Build trust
Another thing Bass did early on to lead the turnaround was start trying to build trust with employees.
One aspect of this was setting expectations and following through on them. For example, he created a program built around having respect for each other, what each person brings to the team and how that translates into patient care. It was a mandatory, six-week training period; however, about 30 employees chose not to complete the program. At an executive team meeting, someone raised the question of what happens to the 30 who didn’t go through the program. Bass asked what they had been told would happen, and the executive responded that they were told their employment would be terminated.
“I said, ‘OK, then terminate their employment,’” Bass says.
Outcry ensued. Employees yelled that they didn’t know that mandatory really meant mandatory and that it wasn’t fair to them.
“It was setting expectations,” he says. “When you walk into any organization, not just hospitals, that isn’t functioning well and is in crisis and so forth, it’s true that a lot of the turning it around is setting clear expectations and staying the course.”
Following the terminations, the employees who remained felt hopeful and liked that there were actually consequences for those that hadn’t spent the time to take the classes.
“How do you build trust? There are several ways. No. 1, you say what you’re going to do, and then you do it so that employees know that if I say that this is what we’re going to do or this is what’s going to happen, then I’ve got to make sure that that’s exactly what we do and we don’t deviate from that. Trust is being open and telling it like it is.”
One of the other challenges Bass faced in building trust was whether or not to spend money. By early 2007, it had become part of the Piedmont Health system, so there was a lot of excitement about that, and as part of it, they would build a new hospital. But with a new hospital on the horizon, questions started to arise.
“Even though we knew we would eventually have a new hospital, there was a feeling that because of that, we shouldn’t be doing anything here to fix it up, catch up or anything because, after all, why waste money if we’ll have a new facility,” Bass says. “My approach was, ‘No, that’s not right.’ We’re going to be here for X number of years; therefore, we have to look like a hospital we want to be.”
He started spending money — and not just $10,000 here or $10,000 there. He revamped the cafeteria and dining area so they had a nice place to take a 30-minute break. He completely overhauled the women’s and children’s services areas. He renovated the emergency department and every nursing floor, and he made the locker rooms nicer as well.
“We pumped money — hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars — into it, knowing we’re going to walk away from it, but if employees don’t feel proud of where they work, then, quite frankly, that’s reflected in behaviors and attitudes, and it affects patient satisfaction,” he says. “It’s like a spider web. You can touch one part of the spider web, and the whole thing will vibrate, and that’s how those things work.”
And employees took note. They were gaining trust in this leader who actually cared about them and their work environment. As their attitudes shifted, the hospital was becoming one where they were happy to say they worked.
“It’s the little things,” he says. “It’s taking 50 little things that by themselves don’t do anything, but you put them all together, and that’s how you make changes occur. It’s constantly focusing and reacting. If you hear something that’s a major morale issue, focus on it and then communicate it — ‘This is what we hear, this is what we did, this is where we are now as result of that; thank you for your input.’”
As improvements were made, Bass gained more trust and employee satisfaction scores continued to rise. And as employees saw changes occurring, they came forward with more suggestions and concerns.
“If you ask someone their opinion and you never follow it or you never use it, then why in the world would they ever want to give it again?” Bass says. “But if you ask people their opinion and say, ‘To every extent possible, we’d like to take your ideas and make things better, and they see that we actually take ideas and implement it and use it to create a better work environment, it’s synergistic and it just grows.”
His decision to spend money turned out to be more necessary than he could have realized. Little did he know that just two months after they broke ground on the new hospital, construction came to a halt for 14 months because of the economy. It created anxiety in the employees of whether the new hospital would actually come to fruition, but in the meantime, they at least had a better place to work because of the improvements he had made, so all hope was not lost.
And today, things are quite different at Piedmont Newnan. Construction has restarted on the new hospital, so excitement is again brewing. Bass says morale is very high among his 1,000 employees — with the most recent survey yielding the highest participation of any of the Piedmont hospitals.
“Our employee satisfaction score has gone up by leaps and bounds,” he says. “It’s exciting around here. … There’s a bounce in everyone’s step right now.”
On top of that, in the last fiscal year, the hospital had a positive operating margin for the first time in a long time. Because of that, employees received success-sharing bonuses for the first time in their history, which was another reiteration of Bass doing what he said and gaining their trust.
“What was interesting was that we told them that these are the marks we have to hit, and if it happens, this is what will happen,” Bass says. “By God, it happened, and employees said, ‘We heard you, and we were hoping, but it really did happen — we really did get the bonus.”
How to reach: Piedmont Newnan Hospital, (770) 253-1912 or www.piedmontnewnan.org
