Mariners prides itself on achieving and exceeding its high performance goals. For 2009, administration and employees are striving to be in the 90th percentile in patient satisfaction, 90th percentile in quality measures, 85th percentile in employee satisfaction and 90th percentile in physician satisfaction.
Everyone believes these goals are attainable. This wasn't always the case. Back in 2006, Mariners numbers were below par. At that time, two decisions were made. One was to renew our commitment to service and operational excellence. The second was to partner with the Studer Group to help us in our quest for excellence. As the partnership progressed, we began to hardwire tools that would help us improve our numbers. Among the tools we adopted were:
- Rounding
- Thank You notes
- Key words at key times
- AIDETSM
- Employee appreciation events
- Employee recognition
Since partnering with Studer, we have seen dramatic improvement in our numbers in all areas -- patient satisfaction, quality measures, employee satisfaction and physician satisfaction.
We believe the most important improvement is the change in the number of engaged employees. In 2006, 60% of our employees were engaged, 27 percent not engaged and 13% actively disengaged. In 2008, 72% were engaged, 24% not engaged and only 4% actively disengaged.
This considerable improvement is the cornerstone of our outstanding performance in other areas. And, our numbers back up this belief. For example, in 2006 only 63% of our national quality measures were in the top ten percent. In 2008, 87% were in the top ten percent. Outstanding quality measures performance earned us the 2009 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence. This award honors organizations that have differentiated themselves around national performance standards by achieving exceptionally high levels of performance. We received this award, because Mariners achieved at least a 70% "Always" score in all six of the HCAHPS composite categories for the most recent rolling 12-month period released by CMS.
Mariners also received the 2009 National Patient Safety Foundation's Stand Up for Patient Safety Management Award. The Stand Up Management Award is granted to a hospital in recognition of the successful implementation of an outstanding patient safety initiative. In our case, Mariners won for work in reducing the incidence of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in the CT suite. CIN, a serious complication that may occur as an adverse effect from IV injection of contrast media, is the third leading cause of hospital-acquired renal failure and increases mortality independent of other risk factors. The Mariners team developed a formal process to identify patients at high risk for development of Contrast Induced Nephropathy. The National Patient Safety Foundation lauded Mariners work with CIN as an extraordinary example of best practice in the field of patient safety.
In addition to engaged employees, other factors that enable Mariners to deliver exceptional results are dedicated leadership, open communication, strong community involvement and transparency about hospital issues.