Create energy
It’s much easier to implement change when people are asking you for it. That philosophy served Haynes well in getting employees to buy in to the transformation at SLU Hospital.

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C;You’re in the position of saying, ‘Oh, you want to change? How can we help you do that?’” Haynes says. “It really is motivating. I think the trick for us was finding one particular area with the right people that wanted to move things forward and rethink what they were doing. Either they had experience at other hospitals or they just had a grander sense of what was possible. Being able to do that one time was really all that was necessary.”
Try to stay away from making huge announcements or convening meetings that make it seem like nothing will ever be the same after the meeting is over.
“If you’re going to effect change, it needs to be organic and feel like it’s coming from within,” Haynes says. “This doesn’t mean you have to be like a sloth making change. A lot of times, you have to say, ‘Guys, we’re going to try this for six weeks. We’re going to stick with it if it works. We’ll retool it if it doesn’t, but we are going to make this change today.’ Sometimes you have to do that.”
But the goal is to implement change in a way that attracts rather than repels other employees.
“When we would go in and work effectively on a particular service line, others would see the success that would breed,” Haynes says. “We had others come to us and say, ‘We want to do this, too.’ It’s a wonderful position to be in when you have people that can see individual opportunities in these service lines and exploit them.
“That’s when other people come forward and say, ‘We want to do that, too.’ Instead of having people gnash teeth over huge change, it does take you to another level. You’re able to see these people not only embrace it, but they are excited about it.”
It’s usually easier to build this kind of energy if you focus on smaller areas rather than attempting to convert everyone at the same time.
“Deal with individual operating units or departments and make sure they are functioning as optimally as possible,” Haynes says. “Then worry about the connectivity with the other departments. Make sure the individual little bits of pieces of that larger equation all function well, and then you work on creating that collegiality between all the different services.”
As Haynes looks at her organization today, she feels like her mission has been accomplished. The hospital was named one of the nation’s best in both 2007 and 2008 by U.S. News & World Report.
It also has begun to fulfill its mission of more specialized excellence by developing the Mid-America Stroke Network.
“We draw from hospitals and patients from a 500-mile radius because we’re an accredited stroke center,” Haynes says. “The quality of patient care has improved. We were already great but became even better. And the ability to both attract physicians and clinicians in their areas of specialty improved. Also, the number of patients we had went up. We never want people to get sick, but if they are sick, we want them to choose the best place for them to receive their care. It really isn’t any different when you think of it at that level than a business.”
How to reach: Saint Louis University Hospital, (314) 577-8000 or www.sluhospital.com