More about Press-Ganey

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

after reading a few posts about press-gainey scores, i was curious about the methodology, so i googled up the press-gainey website.

i found this interesting piece and thought i'd share. apparently, p-g is not opposed to recognizing nurses. whatta concept!

here's the website so you can see the entire article:

http://www.pressganey.com/scripts/print_news.php?news_id=200

a culture, not a mantra

jun 22, 2006

melvin f. hall, ph.d., president & ceo - press ganey associates

you can learn a lot in a health care organization by simply walking around and quietly observing people’s interactions with each other. while in line at a partner hospital, a press ganey consultant overheard two nurses talking about some newly-hired colleagues. considering how hard it can be on nurses to be perpetually short-staffed, one might think that they would be ecstatic to have new teammates. rather, these nurses were expressing genuine disgust with an often-used hiring strategy.

“you know, i’ve been here ten years and have never received any bonus or reward anywhere near the signing bonuses these nurses got.”

“in two years, they’ll be gone [to the hospital] across town and where will we be?”

“we’ll have to work hard training and mentoring a whole new set of nurses without any reward.”

these nurses have identified a problem many health care organizations experience—rewarding those who are new to the organization while seemingly ignoring those who have dedicated and sacrificed for years, if not decades.

hiring and retaining nurses is not an easy task. executives must balance short-term, pressing needs with what is best for the organization in the long term. it is easy to pay lip service to the phrase, “our employees are our most important asset.” but staff members, especially seasoned ones, see the true culture of the organization reflected in decisions and behaviors. although some of today’s more popular strategies, such as the use of signing bonuses, may seem sound, they can actually render the mantra meaningless or even insulting. of course there are situations where signing bonuses can and do have strategic value if they are in the context of rewarding and recognizing the entire staff. however, they can cause more than a little resentment if there are not complementary behaviors that demonstrate that long-tenured team members are also highly valued.

the best leaders do not merely mouth the mantra—their decisions and behaviors support it.

many of our top-performing employee satisfaction clients reward performance and results instead of rewarding simply “being there” at the right time. one press ganey customer, for example, had a nurse who instituted a process that saved the hospital $50,000 annually. within days, the ceo cut a check for $10,000 and publicly presented it to her. what kind of effect do you think that had on inspiring and aligning behavior? this organization reports that they now have hundreds of minds actively engaged in analyzing, understanding, and improving processes.

along with examples such as this, our recent research has demonstrated empirically that good hospital-employee and hospital-physician relationships lead to improvements in patient satisfaction and other important outcomes. measuring and improving employee satisfaction is a strategic approach to human resources.

[grammyr]

I want my senior leadership team to see this.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

My thoughts exactly.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Health System been emersed in Studer Group's VIP program...he's been saying the same thing. Thanks for sharing...I've forwarded to Sr Mgmt.

[burn out]

Gee to think it took someone with a business degree and thousands on research to figure that no brainer. It would just be easier if hospital admnistrations would listen to us instead of throwing thousands of dollars to a research firm to listen to us.