Town Meeting Q and A- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Town Meeting Q and A- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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March 30, 2001
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In This Issue:
Town Meeting Spotlights Staff Survey
Town Meeting Q and A
April Calendar
Obituary: Jeanette White Rukstalis
Red Sox Ticket Sale
The following are excerpts from the question-and-answer session that followed the Staff Survey Action Team presentations: Q: (audience) Will this process be ongoing with each new survey? A: Matt Van Vranken, chief operating officer Absolutely. As Jeff said, this is not a project, rather it’s a process to create an environment where people want to come to work and stay. The scarcity of talented, committed health care professionals is going to be a major issue going forward. I think we’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg. People have choices of where they’re going to work and it’s important to engage people to identify those issues that are important to them in their making an assessment as to whether an institution is right for them. Q: (from MVV) To what degree do you think the rest of the organization is aware of what’s been done thus far? How much of a challenge do we have from a communication standpoint of letting people know what we’re doing? How do we get more than 100 people to help? A: (audience) A variety of suggestions from employees followed, some of which included:
Communicating the Teams’ progress to fellow staff/employees;
Having a senior manager visit a department once a month;
Improve physician participation and input;
Communicating to off-campus employees, the research community and employees
whose first language is not English;
Creating shorter, more intense staff discussion meetings; and
Making time for staff development.
A: (MVV) We have to find ways to redirect resources, and that’s not going to happen without making choices about resources. We’re going to have to invest time and energy in taking people out of the jobs they do and in making a commitment with employee training. A: (Andy Whittemore, MD, chief medical officer) The participation of the physicians in this whole effort is challenging given their full time clinical commitments. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel welcome to e-mail them to me. A: (audience) These changes are issues that will have to be worked on as a cultural change, or it’s never going to last. One-hour classes won’t make a long-term difference without a cultural change at the hospital. A: (audience) I have a challenge for everybody in the room. If everybody could go back and tell at least two people about this meeting, the communication outreach would greatly increase.