What Health IT Pros Need to Know When Selecting an Employee Suggestion Platform

As Vice President Joe Biden inelegantly remarked to the President when the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, "This is a big [expletive] deal."

And it was, not just for consumers but for hospitals as well. Healthcare reform had two major effects. It increased the number of patients by lowering the uninsured rate and it introduced competitive pressures to the healthcare industry.

This double-edged sword presents both a challenge and an opportunity for hospitals. Competitive pressure now mandates that while standards of service must be upheld (no one goes to a hospital with bad care), at the same time competition demands managers take a hard look at costs. The upside is the hospital that can maintain quality care at lower cost is the one that is going to receive the lion's share of customers.

The Answer - Valuing Employee Suggestions

Reading those words - “quality service while cutting costs” can sound an awful lot like "Cut jobs and work employees that stay to the bone." But it doesn't have to be that way and, in fact, doing so is actually a guarantee for bad service. Healthcare is a skilled position and hospitals are in a race with one another to attract and retain top talent. A nurse or doctor that is overworked and underappreciated is a nurse that will look elsewhere and find no shortage of employers.

A better course of action is to value the workforce and enable them. Currently, many hospitals rely on quarterly anonymous surveys for collecting employee suggestions so it can be noted, "Management listened to your suggestions. Thank you for participating" and then nothing is done.

What a waste.

Not only does an effective employee suggestion program show employees they are valued, but it also is a significant factor in improving quality and cutting costs. In one example, Newton Medical Center saved $1.7 million in one year by putting an employee suggestion program in place. Employees responded with enthusiasm to the program and submitted 121 ideas, of which 62 were implemented.By reviewing suggestions, many processes were found to be redundant or wasteful and could be scrapped entirely.

Another hospital, Cambridge Memorial, created a program where employees submitted over 200 ideas and helped realize $3 million in annual savings.

What to Look For in an Employee Suggestion Program

It's clear the quarterly anonymous survey is an ineffective method and an organized employee suggestion program delivers big results. What is should an IT Pro look for when shopping for an effective employee suggestion program? Successful programs include:

1. Transparent System - The best employee suggestion programs present all employee suggestions, big and small, for all to see. In this fashion, employees can comment and build upon others suggestions and managers can take note. The software acts as an communication channel and encourages an open discussion between management and employees on how best to improve operations.
2. Creates Accountability - The old wooden box method and anonymous quarterly surveys make it all too easy to lose employee suggestions. This breakdown in communication is corrosive - when employees don’t receive any feedback on their suggestions, they are less inclined to contribute in the future and become less engaged on the job. Good employee suggestion software makes a digital record of all contributions and holds people accountable. Employees can always ask, “Whatever happened to my suggestion, did anything ever come of that?”
3. Able to Offer Challenges and Rewards - Good employee suggestion software allows managers to offer business challenges to employees and these challenges can be either general (“How do we reduce costs?”) or specific (“What’s the best way to reduce wait times in the ER?”). By offering this feature, management can effectively direct employees to help address the business’s most pressing issues. And the ability to offer rewards for the best suggestions allows management to incentivize good behavior, bringing out the best in the group.

Finding the best employee suggestion software on the market will help your healthcare organization improve quality of care and efficiency while, at the same time, cutting costs. In this new legislative environment, the ultimate payoff for hospitals to these increased competitive pressures will be a newly expanded pool of insured patients. This improved marketplace is a win-win for patients and hospitals alike.