Regent Surgical Health (Regent) believes a strong value foundation makes organizations more effective at providing business and clinical excellence. Since 2007, the company has had an ongoing commitment to R.I.S.E., a set of corporate values focused on Respect, Integrity, Stewardship and Efficiency, and strives to keep a constant focus on creating a culture – across all facilities – that embraces these values.
Kathleen Bernicky, Regent’s vice president of risk management and clinical quality, is leading an effort to intensify Regent’s efforts supporting the R.I.S.E. program, deepening commitment to this important priority and evolving the program for even more positive impact. The simple premise? A supportive culture fosters happy employees; and happy employees make patients happy.
“R.I.S.E. is a great program, and one that is very important to our success as a company,” Bernicky says. “We want to make sure awareness of the program’s benefits stays strong even as we add new employees and grow. And, since we know keeping employees inspired and embracing a program like this really starts with leadership, we’re working with our center leaders to help ensure the values are continually incorporated into the culture of each center.”
To foster that strong embrace, Bernicky has sparked a number of awareness-building programs to showcase R.I.S.E. values and keep them top-of-mind among center leaders and employees. She began with a survey across all centers to establish a baseline, and then launched outreach efforts, including informational webinars for center leadership and staff, calendars, posters, screen savers, an updated brochure, newsletter articles and even campaign buttons.
“In the webinars, we talked about how sometimes a value can seem like just a concept, when what we really want is to bring it to everyday behaviors,” Bernicky says. “We’re sending out weekly reminders of those behaviors to help people live the values: things like ‘Today I will be centered on the patient and the family’ or ‘Today I will ask a coworker if they need help.’”
While specific programming is up to individual centers, Bernicky reports that the new outreach effort has resulted in new energy and action. One center in New Jersey recently came together to make dinner for families and children at Ronald McDonald House, and another collected clothes for a women’s center. Several centers have hosted R.I.S.E. luncheons where staff discussed the values, and others have added the values to employee ID badges.
Another key element of the awareness program is recognizing the employees that live the R.I.S.E. values. “As simple as it seems, employees who have received the awards really appreciate the recognition, and it reinforces the value-based behaviors,” Bernicky says.
“We’ve encouraged the centers to make the program their own, to make R.I.S.E. part of their local culture. And it’s working,” Bernicky reports. While the baseline will help determine awareness program impact at the end of this year, longer term results show a positive impact across Regent’s facilities. Since the program’s inception:
- Nursing attrition rates at Regent facilities have dropped
- Patient satisfaction elements tied to R.I.S.E. values have risen
- Synergies between staff and physicians in Regent facilities have improved
- More than 60 awards have recognized employees, management and physicians
“R.I.S.E. is an important value system that significantly strengthens Regent’s culture,” Bernicky concludes. “I love the program, I’m passionate about it, and I‘m happy to be the steward that brings more vibrancy to R.I.S.E. across all of our centers.”
Click here to learn more about Regent’s R.I.S.E program.
